which has sparked angry protests and a brutal crackdown by his security forces. opponents, protesting against the doubling of fuel prices, question why soldiers are using live ammunition, beating protesters, and arresting many in their homes. theresa may has promised more consultations on britain's planned departure from the european union, but no radical change of direction. she told mps she'd then return to brussels to negotiate changes to her agreement. she also vowed to seek changes to the irish backstop from the eu. the smartphone messaging service, whatsapp, is limiting its users to forwarding any single message five times. the aim is to prevent the spread of false information on the platform. the facebook—owned business had already introduced the policy in india six months ago. until now, users elsewhere could forward messages up to 20 times. vandals have splashed white paint over several statues and memorials around london's green park. the bomber command memorial, the canada memorial and statues of winston churchill

and franklin d roosevelt were all damaged in the incident. sonja jessup reports. it is supposed to honour their courage and sacrifice, but today the bomber command war memorial was found vandalised, daubed in white gloss paint. i feel absolutely outraged, i can see no point in this, it seems absolutely senseless. you know, what are they hoping to achieve, these people? it'sjust disrespectful of what they did for this country, in terms of freedom, it's absolutely disgusting. it'sjust so sad, it's mindless. i don't know why people would do it. file footage: raf lancasters of bomber command fly through heavy flak... the memorial honours more than 55,000 men who lost their lives with bomber command during world war ii. and those who survived, such as charles clarke, bomber command veteran who was shot down and taken prisoner. inexcusable, and pointless, because it doesn't even give a reason for it.

if, for example, you put up a ticket, ban the bomb, one couldn't understand it but could perhaps see the point. but this is just sheer vandalism. it's not clear how exactly it will cost to clean this up, but we are told it will be thousands of pounds. cctv footage is being examined to identify whoever is responsible. it's not about money, it's about the people who have been affected by it, the memory of those who died, their mates, the veterans, and the families of those people who've died. that's what is the most upsetting bit, is the fact that those people have no idea why this happened. although the charity says there is no reason to think there is a political message behind this, white paint has also been thrown over the canada war memorial, also in green park, and over this statue of winston churchill in mayfair. this is the fourth time in six years the bomber command memorial has been vandalised. unveiled by the queen in 2012, it took years for bomber command

to be recognised in this way. there was an unease over the hundreds of thousands of german civilians who lost their lives, this memorial acknowledges all civilian losses. why it's been vandalised and who by, tonight, a mystery. it's just gone 3:30am in the morning. time now for the travel show. coming up on this week's travel show: i'm in taiwan discovering priceless treasures from china's ancient past and trying my hand at a traditional dragon dance. where, where, where? through here? lucy hits the slopes in france to test out the latest ski gadgets. we start this week here in taiwan,

where taipei's national palace museum recently announced that in the summer of 2020 it will send a temporary exhibition, including some of its finest pieces, to tokyo to coincide with the summer olympic games. the museum holds many of the finest treasures from 8000 years of chinese history. but how they got to taiwan is a story that's as interesting and contentious as the museum itself. the original palace museum

was founded in 1925 in beijing's forbidden city. in 1933, china's nationalist government evacuated most of the collection to nanjing to stop it falling into the hands of the invading japanese army, who had already occupied manchuria. japan's long war in china lasted until their unconditional surrender in 19115. but from the ashes of one war another started. as the ruling chinese nationalist kuomintang government became locked in a bitter civil war with armed chinese communists. by 19118 it was clear that the chinese nationalists had lost the war. so they retreated to nanjing and set sail for taiwan, taking much of the national palace collection with them. there are 700,000 pieces in this

they're not all on display at the one time, so if you'd like to see the entire collection you'd have to come four times a year for 12 years. in this purpose—built museum, the collection is divided into eight main sections. ceramics, jades, and paintings are the most popular. researcher emma lai kindly agrees to show me several of the collection‘s star attractions. i'm going to show you a dragon vase. it's very impressive. ceramic in this size is very difficult to make. because if the firing temperature is wrong then it will collapse. the vase itself is a beautiful white colour, it needs a pure white clay to achieve this and then you can see the dragon is painted with cobalt blue. the dragon itself is painted just magnificently. a ceramic of this size, we know, this should be exclusively be used by the chinese emperor. but a chinese emperor is symbolised by a dragon with five toes. but this one only has three.

so what is that mean if it has three toes? this could be a diplomatic gift to the foreign kings. and foreign kings, of course, they should be inferior to the chinese emperor. so, emma, i've really been looking forward to seeing the jade cabbage. tell me more about it. why is it so popular? sure. this is a beautiful piece ofjadeite. this was actually a dowry piece of ladyjin. she was one of the concubines of emperor guangxu during the 19th century. and the green colour and the white colour indicating a girl's virginity and purity. and you can see there are two insects on there, the katydid and the locust. they are quite prolific reproduces. so it's a great, great

wish of the newlyweds, actually, to have lots of offspring. a big part of the work going on here at the museum involves conservation. and mr hong is one of the many experts working behind—the—scenes carrying out this highly skilled work. so, emma, where are we going now? i'm going to show you one of our most important works of art the date is 3000 years ago.

and the outside decoration is modest, but quite important, ie eeee ie eee leeeejee'ee eelee~ inscription everffiufid—ififlny was it quite common back in those days to inscribe the inside of a cauldron like this? indeed. it was during the zhou dynasty. and also the calligraphy — it's beautiful, actually. yes. it's archaic style. and, actually, you can compare it with the modern day mandarin. yes. ah, i see. and how does it compare to modern day mandarin? you can still recognise, like, ah, this is the king — 3000 years ago. this is the modern day king. yes, yeah. so it's easy to recognise. and this one's very similar, too. yes, it's heaven, actually, because it's above human beings.

this is heaven. this is actually the character of human being. ah, yeah, it does look like a man. yes. ever since the end of the civil war in the late 1940s, there's been a strange relationship between the chinese mainland and taiwan. and while beijing would like to see a lot of the exhibits returned, many chinese in taiwan say that some of these priceless objects may not have survived the purges of china's cultural revolution if they stayed on the mainland. with so much to display, some of the collection often travels abroad. later this year part of it will go on show in australia. and in the run—up to the 2020 olympic games it will then be heading to japan.

but so far there are no plans for any of the collection to go on show in mainland china any time soon. there will be more from taiwan later in the show. but next we are to alberta, in canada, where bareback horse riding is making a comeback thanks to the country's first nations community. the adrenaline rush is unbelievable. riding at full speed — the essence of it. these are all warriors. the cultural component of this a few hundred years ago — when it was just us and the horse and the prairie — there were no saddles. the painting of the horse, as well, can go back to ceremonies, when going out on a buffalo hunt, you yourself are cleansed, all that is encompassed in this, you'll see nothing but a huge cultural impact. even for us. because sometimes we forget

who we are as well as first nations people. cheering. with horses, right, you got so many things to do, you're always busy. you're up at six o'clock in the morning. your mind's not there for drugs or alcohol. we're here for the horses and to do it right. we wanna take a lot of the youth of the street into barns like this. they're away from the street life, they're away from, i guess, the worst thing is being in a gang right now. i started last year, i fell short, i was second in the standings. and this year i'm number one. i have fluid in the knees. i fell off my horse, my shirt got caught when i was stopping him and i double bounced off.

so i've been working around those injuries and still finding the courage to hop back on. this is just a whole new way of expressing yourself for your mental health through your physical health, through your emotional health. there's at about the equine therapy and the horse spirit that helps our people. when you take care of a horse, that horse gives back to you, not just physically but through your spirit. still to come on this week's travel show: we're off to the french alps to join lucy as she snow tests the latest ski gadgets. i'm not going to lie, talking into a glove is a little bit strange and people will walk past you with bewildered looks on their faces, but call volume is clear, the gloves are nice and warm and comfy, and if your hands are wet and sodden and you're the kind of person that

takes a lot of calls on the slopes, these are really, really convenient. pricey, but convenient. and i try my best to take charge of a dragon dance team here in taiwan. 0h, there's at least 1000 people here, it's a lot more than i thought... one thing i've heard that you must try when you come to taiwan is stinky tofu, or choudoufu as they say here. it's one of the most popular street food dishes, i really hope it's not as bad as it sounds. so i've been told that stinky tofu was discovered by an ancient tofu seller. at the end of the day, he had all this left over tofu so he popped it in an earthen jar and then came back a few days later and it was

fermented, and he actually tried it and it tasted quite good. and that was the beginnings of stinky tofu. so this is the famous stinky tofu. yeah, it is quite pungent. it's a bit like smelly feet. here goes, wish me luck. it's not bad actually. i expected to hate it. it's quite good, mmm! you can taste the fermentation, it's a bit like tofu. i actually quite like tofu and i know tofu's an acquired taste, so i quite like it, especially with the sauce and the chilli. it's nowhere near as bad as i thought it would be. you should give it a try.

hello. for today, i'm here in tignes — a beautiful ski resort here in the french alps — to test out, as you've probably guessed, a bunch of the latest ski gadgets. the first up is carv, an artificially intelligent ski instructor that lives inside your boots. it comes with a pair of insoles and two trackers that sit on the back of your boots. with 48 pressure sensors in each insert, plus an accelerometer, gyroscope, and a magnetometer, the carv unit tracks your motion, pressure distribution, and orientation of your skis. so it certainly sounds impressive, but how well does it work? to help me test this out, i have ski instructor darren. how you feeling? i'm a little bit nervous but i'm ready for the challenge.

let's do it. let's keep those hands in front of you, good. it rates your performance as you're going down the slope to help you reach a better ski iq in real time, which is how the platform ranks how well you're doing. it also offers encouragement as you're going down the slope. automated voiceover: bend the inside leg but maintain inside ski pressure. carv‘s video analysis feature also lets you review your technique alongside real—time data, in order to get a better understanding of where you're going wrong and handily synchronises within seconds of coming off the slopes. darren, do you agree with the feedback that carv‘s been giving me this afternoon? what's really useful is when i filmed you coming down, and you can see in real time where you're placed, on which ski. you have a dominant side, we worked that out. i do. that right leg. and the data from the carv was actually saying exactly the same thing. so it would be a really good way to reinforce it. so if you were skiing by yourself, you can check at the end

of the day or the end of the run where your problems may lie, and if it starts to look a lot more even, you know you're on the right track. a pair of inserts and trackers will cost you £279. fully charged, it will last for 30 hours and at two millimetres thick, the insole will slip underneath the liners of your ski boots without causing any tightness. so this is no ordinaryjacket, this is an incredibly cool and intelligent heated jacket from a techwear company called ministry of supply. they'll keep you warm and protect you from the elements. for a heated jacket, it's surprisingly stylish, containing three carbon fibre heating elements concealed behind the pockets and back to keep you warm. it's pretty simple to use. just plug in the usb battery to manually select your desired heat level using the companion app. use a button inside the lapel to turn the elements on and off. that battery also supports qi wireless charging so you can charge your phone while it's in your pocket. so if you're on the slopes or enjoying a bit of apres—ski, i think a jacket like this is such a brilliant idea to keep you company.

the manual mode‘s fantastic, gives you that control. the smart mode means you can enjoy your day, go about your business, and being able to wirelessly charge phone isjust a brilliant bonus. with a 10,000ma battery, you can get up to 11.5 hours of continuous heat at maximum power. though it is expensive, currently selling online for £390. hey darren, where are you? i'm at the top, where are you? i'm at the bottom! laughs i'll come up. § as well as keeping your hands warmr thewllfllmfonihl% i'm not going to lie, talking into a glove is a little bit strange and people will walk past you with bewildered looks on their faces, but call volume is clear, the gloves are nice and warm and comfy, and if your hands are wet

and sodden and you're the sort of person that takes a a lot of calls on the slopes, these are really, really convenient. pricey, but convenient. to finish this week, you join me back in taiwan, where i'm about to take on a challenge in front of a crowd who have very high expectations. let's hope i can pull it off. sp it's the annual arts festival and a local dance company invited me to take part in a performance that they're doing for today's parade. hi, you must be roger. hi, iam. let's get you in. 0h, 0k! the festival is held every year close to taipei and teams from all over the country and further afield come to compete in a celebration of music and dance. it's a big high—profile event so my team are taking a real risk by letting a total novice join their ranks. 0k, round the circle. round the circle, 0k.

with only an hour to go before the start of the parade, troop leader roger walks me through my role. i'd rather be hiding somewhere at the back but he's got me leading the whole team! look at the dragon... swing. swing this way? yes. oh, so like an eight? yes. like an eight? 0k. the idea is that the dragon follows the ball and stick that i'm holding — if only i knew where i was meant to be heading. laughs oh my god. miraculously, the other performers follow my somewhat frantic lead. let's just hope they'll be this accommodating when we do it for real. whispers: i wonder if he knows i've only had 20 minutes rehearsal. probably best he doesn't. welcome. thank you. these are dancing clubs from individual high schools. ah, 0k, great, i'm so happy to take part.

perhaps an overstatement. is“ fieeeee eek egm all waiting to see their groups perform. next up are a troop of japanese dancers wearing masks depicting traditional mystic middle earth characters. i'm told that the dance is meant to bring prosperity and good luck to whoever performs it. so let's hope some of that rubs off on me!

and now i can hear my group approaching. i am so nervous and i don't want to make a total fool of myself in front of this big crowd. than i thought... 0k, tell me when, now? idea where i'm going. ok, now in the middle? yes, yes, nice. laughs sorry! it's ok! laughs and then my big dragon stick seems to develop a mind of its own. oh, sorry! laughs i was really, really nervous and it was quite stressful. oh my gosh!

i tried to remember my moves, i think i only hit two people reeeee e;e e28? eeeeee 1; to count how many times and... 0h! it was, it was a panic, i was in a state of panic. sorry to the people that i hit with the ball, it seemed to go on forever, and i can't believe i was part of a dragon dance on the streets of taiwan. who would have thought? well, that certainly was an experience. well, that's all we have got time for this week, coming up next week: rafa is in madrid, where a transport revolution looks set to change the face of the city. three weeks ago, it was full of traffic going around. only for pedestrians, for the people, no cars. i love it.

join us for that, if you can. until next time, from me carmen roberts and the rest of the travel show team here in taipei, it's goodbye. hello there. heavy, wintry showers follow on behind the snow, that combination making many surfaces quite damp and therefore the potential to be quite icy. this is the weather front i talked about, it has given several centimetres of snow. we could see

some sleet and snow in southern areas, behind it, the showers are packing in thick and fast. these are the morning temperatures for towns and cities but clearly the road surface temperatures, out in the countryside, we will see temperatures around freezing, hence theice temperatures around freezing, hence the ice risk. where we have had that band of cold weather, it is a cold front behind it, packing that north—westerly wind which is going a lot of showers are way. they're the morning, there could be some snow in a show us across the central lowlands, even at low levels, also across the highly populated areas in northern ireland, just- to the northern ireland, just adding to the theiceis northern ireland, just adding to the the ice is causing already. greblems the ice is causingrelreeag; ; ,, the showers arablems the ite is tausihgretreeag; ; ,, the showers i the day - pack the showers on the day will pack into the midlands, the north—west of uk and down e;e? eventually! lg% will that will - thati band of rain we will see that a band of rain clearing the eventually, turning medleyg snow clearing the eventually, turning medley g snow not too far away from medley to snow not too far away from oui’ medley to snow not too far away from our shores, there is the potential for wet snow as it clears away. hence the risk of ice just about

anywhere. then some sunshine follows that this band of showers again they are going to get going, they will be heavy with thunder and snow therefore could be brought down to levels across the midlands and south—east later. treaty six, it will feel cold because of the wind. asi will feel cold because of the wind. as i mentioned in the evening, we could have problems with snow across southern and eastern areas and yet more snow is packing in the areas in the north and west. again, another icy night to come and bitterly cold, will be the coldest night of the week. —10 across the snowfields of scotland, but then because we are seeing fewer showers for the coming nights, the tuesday night into wednesday, slightly better day. less windy so not quite as cold. a slight dusting across eastern parts of england in particular the temperature is no better than two or three. a little less cold late in the week but then the weather returns. as ever, you can find all the warnings on website. —— the

website. a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: unrest in zimbabwe. the opposition claims a brutal crackdown is taking place after an increase in fuel prices sparked protests. theresa may outlines her plan b for brexit but critics say it doesn't go far enough. fighting so—called fake news — latest whatsapp update to limit people sharing messages with friends. and we'll bring you the story of how peppa pig inspired chinese twins to request a visit to see queen elizabeth.