russia is expelling 60 american diplomats as the diplomatic fallout escalates over the poisoning of the spy sergei skripal in britain. the un secretary—general, antonio guterres, has warned tensions are pushing russia and the west towards a new cold war. doctors in the uk say yulia skripal, who was poisoned in the attack along with her father, is now out of danger. the bbc understands her health is improving rapidly and she's now conscious and talking. sergei skripal is still in critical condition. with exactly a year to go until the uk leaves the european union, theresa may has been visiting england, scotland, northern ireland and wales, very briefly, in one day. the prime minister insisted the uk would have a bright future after brexit, and that leaving would mean more money for hospitals and schools. as police investigations continue in shropshire after reports that up to a thousand girls may have been abused over the past four decades, a woman has told the bbc that her teenage son was being groomed there

until very recently. our midlands correspondent sima kotecha reports. it is an image that telford doesn't want — a town where child abuse is common. but it is not clear how true this is. recent newspaper reports claimed hundreds of girls could have been abused here over the last four decades. a woman who doesn't want to be identified told the bbc her teenage son was being groomed in the town up until six months ago. they were giving him money, taking advantage of him, getting him drunk, giving him drugs, just really taking advantage of him, and they were using him for sex. there's no way anyone can say grooming isn't happening today, because i know it is. my own son has been going through it, and there are other people i know who are still going through it. in 2013, seven men were jailed after police launched an investigation into

child prostitution. some of those living here said it was clear something very disturbing was going on. we began to see guys driving up and parking in the car park with their car doors open, you know, nice cars, music blaring, not going into anywhere or doing anything, but just sort of sat there in the car park. and then, as the girls were walking around the area, they would approach the girls, talk to them, ask them did they want to go to a party? it felt predatory, like there was a purpose or intent there, which felt threatening. west mercia police have said a small number of victims have come forward since the new allegations have come to light. telford has been at the centre of a media storm in recent weeks. the questions being asked now are, is child sexual exploitation worse here than in other parts of the country? and if so, why has it taken this long to bring that into the spotlight? the council and its partners encourage anyone having experience of child sexual exploitation... tonight at a meeting,

the local council said it was not in denial, and that it would put more resources into helping victims. the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse will be coming to telford in may to speak to those affected, and now all eyes will be on what happens then. sima kotecha, bbc news, telford. now on bbc news, the travel show. hello and welcome to the travel show, coming to you this week from tokyo. it's a city that is gearing up to host the olympic games in two years‘ time and also a place that i call home. but, like the rest of the team, i spend a fair amount of my time on the road, bringing you stories from around the world. so let's have a look back at some of our most recent travels. here's a taste of what is coming up. it's crazy here.

there are gunshots, there are sirens. uluru is one of those must—see destinations if you are heading to australia. but not everybody manages it. it is remote and expensive to get there. despite all this, if you are still keen to climb the rock then time could be running out as henry discovered when he headed there in january. the giant monolith attracts over a quarter of a million visitors each year. for many of them, climbing to the top is something of a rite of passage. as well as being an important place for tourists, uluru is a sacred site. at the moment, tourists are allowed to climb to the top

but all of that is about to change. at the end of 2017, the people who manage uluru in conjunction with its anangu owners made a landmark decision to ban tourists from climbing the rock. why was the decision made in the first place to ban the climb? there are a couple of reasons. primarily because anangu do not want to see people climbing for cultural reasons, but there has also been a significant number of fatalities on the climb. the ban will not come into force until october 2019 and, until then, tourists can continue to climb on days when the weather is not too extreme. the base of the route has a number of signs asking tourists to respect anangu wishes not to climb but many people ignore these. so will the closure of the climb have a negative impact on tourist numbers visiting uluru? well, to keep visitors coming, local tourism bosses are working

hard to show that there are other ways to experience the rock. uluru camel tours takes people out into the desert. they give people a great camel experience and it is about people connecting with the outback and with nature and what better way than doing it from the back of a camel? relax from the waist down and let your body go with the flow. they are environmentally friendly, they graze on 85% of the vegetation out here. they have big flat feet so they don't chop the ground up. they are a low impact animal. and go for months without water so they do not need to hang around a water source and eat all the vegetation there. unbelievable. the views from the vantage point are pretty breathtaking. in a moment we are off to abu dhabi to see rajan use an overload of horsepower to try and get

to the top of one of the world's highest sand dunes. first, here is a reminder of the time ade had to rely on reindeer power in finnish lapland, and didn't manage to cover so much ground. you can't say you have truly experienced the delights of lapland until you have been on a reindeer safari. that is what i am about to do. i am told that if i am good, i may get to ride my own sleigh with my own reindeer. like many reindeer herdsmen here in lapland, erik supplements his income with tourism. he takes small groups of tourists into the forest on a reindeer safari. it is a proper winter wonderland. so beautiful out here. everywhere you look is just a postcard. finally, it is my turn to have a go.

if you want to go, you just say go. as simple as that? 0k. go, go! reindeer, go! he is not listening to me. go, reindeer! go! maybe we will take the next one. 0k. we will take the next one. before i set off, erik gives me some last few tips. just pull it. and then he will stop in an emergency. he will stop. so this is my emergency brake? whoo—hoo! we are going! this is so spectacular.

my first ever sleigh ride. let's go, son, let's go. it still may not be the fastest of rides but it seems to be the smoothest and most magical way to enjoy this landscape. 3.5 hours south—west of the big city is the vast expanse of desert called liwa. it is the uae‘s driest region. it is remote but beautiful. it is a world apart from the big city. at this annual sports festival, there are camel and horse races. but, basically, this is party time for petrol heads, attracting tens of thousands from all over the region. and, truth be told,

it is very much a male domain. boy racers and supposedly respectable grown—ups bring their four—wheel drives and buggies for a romp on the dunes. and you do not get much bigger than tal moreeb. 300 metres high, at an incline of 50 degrees. it's crazy here! madness, anarchy almost. all of these boy racers and man racers. getting it out of their system. i am going to meet a guy who is a bit of a seasoned campaigner. mohamad, hello. how are you? can you show me some skills if i hop in? can you show me a few

of the things that you do? this car is like as it came from the factory. so from the factory it has around 250 horsepower. it will not be enough to take us to the top. but i refuse to give up. rajan racing to the top earlier this year on the programme.

still to come on the travel show, we remember the time christa took on a surreal underwater challenge in denmark. 0ur newbie, mike corey, got a gentle introduction into life here on the programme. this is intense. there are gunshots, there are sirens. this bridge is totally unstable. and i hit the streets of tokyo, dressed like this. how do i look? i feel like michelin mario. injanuary, we welcomed mike corey to the travel show team. i'm not sure if he realised what he had signed up for when we sent him to mexico. he was there to join a group that run regular events designed to put locals off the idea of attempting

an illegal border crossing into the usa, by recreating what it would be like. the experience is open to tourists as well, so we sent him along tojoin in. we are told to meet inside the main gate. and even though these guys are playing a part, they really mean business. he is yelling at the top of his lungs. he's the coyote, someone who brings you across the border. sirens wail. this is intense. there are gunshots, there are sirens. this bridge is totally not stable. and there are people crawling on the ground. i don't know what is going on but the group is slowly... man groans. you 0k? yes. unsure footing i can deal with.

woman screams. to the ground by them solo. i'm actually afraid to make too much noise. i don't want them to come back. sirens wail. we have to go. look at this.

i have a cactus stuck in the bottom of my shoe. look at that. that went all the way through the side of my shoe. this is the moment. hopefully we cross the border. our coyote is stressing out. we wait for the next truck and as soon as the next truck comes we are jumping in the back. sirens wail. sirens off in the distance. illegal crossings are currently at the lowest they have been for 17 years. though the journey still kills hundreds of people annually.

here at the park they hope that this experience will save lives. it has certainly given many of the guests here tonight pause for thought. mike corey staying firmly south of the border there in mexico back in january. we will see more of mike on the show as he heads to the philippines in the next month or so. so look out for that. next up, also back injanuary, we sent christa to denmark to try her hand at playing some musical instruments. i'm not totally sure we warned her that she would be playing them underwater, though. underwater singing. this is the group between music. their latest show is the first in a four—part series called aquasonic, which aims to explore

who we are as human beings and it begins with our time in the womb. we are so often divided between you and me, them and us, different religions, different cultures, but here is something that i think we all know something about. we have our first nine months covered by this water filter, so i think somehow the audience, i think they are, at least on an unconscious level, will have flashbacks to hearing those sounds. so here goes. one deep breath and... well, actually, this is quite nice. amazing. you're doing good. it's lovely and warm. yeah? yeah, this is great. so if you take this microphone that is hanging and then you hit this bell plate. you see that one?

yes, this one here. and then you take the microphone and put it towards it. do you hear that effect? whoo, that's awesome. and then you can sort of play with it. playing music in water has two sides — on one side it is terrifying, because also when you are singing into the water, you have to have water down your throat and if you open up you get water in your lungs, so that is quite terrifying. so how on earth do you get musical instruments to play under water? well, it took us 10 or 11 years to create this project. and how come it took so long? because it is something that we needed to really research and see what other people had done and try other instruments and most instruments did not sound really good, but we saw somehow a potential in this but also we realised we had to build instruments to work in water so we found

collaborators around the world to help us build instruments for this project. i am beginning to think i am a bit of a natural. maybe you should just pull that in the front window and then you can sort of hit it with a hammer you can close the sound with your hand. another thing, there is a small stick on top. yeah, exactly, and you can use that for the ring over there, with the holes in it. that is so cool. you are making music. and to finish our look back at some of our most recent travel stories,

last month i took what i think is one of the most surreal sight sightseeing tours ever invented. and while it might be popular with tourists here in tokyo, it seems some of the locals are not so keen. i guess the best way to describe what i am about to experience is a self—drive video game simulation with some sightseeing thrown in. konnichiwa. welcome to maricar, nice to meet you! nice to meet you. gosh, this brings back memories from my childhood. yoshi, luigi and mario. it has got to be mario. how do i look? i feel like michelin mario. i'm not the best driver, you know.

right now this costume is the least of my worries. i have got my foot on the brake. where is the key? john, where is the key? laughter. this is ridiculous! screams. oh, my god. she screams. even though it is a sunday morning and the traffic is lighter, it takes a while to get used to driving a vehicle that feels so low and exposed. slightly vulnerable, but i think i am getting the hang of driving this car now. oh, my gosh. do you see how close i came to a taxi?

we are going through the most fashionable part of tokyo and i am dressed as a fat plumber. little chance of anyone wanting to copy my outfit here in harajuku, but nintendo are reportedly unhappy with their trademark super mario dungarees and cap being used by the tours. there has been talk of legal action, but the subtle name change from mario kart to maricar and the inclusion of some other characters seems to be keeping the lawyers at bay. we are coming up to the crossing. oh, my goodness. oh, my gosh, i can't believe we are going through shibuya crossing! although some of tokyo's taxidrivers

say that they can be disruptive and dangerous, johnny tells me that he has supervised over 2000 tours without any serious accidents. but several cab drivers we met still had concerns. new regulations now mean that modifications will have to be made to the go—karts and it is hoped that repositioning tail lights and fitting better back and head protection and mudguards will provide safety for kart drivers and other road users and pedestrians.

that's it for a look back at some of the best bits on the travel show so far this year. coming up next week... there is another chance to see our blind backpacker, tony giles, make his way around jerusalem and bethlehem. my name is tony giles, i'm from england. i'm totally blind and severely deaf in both ears and i'm travelling around the world, trying to visit every country. and the response to those films featuring tony has been amazing so thank you for all your messages and we hope to have more from tony on the programme sometime soon. in the meantime, don't forget to sign up to us on social media and you can share your travels with the world.

we'll see you next week. from everyone here in tokyo, it's goodbye. hello. make no mistake, there is a lot of weather of varying types to come this easter weekend. some of it could cause some problems, too. there'll be some rain around at times. notjust that — some snow. easter monday looks a troublemaker, we'll see that at a moment. temperatures on the cool to cold side of average, but there will be some drier, sunny moments too. we'll detail all of that as we look throughout the entire easter weekend, starting with good friday.

there will be some snow showers affecting parts of northern scotland from the word go, recovering to some of the higher routes, an area of hill snow moving from north—east england across other parts of eastern scotland. heavy showers developing in southern england, reaching into parts of wales, the midlands, east anglia later in the day, maybe with a rumble of thunder. single—figure temperatures, colder still in easterly winds across the northern half of the uk. just one or two showers, but sunny spells into northern ireland. the moisture with these showers starts to feed up the bit further north into saturday morning. an increasing chance of seeing a bit of snow into the tops of the welsh hills, maybe into the pennines going into saturday morning. these are your overnight temperatures. still some of the snow showers in the hills in north—east scotland, as well. now, for saturday, the reason we are seeing some rain and hill snow is this area of low pressure. but tonight it's going to edge its way eastwards. but it's still going to get into parts of england and wales. some outbreaks of rain and some hill snow into the pennines. so all of this has to slide away eastwards during the day. some western parts may start to brighten up.

still, as wintry showers move north, north—east scotland, south—east scotland getting along quite well, although still be rather cloudy. still a chilly breeze across the coast towards the north—east. the single—figure temperatures once again. but look at this — easter day, sunday. well, the winds are lighter, for a start. you may catch the odd shower, a frost to begin with, a few fog patches clearing. a few sunny spells around — most places are actually dry. the rain and the strengthening wind coming across south—east england later in the day, that is a sign of things to come for easter monday. here comes another area of low pressure. certainly got some moisture associated with it, it's feeding northwards. quite chilly air on easter monday. and that means rain, yes, but feeding into the colder air, the chance for some snow as it spreads further north, as well, maybe notjust on hills. some of that could be disruptive, as well, but there's still a lot to play for. of course, easter monday is several days away. butjust an early heads up that

if you are travelling on easter monday, you do need to keep across that forecast, because of that risk of snow that could cause some disruption. and we will, of course, keep you updated over the next few days. that's your latest forecast. welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: moscow expels 60 american diplomats. the un warns the spy poisoning case is pushing russia and the west towards a new cold war. yulia skripal, one of the victims of the salisbury nerve agent attack, is now conscious and talking. her father sergei remains critically ill. theresa may promises to make brexit a success for everyone and insists it will mean more money for schools and hospitals. the battle for blue skies — beijing cuts pollution by half, in the hope of a brighter future.

and a tearful apology from australia's sacked cricket captain for his role in the ball tampering scandal.