this is bbc news, the headlines: in germany, tens of thousands have attended vigils for the nine people shot dead by a far—right extremist in the western town of hanau. many were immigrants from turkey — one was romanian. the president has called on germans to unite against hatred, racism and violence. police are investigating whether the gunman had accomplices. president trump has said he'd love to see his former advisor roger stone exonerated — he's been sentenced to forty months in prison for witness tampering and lying to congress about russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. the irish prime minister, leo varadkar, has resigned after the first session of the new parliament. he'll remain acting prime minister until a new government is formed. coalition talks are deadlocked. his party, fine gael, finished third in the elections earlier this month, behind the centrists fianna fail and the left—wing sinn fein. there are still many parts

of the uk, struggling with the aftermath of storm dennis, with a "heightened flood risk" across the midlands. there are five severe flood warnings, meaning a danger to life, still in place near the welsh border, around the rivers lugg, severn and wye.but in the midst of all the chaos, there are stories of communities coming together to help each other. our correspondent, tomos morgan's report, begins with the dramatic rescue, of a 62—year—old woman, stranded in flood water, in monmouthshire. this is what's left of the bridge... 8am, tuesday morning in monmouthshire. geoff handley, out for a stroll after storm dennis‘s deluge. the river wye at record high levels had broken its banks 50m or more onto geoff's local country road. in the distance, he spotted something, which the engineer quickly realised was a woman in trouble. i called to her. she responded with, "help me, help me!" and ijust said, "stay where you are, do not do anything, i need to get help." we need a plan, we need a plan here, boys. by the time my words had finished,

he had his coat off, shirt off, coat off and he went straight in. fearing for her life, the three men decided they had to take matters into their own hands. they traversed down this steep bank and waded through chest high water, carried her off the top of the car and then back onto the bank where they waited for the emergency services. make no doubt, i thought she was going to die. clearly, she had been stuck for 12 hours in one position. apart from when mark moved her, she was yelping. poor lady, but strong as an ox, i take my hat off to her. fantastic. as the 62—year—old woman recovers in hospital, the hangoverfrom dennis has also left others suffering across the country. norris george spent the night in looking after his 92—year—old mother in worcester. well, i think she's 0k,

she prefers to stay where she is. but last night was a long night. oh, dear me, watching the pump and making sure it didn't stop and trying not to go to sleep. 300 people were left stranded in gloucester, forced to walk through water to gather supplies. overnight in pentre, the rhondda valley, homes were flooded for a second time this week. residents left furious that not enough had been done to help them. i've never seen nothing like it in my life. it's a disaster zone again, twice in three days. whilst on a visit to pontypridd, where the high street was under water on sunday, labour leaderjeremy corbyn criticised borisjohnson, labelling the uk government's response as wholly inadequate. number ten said they are speaking to emergency services, local authorities and the welsh government, ready to provide assistance when needed. the first minister here has already pledged £10 million to help those affected across wales.

the calm after the storm. river levels beginning to subside, only a few flood warnings remaining in place and the rain finally coming to an end. this clean—up operation, however, will take far more time. tomas morgan, bbc news, monmouth. now on bbc news: 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 two 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 last 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 honour 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. say in neutral, otherwise i'll jump forward, gotcha. 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 his 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 downside 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$1700 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. 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 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 as my happy place. it's joy. but when i am in one place for too long, i feeljust not myself. like, i always want to be on the go. i'm kellie brown, i'm a youtuber, 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's 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're 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, you know, 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 wasn't. i ended up being lucky in having a whole row to myself, to which 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 so discreetly, ‘here honey, here you go.‘ and i'm 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 places — the choices i make when it comes to travel is to not make that a thing. you know? the first thing i care about is safety and what's happening globally — like are they in crisis or war? these are the things you think about when you travelling 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 it's 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's why we have come to the wet zone on the south—west of the island.

now, i know you can't see much apart from really tall trees but mother nature's soundtrack is truly spectacular. birds chirping. this is the edge of sri lanka's last primary rainforest, sinharaja. it's a hotspot for biodiversity — rare plants, unique bird species, amphibians and snakes all thrive here. it's 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'll need some serious legwear. so the forest is also home to bloodthirsty 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's so dense.

yeah. just a tiny amount of sunlight coming through. he now runs tours of the jungle around the island. it's slippery. the sinharaja forest covers more than 8,000 hectares but you do not need to walk very far to spot some wildlife. here, look. it is a kangaroo lizard. it's tiny! it almost doesn't 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's so small. i shouldn't 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 getting bigger! now he is sucking blood. in truth, every inch of this rainforest is buzzing with life. there are plenty of spiders of course, but we're here for something a bit more slippery.

see there. it's a green pit viper. under the leaf. oh, my gosh! almost the same colour as the leaf. it's tiny. it's a big one. if this snake bites me what happens? it's quite painful. it gives you cramp. and like, 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 are 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, weren't you, when you said it was worth it? every time i come into here it is notjust going into thejungle. i come 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 papers now but it is a big project and it takes time. and it's good because sinharaja gives us a lot of things, you know, 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. yeah. 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. 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 treatment is? using herbs to treat snake bites? 0k. i'm not going to 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 with everything. i'm so glad i survived the crawling beasts. well, that's all we have time for you this week, but coming up next week, mike is in rio ahead of the biggest party of the year and we find out just how much work goes into preparing the carnival each year. all 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's goodbye.

we and the week on an unsettled note and the weekend looks unsettled as well. some areas will be seeing wind and rain. loads of isobars meaning a windy day but most weather fronts across the northern half of the country with persistent rain affecting west of northern ireland, west of scotland, north—west england and wales. further south, west of scotland, north—west england and wales. furthersouth, it west of scotland, north—west england and wales. further south, it should tend to be largely dry but windy, 60 miles per hour wind east of the pennines and they could cause disruption. temperature pretty mild for the time of year. windy into saturday. some showers will be heavy. early rain will clear the south to live sunshine but more wind and rain is expected as we head onto monday. keep abreast of all the flood and weather warnings by heading on line to the bbc weather

site.

this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories: tens of thousands of germans attend vigils for the 9 people murdered by a far—right extremist. donald trump's former adviser gets a 3—year sentence for lying to congress — but the president is already talking about a pardon. an exclusive report — how a prisoner and her guard fled north korea. they tell us about their remarkable escape. and we speak to the actor daniel radcliffe about his new film — based on a true story of political prisoners in apartheid south africa. it is so genius and so brilliant, i was like, how has the story not already been told?