this is bbc news, the headlines: chinese and indian troops have clashed along the disputed himalayan border between their countries , the most serious in several decades. the indian army said 20 of its soldiers were killed in the confrontation. beijing acknowledged that it had also suffered casualties, but did not say how many. the trump administration is suing the former national security advisor john bolton to block the release of a book about his time in office. the justice department said the memoir contained classified information. mr bolton argues the president committed impeachable offences, which mr trump denies. for the first time a drug has been found that reduces the risks, of severely ill patients from dying coronavirus. trials show that dexamethasone, a cheap and widely available steroid, reduced deaths by a third among patients on a ventilator. scientists have decoded sounds

made by queen honeybees. they found that two distinct noises — toots and quacks — alerted worker bees to the queen's intention to swarm. the researchers hope their work will help beekeepers predict how their colonies will behave. our science correspondent victoria gill has been listening to the toots and quacks. bees buzz. busy and vital pollinators. the buzz of honeybee activity is, despite the insect‘s ongoing decline, a very familiar sound. these sounds, though, might be less familiar. tooting and quacking. they're the toots and quacks of queen honeybees... tooting and quacking. ..duets detected during the late spring swarming system. by recording them and observing how the colony behaved, researchers revealed their crucial role in bee society. scientists used vibration detecting devices

in the honeycomb to record and decode the signals. so rather than talking to other queens, the researchers found that a tooting queen was moving around the colony, announcing her presence to the workers. the responding quacks were from queens that were still wax sealed inside their special cells, but were ready to emerge. the life of a queen bee depends on the workers‘ response to those signals. they'll keep all the captive queens sealed away until an existing one has left with a swarm. if two queens are released at the same time, they'll fight to the death. it is hoped this will help tuning to

the health of their hives. victoria gill, bbc news. now on bbc news, the travel show this week, a tiny glimmer of hope. europe starts to slowly reopen for travellers. but how will they keep us all apart? also coming up, lucy tests the gadgets that claim to keep you safe on your travels. and we're on one of the world's most famous beaches as it reopens fully for the first time since lockdown. we're back on the road this week, a modest two—hour drive east of travel show hq in london

in the resort town of margate. for more than 250 years, holiday makers have come here, rain or shine, to experience the chipped—around—the—edges glitz of the great british seaside. in recent times, there's been a renaissance here, new hotels and restaurants and restored vintage attractions have brought cool, young london types here by the bucketful. but as resorts throughout europe start to reopen, blinking into the summer sunshine, what kind of future will they face? across the world, we are seeing the first signs of tourism adapting to the new scheme of things. there's lots of talk of borders being lifted and special air bridges or corridors being formed between countries with low infection rates. while in many cities, galleries, museums and landmark attractions are up and running again. in italy, the first country in europe to enter lockdown, the coliseum, the leaning tower

of pisa and the ruins of pompeii have already opened, and in france, people can once again wander the grand halls of the palace of versailles. hotels in europe are also gradually reopening too. back in april, we spoke to javier in spain, who had just been forced to shut down his family—run chain of hotels in benidorm. now, he's hoping to reopen then again later this month. we are going to sell less capacity than ever, because we have to keep social distance. this will help people to have a more exclusive experience. if we are talking about profits, we will have less profits than last year, sure. sure. here in england, in line with government guidance, many hotels are hoping to reopen in earlyjuly. that includes the cave here in kent. they had only been open for a few months when the virus struck following a £12 million development. it was a huge shock.

no—one would ever want to launch a brand—new hotel or any business and then three months, four months later, close it down, and we literally closed it down overnight. jonathan has already put in place some coronavirus safety measures, offering us a glimpse into what our future hotel stays might look like. first thing, if you could stand in front of the camera, please, and look into the camera so we can take your temperature. authenticated. as you're authenticated, first of all, sanitise your hands and then help yourself to mask and gloves if you'd like. and then from here, if you go to the reception desks, we have got the screens up so our staff are completely protected, as are the guests as well. and you will be saying to guests, if they've got luggage, take their own luggage? yep. we will be not offering that service for the time being just to minimise the contact with the guests. once you've checked in, you have limited access to the hotel's communal areas. you can book a 20—minute slot at the swimming pool and the restaurant delivers to your room.

we've taken the tables out of our fire pit restaurant, including the chairs, and we've set them up in all rooms, every room type. like you are in a restaurant kind of dining. and so, what happens, someone comes in and delivers it? so, your doorbell will ring and outside is a tray for you to bring in yourself. if you'd like drinks, you can order via whatsapp. it will be delivered pretty instantly but without any contact whatsoever. are you confident you will get people here? i believe we will see an upsurge in uk travel. so, domestic tourism? domestic tourism, 100%. we've seen bookings forjuly, our booking occupancy is around 30—a0% at the moment, on the basis that we are able to open. as an independent boutique resort, cave hotel has been able to be relatively nimble, incorporating coronavirus safety measures. but what about the larger chain hotels, with hundreds of rooms and a high turnover of guests? cleaning specialists the safe group have been advising big hotels about how they can keep both their customers and their staff protected.

i've taken a look at the large number of the big hotel chains and there's a lot of different variety of things they are doing, ranging from what they call room seals. so, effectively when someone has cleaned a room, they completely seal it with a notice effectively. some hotels have started to remove items that you might touch such as tissue boxes, removing the magazines. some of them are doing a lot and some of them, interestingly, are doing nothing, so it's a mixed bag. after months cooped up at home, many of us will be desperate to get away for a few nights when hotels reopen. but with corporate and international travel still pretty much at a standstill, the future for many hotels, whether they have thorough safety measures or not, remains uncertain. what kind of hotels then do you think will survive and what kinds will fail in this new climate? whether you are the budget end or the top end, the hotels who are proactive in understanding

the challenges that are going to come and prepare for them, i hope will flourish through it. so, once all those perspex screens are installed, travel should be back on the cards, shouldn't it? well, let's find out from the man who has all the answers, our global guru simon calder. 0k, simon, i'm going to put you on the spot a little bit now, because back in march, when we first talked after covid—i9 hit, really, you said: archive: we will see in june something like normal travel beginning again, but it will be on a small scale, and even if there is huge amounts of pent—up demand from you and i desperate to travel, it won't be anything like the normal summer that we would be looking forward to at this time. how would you like to revise that or would you like to revise that? i think i would just a little

because i underestimated how non—normal it would be. certainly, there are going to be parts of the mediterranean, north america, asia, where it will at least have a reasonable number of tourists showing up, but it is going to feel very different. we've already seen that the big travel companies have got to come up with new ways of reducing risk when we are flying, and new ways of working particularly in really big hotels, which are used to effectively processing us by the thousands, so there will be a new normal. one thing, though, i absolutely wasn't expecting was the uk's sudden introduction of quarantine for all arrivals from june eight onwards, which of course has had the, i guess, predictable effect of stifling all inbound tourism to the united kingdom for some unspecified period,

together with making it very difficult for any travel firms to sell outbound travel, because it's great to have a weekend in barcelona or rome, but if you're then going to have to spend two weeks stuck in your flat or your home, that's going to take the edge off it rather. when can i go on holiday? well, it all depends where you are. at the moment, of course, every country and indeed many regions within countries have their own rules, so, for example, if you happen to be in new york and you think you would love to go to florida, you are going to have to self—isolate for two weeks when you get there. but in general, the european union, 27 member countries, are saying, 0k, we're going to reduce the fronteirs between us from june 15 and that is going to be a soft opening, followed onjuly one with a much more general opening and certainly the traditional

mediterranean destinations all the way from turkey, greece, croatia, italy, cyprus and malta of course, france and spain, not forgetting portugal, they look as though, from july one, they will all be back in action and indeed some countries, in particular portugal and croatia, are already saying, "come here, we're ready for you!" but of course the foreign office in the uk is still warning against all but essential travel. what about regions outside europe? for instance, the middle east or asia? what's happening there? we have seen different degrees of lockdown and there's been some really strange things going on. for example, june four was when the caribbean island of antigua decided it was opening up, but many other islands are very much closed, and in general, i think we are going to see a pattern where smaller islands with very few cases of covid—i9

are going to be generally quite slow in opening. argentina, which is very much a southern summer destination, has said no internationalflights until september one, and it's — of course this terrible tension between countries wanting to do what's best for their population in terms of avoiding infection as much as possible, and the economic reality that so many places are absolutely dependent on tourism. simon, a pleasure to speak to you again. thanks very much. gadgets and tech can make travellers‘ lives a whole lot easier, but in a time of covid—i9, how can they keep us healthy? well, i can tell you there are things on the market right now that let you do just that, like this. even if your travel is just a stroll around your local area. this is the hygiene hook. a pretty simple gadget, really,

but something that solves that classic covid—i9 dilemma — how to open a door without touching it. shortly after it became a bit more obvious about the covid—i9, driving into work i thought, actually, i could just make a hook to open doors. and we got machinery, and i got 3—d software, and later we had 15 hooks. for every one they sell, they give another one away to healthcare workers. it's a pretty nifty solution to a problem that a lot of us are facing right now, although you can probably tell from the design that it doesn't necessarily work with all kinds of doorhandles. yes, doorknobs, i'm talking about you. but i think the burning question here is, would i actually use one of these? well, i have been to quite a lot of questionable places in my travels over the years and i could have done with opening a few doors with this, but it is quite chunky so it is not going to be to everyone's taste, but it wouldn't hurt to just chuck

it in your bag or suitcase just in case you need it. now, in italy, at sites like florence's duomo cathedral, which normally welcomes about four million tourists a year, it has been trialling a new system to help encourage proper social distancing for the smaller number of visitors they will be allowing in. as someone enters, they are given a device to wear round their necks, which alerts them when they are less than two metres from someone else. but even if you're not venturing to any tourist sites anytime soon, tech can help you keep your distance. a new online tool from google for android devices called sodar uses augmented reality to let you know what is and isn't two metres away. so it's superimposing a ring onto my phone screen. well, i can see that my cameraman simon is definitely two metres away. he is outside the ring.

it keeps jumping around a little bit so i'm not entirely sure how accurate this is, erm, but it gives you a good idea, gives you some rough guidelines as to how far you should be keeping your distance to other people and objects. i think it's quite fun! of course, there were gadgets on the market before covid—i9 that were designed to help stop any nasties from getting into your system. and you may have noticed that ultraviolet light is used quite a lot of them. take this water bottle. the larq bottle movement uses uv light in the cap which, it says, will minimise 99.9% of harmful bacteria in 60 seconds. the uv—clean smartphone sanitiser and sanitiser bag also use uv light to zap away 99.9% of bacteria and viruses — although they say it's not yet been tested for its effectiveness against this coronavirus. generally, these gadgets are portable, they're practical and easy to carry around with you when you're out and about.

and, at times like these, they can prove hugely reassuring as well. but without seeing any visible signs of cleanliness, it's quite difficult to ascertain if it actually works and whether they‘ re doing what they say on the packet. well, what we do know is that uv is being used in this pandemic. it has been trialled for disinfecting the new york public transport system, for example, but with strict safety measures in place because certain forms of uv are dangerous. but in scotland, st andrews university and ninewells hospital have been researching the possibility of disinfecting big public spaces with people in it, like airports. so the idea that we've got — and other groups around the world — is to use far—uvc radiation, which is gonna be safe for humans, but we've really got to use a clinical trial to ensure that it's safe, and we've got a clinical trial starting in the next few weeks and if this is successful, the goal is that we can roll this out into large public spaces, such as trains, airports, food production lines, and the ultimate goal is that this‘ll go towards bringing

all of our lives back to normal. now if you're a regular viewer of the show, you may remember that three years ago, i was one of the first members of the public to ride red force, europe's fastest and tallest ever roller—coaster at portaventura in spain. it will come as no surprise that the theme park has been closed since lockdown, and does hope to reopen sometime injuly. although elsewhere, other theme parks are already starting to open their doors with new social distancing regulations in place. disney parks in china are up and running again and flying in the face of tradition — and some might say fun — injapan, people are being asked not to scream while they ride roller—coasters in an effort to stop the potential spread of coronavirus. disney parks in america say they hope to reopen injuly and universal orlando

has already opened. one park marking its 100th anniversary this year is margate's much—loved dreamland. following years of decline, dreamland got a £25 million revamp in 2017 and now, you will find it's spruced—up vintage rides, including the oldest scenic railway in the uk, alongside new event spaces for major artists and festivals throughout the summer. dreamworld had enormous plans to mark its centenary — our hundredth year this year — and it's devastating that we haven't been able to follow through with those. we had huge music festivals planned, all sorts of different types of entertainment. we're gonna push some of it into 2021 — we're 100 untiljuly 2021, so hopefully we can do some of that next year instead.

this is obviously an amusement park and theme park with so many amazing rides, but how can you practise social distancing with these rides? we think that opening rides this summer season is going to be almost impossible. it's just not viable to put people on vintage rides like the ones behind me. we just can't see a way to get people on and off those rides safely with the guidelines as they are. we're watching very closely what parks are doing in different countries. we can take best practice and we can adopt that here in the uk. of course, america is the real home of the big—scale theme park. but, will social distancing — for the time being, at least — take some of the fun and the thrills out of riding the rollers there? i mean, i'm one of those people that as soon as the theme parks reopen, especially the ones near me, i'll be there on day one. the different measures they are using, i think, are so fascinating. the one place i haven't

visited since the reopening is universal orlando, and they are probably the strictest that i've seen — at least here in america — with all of the precautions that they're taking. they have, you know, some fantastic rides and they're social distancing on the actual attraction. and i saw a line that was 80 minutes for a ride that is usually 20, maybe maybe 15, and a ride that normally gets several hours of line is now completely booked throughout the day because they've done electronic, uh, like, reserve your spots. now, many beaches in europe are now gradually beginning to allow people back. but in australia, they've been one step ahead. since early may, they've been trying to get things back to normal, but it's only been in the last week that the authorities have managed to reopen the world—famous bondi beach.

bondi is extraordinary. i think you can get 30,000 or 40,000 people on a beach. it's a, what, a one kilometre stretch and to have so many people in that stretch of sand is quite extraordinary. we, no doubt, saw those images that went all around the world on the 20th of march, 2020, where we should've been practising social distancing. but it's like — it was taking people quite a bit of time to actually understand the implications of not doing that, so it led to us actually closing the beach the very next day. the closing of the beaches, though, was really emblematic ofjust how serious this whole thing was, and that people could die from it, and that was a message that took a little while for people to get through.

the actual real challenge with the process, it's not to close the beach — i mean, that was hard — the real challenge is to keep it closed and maintain that. we got thousands of people down here every single day, regardless of the weather, and they use the water every single day. you know, we had big fences up, we employed a security company to manage those fences, and we had to kind of police the situation, and that was really difficult for us because it's the opposite of the thing we're here to do, you know? we want people to enjoy the water and enjoy the area so we had, like, a real moral issue with that. it was sort of against what we're here for. how are you? good, good, good! i came up with this notion of safe access corridors to the water. people were trying to access the ocean via dangerous rocks — because the ocean actually was not off—limits, it was just the sand — so these corridors allowed people to access the water safely and they were extremely busy.

i think we were having a total of about 1,500 people an hour using those corridors, going and coming. cheering it was a monday morning and we all came down and opened the gates and just let them out. it was a classic coming down here because just like a line of blokes with their surfboards — guys and chicks — just ready to get out there. and it was just good to see humans, too, like humans like to do, you know? it was really — it was a happy moment for the lifeguards. when the beach shutdown, it was when things were pretty, pretty serious and, you know, weren't sure where everything was going to go and then slowly as it opened, but you had to — there were only little walkways to get into the sea so it still felt a bit weird

and now that, i don't know, it's all opening up and the rules are relaxing, it's kind of representing what's going on around australia and that we can go out and travel around the state and, yeah, just — just enjoy life and i think people appreciate it, having — once it's taken away from you, you realise how lucky you are just to have this on your doorstep. the people of bondi beach. a long, long way from the kent coast. coming up next week: ade looks back at some of his adventures in dubai and gets an update on how the lockdown is easing there. in the meantime, keep safe, keep planning your next adventure, and we'll see you soon.

hello there. expect a stormy spell of weather over the next few days. not just for the uk, across much of central and eastern europe. we've seen some sharp, thundery downpours. we start off quite promising but then showers are likely to develop in the uk as we go through the day. after a sunny start, afternoon thunderstorms could be an issue and because we have light winds, it could be slow—moving. so localised flooding not out of the question. we could start off with low cloud, mist, and fog. that burns its way back to the east coast where it may well linger, but elsewhere, lovely spells of sunshine but as the heat builds, the showers will arrive. they should be few and far between across scotland and northern ireland. the most frequent ones through wednesday will be across england and wales. so through the afternoon — this is a snapshot — you can see just a brighter colour denoting the intensity of those showers. slow—moving, a lot of heavy rain and some hail and thunder and lightning. it will be quite warm and humid out there.

temperatures likely 22 degrees, 72 fahrenheit. the showers will continue for a while through the early evening, hopefully starting to ease away before during the night, we could see more persistent rain pushing in through east anglia and moving through northern england. as we go through the day on thursday, rain to the north of england, then that's going to be replaced by some pretty intense thundery downpours across england and wales. in the space of two or three hours, we could see a couple of inches of rain. so, weather warnings have been issued by the met office, certainly worth bearing in mind if you're going out and about. a slightly quieter day in scotland 17—22 degrees the high. as we go into friday, england and wales will see the quietest of the weather. fewer showers around, but more frequent showers are likely through northern ireland and scotland. again, some of these will be heavy and thundery. 17—23 degrees as the high. we could do with some slightly quieter weather. we may well get it between england and wales for the start of the weekend as high—pressure builds, but this area of low

pressure could spoil the story a little bit further north and west. so there's a chance this weekend of more rain to come across scotland and northern ireland, but it's drier elsewhere with the heat set to build across england and wales as we go into next week. take care.

a very warm welcome to bbc news. my name's mike embley, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. clashes high in the himalayas, on the india—china border, leave 20 indian soldiers dead. after weeks of rising tension, both sides have deployed thousands of extra troops. a breakthrough for patients seriously ill with covid—19 — a steroid drug which is cheap and already widely available. the trump administration takes legal action to prevent the publication of a memoir by the president's former national security advisor, john bolton. we return to wuhan, the chinese city where the pandemic started, to see what lessons have been learned. china is determined that this place will not be remembered for a cover—up that put global health at risk, but rather

as the cornerstone of