israel says it's rescued hundreds of white helmets civil defence workers and their families from a war zone in southern syria. the police watchdog is investigating allegations of serious corruption and malpractice at the metropolitan police's own anti—corruption unit. it will cover a number of different allegations and may take in up to m officers. virgin media customers have lost all ten of uktv‘s channels, because of a row between the two companies over fees. now it's time for the travel show. coming up on this week's programme: rajan is injordan‘s capital, amman, getting a flavour of what the city has to offer. so good! in china, we go underground. forest bathing is to feel nature.

and i am off forest bathing here in japan. so go slow and take it all in? yes, that's the point. when you think ofjordan, bucket list items usually include petra, floating in the dead sea, or going into the desert, but how about veering off the beaten track into amman? over the years, it's become a magnet city, attracting people from its neighbouring regions to create a unique arabic culture, as rajan went to explore. it may have once enjoyed a heyday,

particularly as a roman city, but in more recent times, safe to say amman has not been amongstjordan‘s most glittering jewels. by the 1940s, its population had dwindled. but an influx of palestinians, then iraqis and syrians over the past few decades has seen it take new shape. now the capital's population stands at 4 million, a third of whom are migrants and refugees. and with that rapid rise in amman‘s population, a new contemporary and cosmopolitan atmosphere is developing here which is very much at odds with the traditional, understated image of the city. and that cultural hotpot of diverse people is expressed through cuisine. so today, we are making it with cauliflower and eggplants,

because they're in season. maria haddad runs cookery classes which recognise the variety of arab influences in the food. this goes here, in the pot. she wastes no time in putting me to work on the farmers‘ dish called maklouba. arabic food in general is arabic food. there is no such thing as syrian, lebanese. i love that you're agreeing with me! yes! maklouba is an arabic dish. 0k. it's not a jordanian or a palestinian. everybody, can you just taste this? it's such a pretty colour. that's the beauty of amman, you know? you have people who are half—lebanese, half—syrian, half—jordanian, people who are half — and there's always halves, you know? i'm a combination of lebanese, jordanian and palestinian, and this was obviously an influence from all the refugees that came in a long time ago. maklouba literally translated means ‘flipped upside down‘.

and remove it very slowly. perfect. all right! this looks fantastic, by the way, maria. it looks great. i cannot believe that we made this! well, you made this, really. yay! so good! maria herself has roots injordan, palestine and lebanon. she restored this family home and calls this cook—and—dine experience beit sitti — that means ‘grandmother‘s house'. when we were very young, we used to come here and we used to learn how to cook arabic food from my grandmother. but really, what we do here is a social business, so when my grandmother passed away, we decided we wanted to keep her house open and her memory going and to teach guests the dishes that she used to teach us. maria feels amman is going through a renaissance. the parents sort of were too busy

and they felt like amman wasn't really worth investing in. but now, the younger generation is really putting their foot down and saying it's time to come to amman, you know? and stay — stay here. maria feels this cultural revolution is driven in part by successive waves of refugees. her house is in the jabal al—weibdeh district, where the community includes brea kdancers and graffiti artists, giving it a surprisingly street arty vibe. and then, there's this. the 7hhills skatepark. wow! that is astonishing! that is a girl who had never even touched a skateboard before today, and there's more backgrounds here today experiencing that. brilliant. many of these kids are refugees, practising on borrowed skateboards, and the classes are run by an ngo called make life skate life. i think i mightjust

give this a miss! it is all run by mo zakaria, jordan's first prominent skateboarder. there was no space for us as a skateboarding community in amman to have, you know, like a skate park for ourselves, so we always had to go, like, in street spots and be in trouble with the security guards and stuff like that. the skate park sits in a disused sprawl of scrubland. it's a huge problem with public spaces. you know, all the spaces that we have are either residential or private and so, if you don't have any money, all the kids are gonna end up on the street and then, this is where problems start. the big vision is, you know, renovating public space in amman. this is the future of your country now. i really think it is. i think amman has never been a place of a single nationality, let's say. you know, amman‘s become the new york of the middle east. amman has become the new york of the middle east! yeah, yeah. it's a nice time to be in amman. that idea of amman will certainly

challenge a few preconceptions and so will my next and final stop, because 20km north—west of amman is fuheis, home tojordan‘s first and only microbrewery. right here, this is our packaging line and bottle storage. jordan — yep, that is his first name — the chief brewer here, told me how they started from scratch four years ago. injordan, there's, like, no infrastructure, there's no culture, there's absolutely nothing related to beer making. so everything in the factory had to come from outside of the country. and it's notjust the equipment — which comes mainly from china, italy and germany — but the ingredients too. this is what's called pilsner malt, so you can see from the light colour it's not been roasted very much, so this actually makes up the base of all of our beers.

but what's quintessential about the beer are the distinctive jordanian flavours from local produce, like date molasses, grapefruit from the jordan river valley, and even sea salt from the dead sea. honestly, every step of the way, putting this brewery together, selling the beer, making the beer, it's been an exercise in educating the authorities as to what craft beer is. let's not forget that 85% ofjordan‘s population is muslim and therefore, in principle, largely teetotal. the company are banking on export sales to compensate for the limited market that they have in jordan and this particular brew, dead serious, is their next big hope. and i am going to get a preview. 0h! a real tang to it, and you can taste the salt and you can taste the grapefruitjuice. really unique flavour. excellent. and do you know what? it's craft beers like this that

are going to help create new aspects to this city and also, i think, break the stereotypes that people might have of bothjordan and the middle east. rajan reporting there from amman, and if you're thinking of heading tojordan any time soon, here are some travel show tips to help you in your way. first off, it's important to be culturally sensitive and dress accordingly. jordan is primarily a muslim country and if you are travelling off the beaten tourist track, you will need to dress accordingly. for men, the key thing to note is that shorts in certain religious places are discouraged. when it comes to foreign female visitors, the general advice is not to show too much skin. strangely enough, it doesn't matter how fitting the outfit is, but bare shoulders, short skirts and cleavage are a realfaux pas. foreign women do not have to wear a veil to hide their hair, unless visiting a mosque.

a traditional and very authentic way to explore this gem in the middle east is to embark on a homestay experience. baraka destinations is one organisation that arranges community—owned travel experiences. you can stay in a local‘s home and set off on a season—specific activity such as beekeeping orforaging in thejordanian hills. another environmentally sustainable project, but something at the other end of the spectrum, is the newly built resort of ayla. situated along the beautiful coast of aqaba, ayla is a diverse development complex withjordan‘s one and only golf course, designed by golfing legend greg norman. well, stay with us here on the travel show because coming up after the break: i'll be heading out of busy tokyo for a spot of forest bathing. so don't go away. well, next up, we're off to china, a country that is becoming just

as well—known for its skyscrapers it much as is for its temples and terracotta warriors. but not everybody there is keen on high—rise living. in fact, some people would prefer to stay firmly underground. techno music plays. well, from the rural tranquillity of china to the urban madness of tokyo, and you'rejoining me here at the shibuya crossing injapan, one of the most urban societies in the world. and in recent years, tokyo's become known as the biggest city on the planet. but believe it or not, in amongst all this hustle and bustle, people here are finding ways to reconnect with nature. and for travellers, taking part in this could be a distinctly japanese way to experience culture and the countryside. more than 38 million people cram into the streets and public transport system here, making tokyo the largest city in the world. according to the un, just over half the world's

population lives in urban areas. but injapan, it's a whopping 92%. so how do tokyoites and tourists de—stress and decompress? to try and tap into my inner calm, i'm hitting the road and heading to okutama, a couple of hours‘ drive from the centre of tokyo, to indulge in a spot of forest bathing, or what the japanese call shinrinyoku. it's basically about drawing on the therapeutic benefits of being in nature. leaving on tour, i follow my guide, masuzawa—san. you are spending a very stressful life. who knew so much nature could be found, you know, in tokyo? i know, right? this is okutama! tokyo! this is still part of tokyo? yes. you would never guess. i want you to taste one plant.

just one leaf. it helps your digestion. you can eat this? yes. it's awful. it's awful! awful. how awful? so bitter! it's really, really bitter. 0h, bitter, yeah. good medicine tastes bitter. these leaves are dried for medicine for stomach. it's really, really bitter. forest bathing tours like this are becoming hugely popular with stressed—out japanese office workers. the forest therapy society has certified 62 forest therapy sites across japan. it's beautiful. yeah, beautiful. masuzawa—san‘s tour includes meditation and deep breathing exercises. so, ok, let's practice breathing methods.

inhale from nose and exhale mouth. calming music plays. so, this isjust like hiking, isn't it? no! it's not hiking. it's completely different. so, uh, forest bathing is to feel nature. if you walk first, you can feel anything from nature. so, observing everything in the forests, plants and listening to the sounds of the brook and birds and the smelling. so go slow and take it all in? yeah. the forest bathing movement is gathering momentum around the world as a hot new wellness trend. clinical studies show it can reduce blood pressure, stress levels, as well as diabetes.

shinrinyoku is effective in preventive medicine. it's very effective for anti—ageing. anti—ageing? sure. oh, really? so, what do you think? how old am i? how old are you? oh, dear. um... this is tricky — i don't want to offend. 40, 45? no. no, i'm 62. what?! you're 62? yes. wow! ok, so i should go home, throw away all my creams, and just come back here. yeah. at the top of the mountains, some of the forest bathing tours include yoga, or you can take a more relaxed approach. i must admit, i was a bit reluctant to lie down in first place,

but now that i have, i don't think i want to get up. but for those who can't escape the city, there are other ways to experience nature right here in tokyo, in a uniquelyjapanese way... my goodness, this is spectacular! ..with technology. the newly opened digital art museum is exploring a new relationship between humans and nature, through art. so what happens if i touch the wall here? if you put the hand on the wall, it's like a natural waterfall. the waterfall changes their movement. and these flowers — look, if i touch them, what would happen? so if you touch the flowers, the flower will be gradually flowing down. if i came here on a different day with different people, this installation would

look different, right? yeah, exactly. so now we are only two people here, but if we have many people, the movement, more complex. so every time you come here, the scenery would be different. i love the fact that you're encouraged to interact with the installations here — the animals and the nature — that you could actually touch things. you know, living here injapan, there's so many rules and things that you can and can't do. but here, i felt free. it was really refreshing. well, from the virtual to the real. people here are pretty open—minded when it comes to the pursuit of inner peace and calm. it has been so relaxing here. i'm really not quite ready to go back to the city just yet. but that's all we've got time for this week.

coming up next week... check this out! every little boy's dream! whistle blows. we sent rajan into the desert on the trail of lawrence of arabia, 100 years on from the arab revolt. this is a bit worrying. it's like they're ready for some sort of attack. whoa! i'm in the middle of a battle! whoa! oh, what the hell?! hands up! you're not gonna take me, are you? are we going for a cup of tea? well, i hope you canjoin us for that if you can. and don't forget, we're on social media too, so why don't you follow us there, and you then can share your travel stories with the rest of the world? but until next time, from me, carmen roberts, and the rest of the travel show team here in okutama, it's goodbye. hello, it is a warm day across much of the country, particularly england and wales. behind me this lovely

scene in worcestershire. further north and west we have got more cloud, particularly across western scotland, with some spots of light rain. because we have these weather fronts streaming in, bringing thicker cloud and murk as well, because the air is so humid. further south and east a drier story. maybe some showers across the irish sea. some rain in western scotland. elsewhere dry and warm and muggy and temperatures up to 20 in london tonight. we start monday on a warm note. temperatures rising quickly. high humidity. a combination of hot sunshine. it will feel uncomfortable in england and wales. spots of clouds particularly in western areas. perhaps across the moors of the south—west into western wales. the odd patch of cloud elsewhere.

but lots of sunny spells and up to 31 but lots of sunny spells and up to 3! celsius. fine across the eastern sides of the pennines. some cloud in northern ireland and western scotla nd northern ireland and western scotland with some rain. but northern scotland not doing badly with sunshine and feeling warm in places too. on to monday night we see the showery rain in northern ireland and into scotland fizzling out as we head through the night. for next week it is looking very warm. lots of isobars to the north—west. here it will be breezy with some weather fronts. to the south and east we tap into that very warm airand south and east we tap into that very warm air and temperatures remaining in the low 30s across southern and east anglia england. more cloud in the west with the odd shower mixed t in. the odd shower couldn't be ruled out in the south—east as well. through the rest of the week it is very warm in southern areas. by the

time we reach the weekend, something cooler and fresher pushing in for all of us. this is bbc news. the headlines... a three—year—old boy has been seriously injured in a suspected acid attack in a shop in worcester. police want to speak to three men. the new brexit secretary says a brexit deal will be done if the european union matches the same energy, ambition and pragmatism shown by the uk. but he warns the eu not to increase the pressure. shown by the uk. but he warns the eu not to increase the pressurem it's reciprocated, the energy, ambition and pragmatism we bring to these negotiations, we get a deal donein these negotiations, we get a deal done in october. it is negotiation. the police watchdog is investigating allegations of serious corruption and malpractice at the metropolitan police's own anti—corru ption and malpractice at the metropolitan police's own anti—corruption unit. under the cover of darkness israel says it has rescued hundreds of white