the un secretary general has said that the middle east is in chaos and the cold war is "back with a vengeance", warning that tensions over syria could lead the world to a full—blown military escalation. the uk's national security advisor has said russian intelligence agencies have been spying on poison victims sergei and yulia skripal for at least five years before they were poisoned with a nerve agent in salisbury in march. president trump has lashed out at former fbi director, james comey, using twitter to call him a ‘weak and untruthful slime ball‘. mr comey, who was sacked by the president, had earlier published extracts from his new memoir in which he likens mr trump to a mafia boss. the president of ecuador has confirmed the deaths of two journalists and their driver who were captured in columbia last who were captured in colombia month, by former members of the farc guerillas. now on bbc news it's time for the travel show. the show in town and going up the

give. we try a fiery dc dish. how to fly without leaving the ground. and the african national park fighting back against poachers.” the african national park fighting back against poachers. i thought it would be this depleted part about in fa ct would be this depleted part about in fact it is just teeming. firsts today i am in alice springs,

the red centre of australia's enormous and sparse northern territory. indigenous populations have lived here for thousands of yea rs, have lived here for thousands of years, and in the late 19th century, the town became an important stop on australia's telegraph line collecting darwin and adelaide. if you drop a marker right in the middle of australia it probably landed not too far off this point right here. north, about 1500 kilometres, you are going to reach darwin. head south, same amount, you will reach adelaide. in that direction, as the crow flies, 2500 kilometres, and you reach sydney. the remoteness of the town means that it is not a common stop on the australian tourism trail — numbers far below those of rival towns in australia. between 2007 and 2013, visits by international tourists to the northern territory fell quite drastically year—on—year. down by nearly a quarter. the high

cost of internal flights has been blamed, but it alice springs, fear of crime has also been a matter of turning people off. but numbers are starting to pick back up. part of the fightback is all to do with this. yes, alice springs has launched a plan to turn itself into a world—class mountain biking park. mountain biking hub. the combination of beautiful landscapes and fantastic weather has made the trails a local favourite for years, but they want to attract more international visitors. the territory hopes to bring in nearly $70 million a year through biking tourism. clarke petrick from 0utback cycling leads tours throughout the trails here. today is a particularly hot day, about a0 degrees in the middle of the desert.

why would anyone want to come out and try out mountain biking? well, in the winter, the weather is absolutely perfect. so we don't have the storms, the rain, the cold, just beautiful 25 degrees days, really consistent weather. in the summer it's more challenging, it gets more interesting. there's some of the best riding in australia is here. there's 200 km of beautiful single track, that you don't find anywhere else. and where do you see the future of mountain biking here? mountain biking is a key component of adventure tourism. and people are less sedentary, and want to interact with them, experienced them in the trails themselves. the environment lends themselves to really good single trail. there are lots of small trails and challenging rock gardens, and people can find these undiscovered mountain biking scenes. tourism bosses want alice springs to gain international mountain biking association ride centre status, and they have developed a five—year master plan to try and achieve it.

alongside mountain biking, the town is trying to reinvent itself for the tourist market, and helping tourists understand more about the unique outback environment is another way the town is shaking up its image. the earth sanctuary was set up by former neighbours star dan falzon, and with his family, he teaches visitors about the outback. what are we up to, what are we doing? ijoined dan to make some damper, along with their newly created beer, the red centre devil. it's the first craft beer in central australia at the moment, also the only beer we have in central australia. so craft beer is becoming really popular around the world. the difference with this one is we've infused some of our beautiful fruits that grow on the property. they're called quandongs — really high in vitamin c. a small fruit which a large —— with

a large night. we collect the fruits, and we can make chutney out of it, beautiful syrups which can go in desserts, and all sorts of stuff. pour your beer in there. the recipe for making damper is incredibly simple. a bit of a beer in first, self—raising flour, and some raisins. as i kneaded it together, i asked him about the history of the bread. as far as we're aware, the aboriginal people were the first people to make bread. it would take takes them a whole day to go out there and find the appropriate seeds, and obviously mill it down and do this. there are old stories that when the first europeans came up, they had these bags of flour on horses, and the aboriginal men said, you must have a lot of wives, just collecting the flour! it's easy for us to forget —

our financial transaction these days is money, but bartering with flour and sugar... it was key. having some tucker like that is the best thing to do. geee §;“i e; ie §;“i eie ie ie; .. .. .. . ,, as you've done there, dip it in the virgin olive oil, and some wattle seed. that is fantastic, it is really good. it's lovely to be in a place like central australia, a very ancient environment, which can draw on the beautiful rare and exotic foods. it helps you along the way,

and adds to the wonderfuljourney around this great country. for sure, cheers. good on you, great effort. next up, we visit a diner in washington, dc, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary, for a taste of their famous chili half—smoke. the owners have served generations of political heavyweights, including the legendary civil rights activist martin luther king, who died 50 years ago this month. i'm virginia ali. my husband and i opened ben's chili bowl in 1958. located not so far from the white house. dr martin luther king came here rather often, whenever he was in town. the half—smoke is our signature dish. it's also washington's

signature dish. it's a breakfast sausage, a combination of beef, pork and spices, and we dress it with our home—made spicy chili sauce. we had a commercial here at ben's chili bowl many, many years ago that said our chili will make your hot dog bark. it has been a popular thing with us since 1958. this was a segregated city. we have such a wonderful community right here in washington. it was a prominent place to go for jazz and to see live performances. this was the place to be. this was our black boradway. dr king was a very, you know, distinguished,

calm, soft—spoken gentleman. when he was assassinated, people were coming and crying. we turned on the radio to listen to the news, and the sadness kind of turned to anger. by the following night, the rioting was severe. ben's chili bowl was the only place allowed to remain open during a three—night curfew. and that provided a place forfirst responders, for the police department, for city officials, to come and find a way to quell the violence that was occurring. i think we were chosen because we had been kind of a favourite in the community, and it's kind of been the place to come to if you want diversity. we have everybody here. it's typical washington. look at that. all the way from germany. isn't that cool? so president 0bama's visit — he came as president—elect. it was just a couple of weeks before his inauguration.

of course, he had the chili half—smoke. he had no grey hair back then, in that photo. i'm proud to have been able to remain here for so long. i'm grateful to this town, and i'm grateful that, you know, it's been a wonderful, warm experience. still to come here on the travel show: we will pay a visit to the african park bringing back its elephants. the travel show. your essential guide, wherever you're headed. time now for trending travel, your monthly mash—up of the best travel—related stories, snaps and videos online. if your favourite part

of a holiday is the flight, then this japanese company claim to have the experience for you. first airlines in tokyo offer their customers virtual reality flights, simulating trips to the likes of rome, paris and new york. they even provide an in—flight meal, and the choice of standard or business class. clocking in at a supersonic two hours, it is for people who want the thrill of travelling without the hassle of a long flight. in australia, tourists and locals alike can now find out about melbourne's indigenous history with an app. melbourne dreaming helps users take a self—guided tour around the city, with travel info and audio narration, telling the hidden stories behind popular visitor destinations like port phillip bay. graffiti artists, throw down your spray cans and pick up your knitting needles. la street artist london kaye has been tagging the world with her yarn

bombs, including this recent creation. these crocheted works of art have been shared on london's instagram feed. we asked what the reaction has been like, and whether she has been hassled by the fuzz. i've put up over 500 young bombs, and maybe twice i've got in trouble, i've put up over 500 yarn bombs, and maybe twice i've got in trouble, so i think that's a pretty good run. as long as you ask permission, and don't do it on somebody‘s particular property, you should be fine. i've travelled to rome, to london, pretty much all over the world. and your search for the ultimate instagram—able beverage has come to an end. this is the selfieccino. visitors send their selfie to a machine, which takes their picture. it is apparently a first for europe, but the idea has gone viral

since the launch of selfie cafes across asia. thanks to everyone who sent us their pictures this month using the hashtag #traveltuesday. here are some of my favourites. iq shared this foggy, atmospheric snap from west bengal, in india. while richard posted these pictures from the banksy hotel in bethlehem, after it opened last year. now let's look at the travel videos clocking up the views online. this year, poland celebrates 100 years of independence, so we asked some top travel filmmakers to share their experiences of the country. i've been travelling to poland for the last 1a years. i definitely had time to observe some of the country's complexities, and its natural beauty.

i remember all these super early mornings in pursuit of these perfect lights in perfect locations, and i remember, like, waking up at 4am or sometimes even 3am, just shooting for five minutes and getting all these perfect colours that you have in just a brief moment of the day. and if you see anything you think we should know about, don't forget to get in touch. it's: finally this week, michelle jana chan is in zakouma national park in chad.

0ver recent years the area has experienced war, crime and terrorism. tourists have been warned away but another threat has been to its wildlife, which has suffered severe poaching. but for the animals, things mayjust be looking up. seeing an abundance of wildlife like this in an african park and you might think of botswana, kenya or half a dozen other places before you think of chad. but there is spectacular wildlife here. and lots of it. i've come to find out how the population of elephants and other animals in the park have

rebounded in recent years to rival even the finest national parks on the continent. i thought it would be this depleted park that had suffered so badly at the hands of poachers, but in fact it's just teaming. the reason for this turnaround has been largely credited to a private non—profit organisation based in johannesburg called african parks, who took over management of zakouma eight years ago. it came at a time when its elephant population had been hit hard by poaching. in 2002, the park was home to 4,000 elephants but by 2010, that number had plummeted to around 450. experts feared zakouma's remaining elephants could have been gone in a few years. but thanks to new strategies

to protect the elephants, their numbers have increased to over 500. african parks now protects 15 areas in nine countries across the continent. this is the operation centre and this is the heart of zakouma. if you zoom out and we can count all of these colours, i know i've got 18 females and 11 bull colours in this group, and that's the big herd of elephant, about 500 elephant. and then i also know we have a bull there, a bull there, that way you they know what is happening. one of the strategies being implemented is close contact with the local communities, who are given radios as part of an early warning system for when poachers approach. any sign of poachers around the park is immediately responded to by a skilled force of armed rangers.

so far, these highly disciplined, tough tactics have been working. we've not had anybody inside the park since last year, may, when a group of four people with seven camels entered the park. we rushed in there, stopped these guys and it was just a bunch of herders that got lost. but even with successes, some critics of this sort of approach still argue the benefits of local management and caution against the risks of such a heavily armed show of force. we do a 15km group march... leon invites me to see the rangers at work in the field. we've got these six teams at any given time.

today we've got four horse teams, two mamba teams, mamba teams are rapid reaction teams. this team's are on vehicle patrol now, moving from point a to point b where there's a bunch of elephant bulls at the moment. they're always supported by a large machine—gun. and everything's packed inside this vehicle? these guys are self—sufficient for ten days. the work can be dangerous. in 2012, six rangers lost their lives to poachers in an ambush. for those protecting the park today, its work they are proud of. many governments currently caution against travel to this region. but despite the risks, some tourists are starting to come here on safari, with the money generated funding a third of the park's costs. for now, at least, the wildlife here seems safe and the area of zakouma under african park's

protection has a good outlook. the animal numbers are increasing. in particular, the elephants. symbols of zakouma's remarkable turnaround and offering hope for further conservation across the continent. well, that's all we have for this week, but coming up next week: christa larwood takes to the seas for a sneak preview of the world's largest cruise ship. there's always a romance about going to sea because it's an amazing thing to feel the ship under your feet. that was amazing. don't forget you can join us on all of our travels wherever we are in the world by following our social media feeds. all of the details are on your screens now.

but from me, henry golding, and the rest of the travel show team here in alice springs, it's goodbye. well, we've got some big changes on the way on the weather front. in the short term it's still cloudy and you might need the brolly across the course of the weekend. let's summarise the weekend. warming up, particularly in the south, plenty of bright weather around this weekend, at times we will need our umbrellas. after the weekend, that is when we see the really big change. just a quick outlook now for the next few days. a kink in the jet stream here diving

south and then back north again on this side of the atlantic means all that warm air in the southern climes here, from spain and portugal and france, will be pushed in our direction and we will start to see those temperatures climbing, probably peaking in the middle of the week as they reach around 2a degrees across the southern half of the uk, into the low 20s further north. but that's next week. in the short term, saturday morning for many of us will start fairly cloudy. brighter weather developing later on. here are the early hours of saturday, then. quite a lot of cloud across the uk. mist and fog patches around as well. it's dry. temperatures around six degrees in edinburgh. seven degrees also on the south coast. whether you're in the north or south it will not make an awful lot of difference. as we go through saturday morning lots of that cloud will be breaking up. lots of bright if not sunny weather will develop.

there is a chance of one or two showers drifting out of france and affecting south—eastern areas, but you're unlikely to catch them. temperatures comfortably getting up to about 18 degrees in the south—east. a big difference on the north sea coast. it has been cold and cloudy over the last few days. those temperatures will be rising. how about the grand national? temperatures getting to about 1k at aintree, with partly cloudy skies. as we head into the second half of the weekend, that's when the change comes in. low pressure will briefly upset the weather across western areas of the uk. stronger winds here. a little bit of rain. certainly cloud at the very least. that's that rain on sunday morning affecting south—western parts of england, into wales. a few showers further east and in central parts of the country as well. probably the best of the weather in the north and the north—east of scotland. relatively warm winds coming in, maybe a bit of a dip from saturday, but not an awful lot. 15—16 celsius.

as we head into next week, those temperatures keep climbing. 20 degrees in edinburgh, and in london, quite possibly 2a celsius. have a great weekend. this is bbc news. i'm ben bland. our top stories: the united states says it has clear proof the syrian government was to blame for last week's gas attack. as the us, france and britain discuss a military response, the un boss warns that the cold war is "back with a vengeance". the situation in the middle east is in chaos. to such an extent it has become a threat to international peace and security. with the former head of the fbi about to publish his memoirs, president trump calls him "an untruthful slime ball". and after the killing of two journalists and their driver, ecuador‘s president orders military operations against former farc rebels.