on childhood last month, as our royal correspondent sarah campbell reports. do they like brussels sprouts, too? i never knew that. the last few weeks have seen the duchess of cambridge interact with children, their parents and carers, across the uk. from a children's centre in cardiff... a women's prison in surrey... a farm in belfast... and a cafe in aberdeen. hello, everybody. catherine, who spent eight years exploring issues around young children and their development, wants to spark a national conversation about the importance of the early years. but it's rare for her to speak about her own views. at this nursery in south london, she was joined by giovanna fletcher, the host of the happy mum, happy ba by podcast. on its latest edition, catherine talks about her childhood and the experiences she hopes to pass on to her own three children. i had an amazing granny,

who devoted a lot of time for playing with us. doing arts and craft and going to her greenhouse to do gardening stuff and cooking with us. i try and incorporate a lot of the experiences that she gave us at the time into the experiences that i give my children now. catherine also talked about her passion for the outdoors where she spent much of her time as a child. that passion was clear from the child—centred garden she helped to design at last year's chelsea flower show. a garden which was enjoyed by her own three children. now it's time for a look at the weather with ben rich. hello there. storm dennis is bringing extremely windy weather across the uk throughout the weekend. but i think of even more concern is the rain associated with this storm. a met office amber warning because some spots are likely to see a whole months worth of rain throughout the weekend. that rain continuing to push its way

eastwards throughout the afternoon. thoroughly soggy in many spots, very windy as well. widely, we will see wind gusts of 50 to 60 miles an hour, even in—land, but even some coasts in the west and in the north, gusts of 70 miles an hour or more. temperatures are mild, ten to 14 degrees. but remember, with the wet and windy weather out there, it won't feel great out there if you are out and about. this evening and tonight, this band of rain will continue its progress across england and wales, some of that torrential with some squally winds. somewhat clear into northern ireland and scotland. some starry skies, showers too. chilly night here, mild in the south, a lot of rain to start tomorrow across england and wales. somewhat brighter in the north and it stays windy. hello this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines... the uk braces itself for storm dennis — weather warnings are in place

for many parts of the uk and the army has been deployed in west yorkshire. manchester city say they'll appeal against their ban from european competitions for the next two seasons, after they were found to have broken financial fair play rules. the uk has held talks with china over giving beijing's state—owned railway builder a role in constructing the hs2 rail link. from today, companies which provide phone, broadband and pay—tv services will have to alert customers when their contracts are coming to an end. the shadow foreign secretary, emily thornberry, has been knocked out of the labour leadership contest, after failing to secure enough support to take her into the final round. now lucy hedges is in sri lanka, where electric tuk—tuks are taking to the road as part of measures to tackle air pollution in the travel show. coming up on this week's programme: electric tuk—tu ks. .. it is almost silent, the suspension

is still the same though. fatphobia and the woman that beat it. and, look away now if you don't like snakes. laughs. horns beeping. we are starting ourjourney in sri lanka's capital city colombo, where the true kings of the road are the tuk—tuks, also known as auto

rickshaws or three—wheelers. horn honks. ahh! and where honking seems to be a national sport. nothing like the great honking horn of a giant bus to put fear in you. there is actually over a million tuk—tuks here in sri lanka and it definitely shows, because these things are everywhere. that's a pretty high number for a country ofjust over 20 million people. the prospect of good money has prompted many young people to become a driver here. the number of tuk—tuks hasjumped eightfold in the past 15 years, causing a little bit of congestion on colombo‘s roads. and it is notjust the pros. driving a rented tuk—tuk is increasingly popular with tourists too. why are you renting a tuk—tuk today? what is it about a tuk—tuk that made you go, i will get in one of these today?

well, it's because of the convenience — i can stop it wherever i want and i can go wherever i want. having that freedom is really important to you then? how excited are you on a scale scale of one to ten? 0h,100. laughs. tourists need a local driving license to drive a tuk—tuk here, but also some practice. ok, this definitely is not as straightforward as i thought it would be. i think i need some assistance! 0k. thushari has been a tuk—tuk driver for four years. female drivers remain a rare sight in sri lanka, but times are slowly changing. stay in neutral, otherwise i'll

jump forward, gotcha. so the horn is my friend. friend, yes. right, so they are your top tips? i think i am ready for the road, thank you. you really feel that lack of suspension. and there are so many potholes here, oh! once you reach that level of comfort with driving, the best thing about driving a tuk—tuk is that you can just take in all the gorgeous scenery. and on my left is the beautiful ocean. but the gentle ocean breeze isn't enough to disperse the emissions produced by the millions of vehicles

on sri lanka's roads. air pollution in its capital city regularly exceeds the levels recommended by the world health organization. ten years ago the government banned the import of the most polluting rickshaws, the 2—stroke engines, but several hundreds of thousands remain on the roads. the pollution definitely isn't as bad as i thought it would be, but it is definitely palpable — in fact i think ijust ate some. as part of the global fight against climate change, sri lanka has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030. this man hopes his invention will help achieve his country's goals. so this is what you have been working on? yes, this is our electric tuk—tuk, this didn't really look like this earlier, it was a very old chassis that i used. we basically took the engine off here and fixed the motor to the old gearbox and then we have the battery pack

that is placed under the seat. sasiranga de silva won a un award for creating a simple kit which converts petrol tuk—tuk engines to electric. what inspired you to develop this electric technology, what was the inspiration behind it? as you can see sri lanka is a beautiful country, but since recently we noticed that the emission levels are higher, so the respiratory diseases, levels of disease are going high there, so i thought, you know, as an engineer, if i do my best, to contribute to bring the emissions down in sri lanka. what do you think it is going to take to get your conversion get up and running, produced on a mass scale? because it is quite high, and a tuk—tuk is quite a low cost product, so the conversion cost has to be as low as possible for drivers to afford it. so i have been doing so many research so i can downsize the battery so i can reduce the cost.

sasiranga hopes he can bring the cost of his conversion kit down by a quarter, to the equivalent of about us$i700 or £1300. and here's another eye—catching innovation — an emission—free electric model. of course the litmus test will be whether electric tuk—tu ks are accepted by local drivers. this is where the magic happens. so i have asked this thushari to join me on a taster session. so this is it, yeah, a bit different to what we're used to. i am going in the back though. makes a change, to be driven around. it's so quiet, isn't it? compared to the four stroke engine, it's almost silent. (laughs) the suspension‘s still the same though, still getting rattled around in the back.

we're pretty lucky, though, we're among the first people to try this electric tuk—tuk. excellent driving, excellent driving. so how was it, how did it feel? ifeel your pain. and would you one day like to own one of these? the issue of affordability will decide whether electric tuk—tu ks are ever developed on a mass scale. but here, the project's manager is bullish about the future. whether we like it or not, the future is electrification of the transportation system. so i think in the next five years or so, it is going to come

into the streets, and even bikes and even scooters, so it is going to happen in the nearfuture, yeah. five years is ambitious, but who knows — the spirit of innovation and a smattering of political will might be just enough to clear the air in colombo. stay with us, because still to come: the traveller who took on the fatphobes and won. and snakes in the rainforest — how this jungle paradise is about to quadruple in size. laughs. so don't go away. right in the heartland of sri lanka lies kandy, a bustling historical and religious

town, set around a tranquil artificial lake and surrounded by scenic hills. there are hundreds of hotels here to choose from in kandy, but there is one that beats all others for one thing — eccentricity. this hotel was built in the 1930s, and its current owner helga has filled it with a mishmash of art pieces adorned with antique furniture and wall—to—wall ceiling paintings and photographs. this quirky art was originally a form of therapy. i was going through a rather dark period myself, going through a bitter divorce. and my father said to just get it out of your system, paint it out. at first it was all black

and then came the gold monkeys, see no evil, speak and hear, you know. itjust progressed from there, and i thought this was fun. this place is just completely covered in beautiful old photos. what you get is a real sense of pride in the family's history and heritage. they have had some really famous visitors here too — like gandhi. you have got quite an eccentric style. how would you define your style though? well, i don't think i am particularly eccentric. i mean, this is a minimalist‘s nightmare. as somebody said, this place doesn't have a theme — i said life doesn't have a theme. with the dark lighting and the cobwebs and the kind of dark artwork along this corridor, there is a real eerie, ghostly feel to this place. i kinda feel i am going to meet someone, or something at the end of it.

there definitely was someone around. . . a couple freshly settled in their room for the night. i kind of like this because the room is really nice, you can see it's all pink, thank god it's not black. for sure i'm not coming out of the room in the night, that's for sure. laughs. i don't want to get killed. art must be fun. i like art to make people smile, i like people to smile. chuckles. next this week, the latest part in our series about travelling differently. this time we met the woman who decided that bodyshamers would not stop doing

what she loves most. i am such an explorer, a naturally nomadic person. i want to see the world and so travel for me is my happy place. it is joy. but when i am in one place for too long, i feel not myself. i always want to be on the go. my name is kellie brown, i am a youtuber, i am an influencer and traveller. good morning. it is our first full day in lisbon. we got here yesterday. delirium, jetlag, checking in to the airbnb, all we did was take a walk around the neighbourhood. but today we are out and about and we will explore. so as much as travel excites me, there are things that can be intimidating. being a plus—size person, you never know what levels of fat phobia you may be exposed to.

different cultures are a little more outwardly fat phobic but it is not something that would stop me from going where i want to be. just a couple of girls on their way to barcelona. we have a long flight and we are about to have a lot of fun, so come with us. come! when it comes to flights, i think it is something that i didn't realise how many larger people were really afraid of, until i would talk about travelling on my youtube channel. i want to talk to you about travelling while fat. aka being a plus—size person who loves to travel. and i would get comments like i am terrified of flying, not because i am afraid of the plane, but i am afraid of how people perceive me or my seatmate or if i have to ask for a seatbelt extender. i had someone roll their eyes one time, i was walking past their seat

and they rolled their eyes like, "you sitting with me?" and i was not. i ended up being lucky in having a whole row to myself and i was laid out and they were all crushed. i'm like, "that's what you get". i decided a long time ago to let go of caring or the flight attendant will pass it to you discreetly, here you go. and i am like, thank you! click. just wandering down random alleys in a strange land. whether you're travelling in europe or asia, africa, throughout the us, in australia, you know, i think there are going to be people with an opinion about your weight no matter where you go. and so how that informs the choices i make when it comes to travel is to not make that a thing. you know? first thing i care about is safety and what is happening globally — like, are they in crisis or war? these are the things you think about when you travel because if you worry about how every

single person in any given country or city is going to receive your largeness, you would not go anywhere. i could go down the street to the grocery store and someone can have an opinion about me. but that will not prevent me from walking around the city in which i live. i can't let that stop me from exploring the world. and there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. your dance break. now, sri lanka is like heaven for nature lovers. almost half the people who come here do some sort of wildlife activity. beyond the big beasts like leopards and elephants, there's a trove of smaller critters, many that you will find nowhere else on the planet. and that is why we have come to the wet zone on the south—west of the island. i know you cannot see much apart from really tall trees

but mother nature's sound check is truly spectacular. this is the edge of sri lanka's last primary rainforest, sinharaja. it is a hotspot for biodiversity. rare plants, unique bird species, amphibians and snakes all thrive here. it is so important ecologically that there are plans to quadruple it in size. the only way to explore it is by foot. and for that you will need some serious legwear. the forest is also home to large and thirsty leeches so i picked up these attractive anti—leech socks in the hopes that i make it out without any of them attached to my skin. ridma used to hike and swim in the forest as a child. it is so dense. yeah. just a tiny amount of sunlight. he now runs tours of the jungle around the island.

it's slippery. the sinharaja forest covers more than 8000 hectares, but you do not need to walk very far to spot some wildlife. here, look. it is a kangaroo lizard. it is tiny. it almost does not look real. some of it is after your blood. he's just moving until he can settle down and then he will suck blood from me. the way it moves is creeping me out at the moment and it is so small. i should not be scared. when he sucks the blood, he will grow three times the size. and now he is getting and i can feel it. really? what does he feel like? just a tiny little pinch. oh, you can see it get bigger! now it is sucking blood. in truth, every inch of this rainforest is buzzing with life. there are plenty of spiders, of course, but we are here for something a bit more slippery. see there. it's a green pit viper. under the leaf.

almost the same colour as the leaf. it is tiny. it's a big one. ——it‘s a baby one. if this snake bites me, what happens? it's quite painful. it gives you cramp. it depends on your condition. stay away. ridma's expert eyes soon spotted another baby snake on our path. what's the name of this snake? it is an ahaetulla, eye catcher, eye catch snake. because they used to here on the trees at your eye level and with this... see? he tried to go for you! he is a little one. he has no venom but he does have teeth. he will bite you until blood comes out. oh, my god. wow!

you weren'tjoking when you said it was worth it. every time i come into here, it is notjust going into the jungle. ijust turn into a big living creature. the rainforest is alive. is it true that there are plans to quadruple the size of the rainforest? it's on the paper now, but it is a big project and it takes time. and it's good because sinharaja gives us a lot of things, like the rain, to the whole other part of the country. this will be amazing for sri lanka. across the country. not only for sri lanka, but for the world. we made it! there are 104 different types of snakes in sri lanka. only six are deadly to humans. but with about 80,000 bites a year, this country has one of the world's

highest bite rates per capita. most victims are local farmers working in paddy fields. once they are treated in hospital, they often turn to people like pieris for the after—care. pieris has been an ayuverdic doctorfor over a0 years. he says he has treated more snake bites than he can remember. so this is how you make the treatment for your patients. oh, that looks painful! what happened ?

this villager is lucky. a bite from a hump—nosed viper can be fatal. this mixture of herbs will make the swelling disappear. so is this exactly what ayuverdic medicine is? using herbs to treat snake bites? 0k. i will not touch this hand but i want to wish you all the luck with your healing process. it sounds like you are in good hands. it has been an honour to meet you. thank you so much and good luck. i am so glad i survived the crawling beasts.

that is all we have time for you this week but coming up next week, we are in rio ahead of the biggest party of the year and we find outjust how much work goes into preparing the carnival each year. the welding, the sewing, the machines, everybody is working on one show, your parade. yes. everything. for now, from me, lucy hedges and the rest of the travel team here in sri lanka, it is goodbye. hello there. last weekend was about storm ciara, this weekend another

storm, storm dennis. very strong winds across many parts of the uk, but also heavy rain. that is why the met office has issued a warning. there is the risk of significant flooding force several parts of the country. you can see this band of cloud working its way across the atlantic. i curl developing here with a rapidly deepening area of low pressure which has been named storm dennis. it has brought wet weather indeed. a soggy afternoon for many spots with some very heavy and persistent burst of rain. very strong and gusty winds as well. perhaps something brighter for western scotland and northern ireland later on. as far as the wind gusts, while loop 250 or 60 mph, but some coasts, the west, some of scotland. temperatures between 101a degrees. but remember, we will have that wind and rain. it would feel ——

it won't feel too great out there at all. squally gusty winds which could cause damage. northern ireland scotland, clear spells but wintry showers as well. a chilly night here and an exceptionally mild one further south. the rain drags its heels for the day across the south—east corner. there could be some flooding here. further north and west though, there is some sunshine. a scattering of showers as well. not quite as wind yesterday, but still gusty out there i have to say. your temperatures are a little lower by this stage. six to 10 degrees through tomorrow afternoon. tomorrow night the winds are likely to pick up again through parts of scotla nd to pick up again through parts of scotland as storm dennis passes close to the north of the uk. a lot of isobars on the charge. gusts of 70 miles an hour or more possible. including through pass belated laces like —— populated places like

glasgow and edinburgh. these are the areas covered by the met office and the warning. into the start of next week, it looks a little quieter. windy but not as windy with some sunshine and showers.

this is bbc news. the headlines at 11am... the uk braces itself for storm dennis. weather warnings are in place for many parts of the uk — and the army has been deployed in west yorkshire. the army are on their way, they are going to be deployed along the valley where they are needed. so, you know, we will see when they arrive. there is lots of, there's the flood warden groups along the valley, right the way from elland up to todmorden. they're going to be out all day. the storm is scuppering travel plans for many — hundreds of flights have been cancelled and train services are disrupted. manchester city say they'll appeal against their ban from european competitions for the next two seasons — after they were found to have broken financial fair play rules. the uk has held talks with china over giving beijing's