state television buildings in belarus as unrest continues to spread across the country. the country's president, alexander lu kashenko, says he's agreed with president putin that russia would provide what he called comprehensive assistance in the event of an external military threat. japan's emperor has expressed deep remorse for his country's past military actions on the 75th anniversary of japan's surrender at the end of the second world war. the war was brought to an end shortly after the us dropped nuclear bombs over the cities of hiroshima and nagasaki. thousands of british holidaymakers have arrived back in the uk after a last—minute dash to avoid new quarantine rules introduced on saturday. travellers from france, the netherlands and four other countries would have been subject to m days self—isolation after concerns over rising coronavirus cases abroad. now we continue to mark

the 75th anniversary of vj—day. 50,000 british and commonwealth troops died in the war againstjapan, half of them in prison camps. some of their relatives joined surviving veterans, at the memorial arboretum, and our correspondent sian lloyd was there. 96—year—old joan burfield, known asjohnny since her navy days, one of the remaining few who remember vj day because they were there. she was then a wren, aged 21, stationed in the far east and tasked with decoding signals, one of a group of young women who'd joined the navy to serve their country. 75 years on, she hasn't forgotten the most important message she came across. we were receiving signals, you know, from all over the place. and, well, somebodyjust shouted, "it's over!" "it's over! the war‘s finished!" but we still had to carry on.

for sergeant francis raley, the japanese surrender signalled the first steps towards freedom. like thousands of others, he had endured years of suffering in prisoner of warcamps. his daughters proud to be here today. he was taken captive by the japanese and taken to sumatra and he was there for three and a half years, where he saw the most horrendous torture of people. he was lucky that he didn't receive, you know, too much bad treatment, in that respect. but it must have been horrific for him. gosh, if he was here today, he would just... well, he would say, his buttons would be popping off his chest, that'sjust how he was. he would just be thrilled to be here. it was an event to mark a historic day. it's been a lovely service. it's brought back lots of memories, especially when they talked about the prisoners, because those men, they were half starved, could hardly walk...

remembering those who finally brought the second world war to a close. sian lloyd, bbc news, staffordshire. now on bbc news, the travel show. this is the mighty river sava, flowing for nearly 1,000 kilometres from the alps in slovenia, right across to belgrade, in serbia. it's the longest river within the balkans. a vital artery that's borne witness to so much history, stretching all the way back to ancient and medieval times and of course the turmoil of recent decades. today, the sava connects four countries that just a generation ago were at war.

0n myjourney, i'll be exploring how today this river is healing wounds by boosting trade and tourism and creating a new identity for the region. and finding out why locals call this the ‘vital heart of the balkans‘. a nation ofjust 2 million people, slovenia prides itself on its close relationship with nature. it's one of the most densely forested countries in europe and nearly two thirds of its landscape is green space. this river, the sava, has been a crucial trading route for centuries, dating back to 400 bc, when the celts named it after their river god savus,

protector of merchants and travellers. and this is the river's source, the magnificent savica waterfall, bursting from two separate points on the cliff face there. and my intention is to follow the river from here, at its very beginning, until it meets the danube, in belgrade. it's a near 1,000 kilometre course, flowing through four countries that just over 25 years ago werejoined as part of yugoslavia. the emerald waters snake through the cliffs and then widen into one of the sava's main tributaries, which has now become famous for watersports. and i'm getting a face first perspective. this is bellyaking. and, yep, there's a hint in the name.

it looks like a kayak, but you lay on top of it and use your hands to paddle. like many slovenian kids, luka grew up in the countryside and the sava was a huge part of his childhood. i spent my whole life in the same house about 50 metres away from the river, so when i wake up, if i had my window open, i can already hear it. here in slovenia, the river isn't just used for watersports — it's an important source of hydropower, and luka thinks the river also has an important role to play in uniting the communities who live throughout its course. we were formerly part of yugoslavia, so we are sort of still connected. while our languages may not be that similar, they still have the same origin, so we are still sort of one nation and it's sort of nice to have the sava

river connect us all. the river isn't always this placid. it can rise a metre higher in the autumn and winter and turn a lot more aggressive. frankly, the relative calm of these rapids is more than enough for me to deal with. argh! oh, my god! 0k... not sure if bellyaking is the sport for me. further down the valley, two tributaries merge and the sava starts its journey proper. and at the fork in the rivers lies this majestic castle, lake bled, and its historic castle of the same name. —— this majestic showpiece.

this is slovenia's oldest castle, first built in medieval times. it's got a kind of fairy tale ambience to it and, because of its location, it's been a strategic lookout for 1,000 years. and standing here, i can kind of get why. you can see for miles! this place is legendary in slovenian history. 0n the banks of the lake still sits the former holiday home of the father of post—world war ii yugoslavia, president josip broz tito. tito took the helm of the newly formed federal republic and more or less kept the country together until his death, in 1980, when yugoslavia began to fall apart. slovenia became the first to break away, with a short—lived war that lasted just ten days. it's been a sovereign

nation state since 1991, and my next stop down the river sava is slovenia's capital, ljubljana. the city centre is made up of vast squares, lined with baroque buildings and the streets are packed with tourists ambling around. but it wasn't always like this. just over a decade ago ljubljana was clogged with traffic and the city's main piazza was a car park. but in 2006, the city's mayor made the decision to ban cars from the centre. now the only vehicles allowed are these so—called cavaliers, electric cabs that give free lifts to those with luggage or who need extra help getting around. if you had to compare how this city looked ten years ago to now, can you tell me the difference?

and the children are still following you. and it's notjust the kids that are using the car—free streets as a playground. filip and blaz are ambassadors for the city. they met when one was a juggler and the other a gymnast, and together became a social media sensation with their urban acrobatic antics.

we tried to put ljubljana on the map in our videos. so you can imagine running in a circle or something, we would run off a building. and you've done that? yeah. filip and blaz have good reason to keep the city centre, which doubles as their performance space, spick and span and they've been part of the efforts to keep it that way. cheering wow! thank you! once a year we have action. the whole of slovenia is cleaned up and the river, they have divers and clean up all the bicycles out. and you've played a big part in those campaigns? yeah. we try to help. we are strong, so we lift all of the heavy stuff, help them to keep it clean and keep it on the next level.

citywide clean—ups and specialist waste disposal points helped the capital win the accolade of being europe's greenest city in 2016, and filip and blaz are keen to encourage other locals and tourists to see the potential in ljubljana's spruced up streets. wow! and the gymnasts are firm believers that anyone can be taught to do this. just change the arms. oh, sorry. yeah, like this. and three, two, one, go! see? i told you it's simple. you can move one arm as well. push ups! three, two! three... i don't know how i managed that. it's kind of superhuman strength. time to leave this urban oasis and head downstream again to radece. this region, like most of slovenia, is densely forested and has a thriving timber industry.

hi. nice to meet you. welcome. hundreds of years ago, the sava was the only way to get the huge logs to major cities across the balkans. and i'm here tojoin other tourists to get a taste of those centuries—old rafting journeys. we managed to revive this tradition, because otherwise we would forget all that and it was important because it was alive more than 500 years ago. and duska sees the sava playing a much larger role in the region in the nearfuture. now there is a perception of sava as a connector. connecting with who? with other communities along the river and, most important, connecting also across border regions. croatia, bosnia, serbia. and we already

started to connect. baby steps, they are still, but, yes, we are connecting now along the sava river. but before i head across to my next country on the sava, duska tells me i need to be fully initiated into life on the river with this time—honoured tradition. are you going to behead me? no, we don't do that any more! but if you want to be a member, you have to show us if you are able to sharpen that wooden stick. ah, you show me. and just when i thought the wood chopping was bad enough... here you go — on your knees. you have to leave the head down.

like this. whoa! baptised by the water of the river sava. next stop on my voyage down the longest river within the balkans, croatia's capital, zagreb. croatia was part of the austro—hungarian empire until the end of the first world war. and you can see much of that architectural influence around zagreb. the city has been fought over by competing armies for centuries.

in the 15th century, so the story goes, the ottoman army was camped on the other side of the sava river, just over there, preparing to attack the city. to deter them, a cannonball was fired with such pinpoint accuracy, it landed on a chicken intended for the commander's dinner. so freaked out were the turks by this that they scarpered and never returned to the city again, so the legend goes. but ever since 1877, as a nod to this alleged act of defiance, a cannon has been fired every day at noon from this tower. wow! incredible. alem is a trained engineer who used to work on the zagreb trams before he saw an advert for the position of cannon man in 2008, and landed thejob. ah, how come — what does it do?

laughs. the cannon firing has become a big tourist attraction in zagreb. alem needs at least 15 minutes a day to prepare, and in his nine years doing thejob, he's never had a misfire. maybe we should pray. no, no, no. no, no praying. 0k. um, we can... let's wait. 0k. please stay here. yep. you stay here.

thank you. it's 11:58. 0k. speaks croatian. one minute to shot, please! i'm feeling a bit nervous. bit tense. he's very, uh, focused. waiting for that clock to change. bang. 0oh! whoa! even though i knew it was coming, that was still a bit of a shock! it's still, oof, surprised me. wow! look at this! he's milking the applause! another day, job done. well done. have a nice day. thank you. croatia's struggle for

independence from yugoslavia was more prolonged, complex and bloody than the slovenians'. today, though, it's a country of five million and a very popular travel destination, especially zagreb, dubrovnik, and the rest of its spectacular adriatic coastline. but venture away from the capital down the sava and you come across a lesser—known city. sisak lies on the confluence of three rivers, and it's home to croatia's biggest river port. the town of sisak is where the river sava actually becomes wide enough for cargo ships like these to sail downstream to belgrade and serbia, and that's what has made the town such an industrial centre. now, sisak actually has a rich and colourful history but in recent times, it's been characterised as dull and dreary. in fact, most guidebooks don't even mention it. but that is now changing.

i am actually the fourth generation born here. and i lived with this town, i grew up with this town, and ijust, you know, when you're reading something about your town, you're reading the bad news and you're thinking, "what are you talking about? "this is not how it is here." so, last year, dahna and her team set about creating rezthink sisak — an art festival that uses the town's buildings as a canvas for murals. this one, by croatian artist lonac, was one of the first to be created. it's the biggest mural in croatia and took 23 days and 400 cans of spray paint to complete. and how do the locals feel about this? um, well, at first, when we had to have the permission, they were first a little bit, "what are you going to do with this?" but then, when it all started, they came every day here, they brought him the lemonade and cookies, and they were very, very proud of it.

they got really emotionally involved — as in people from this building call this, ‘our mural‘ — which is what we tried to accomplish, you know, for people to accept them as their own. the murals are scattered around the city, each with a different theme or message. dahna shows me one that highlights a particularly painful part of sisak‘s history. during world war two, this was the place where the children were gathered to be put in the only concentration camp for children in europe. really? just here? yes — in this general area. in this general area? yes, yes. the camp was set up by the nazi—affiliated ustase regime during world war two. the victims were serbian, jewish and roma children. this mural by austrian artist robin abramovic is dedicated to their memory. i believe that the artist gave them a tribute that they deserved and maybe a sort of place of remembrance

of all those children who didn‘t make it. we called him to be a part of our festival because we, as a team, decided that his work does have that certain dark undertone that maybe we kind of lacked in the festival. and needed to portray. and needed, of course, yes, because the art has to provoke thinking, so, notjust be pretty. there are now 17 murals in sisak and the festival has been such a success, they‘ve decided to keep on painting. mind you, people don‘t come to this part of croatia just for the art. they come to see the country‘s largest wetland, which i‘m heading through to my next stop on the sava river — the marshlands of brodski varos, where i encounter a man on an unusual fishing expedition. because stjepan goes out every day to collect food for this family of storks. stjepan found the mother,

malena, 2a years ago after she had been shot and critically disabled by hunters. she still can‘t fly. because malena can‘t hunt, stjepan has to help feed the chicks. the fact that i can get so close, incredible. and they‘re beautiful! wow. congratulations! over the years, a male stork, klepetan, became malena‘s mate but each winter, malena has to say goodbye to klepetan and their brood of baby storks as he migrates to africa for the winter. this bond between stjepan and malena has become

internationally famous and is even the subject of a brand—new documentary, the old man and the stork. and so, the first half of myjourney down the sava

is complete and i‘m beginning to grasp how important the river is to the people who live along its banks. next week, i will head to bosnia and herzegovina and then east, all the way to serbia‘s capital, belgrade. i‘ll find out how a generation who were born by the sava after the war in the ‘90s have new priorities and why the river has become so important to the future of serbia‘s capital. and i hope you‘lljoin me.

hello there. we still have a lot of humid air across the uk, the same air mass that brought us the hot and sunny weather. the big difference now is that the extensive low cloud. because of the humidity, still mist and fog and also bits of drizzle dotted around. you see a pretty extensive cloud but that is continuing to work its way northwestward and we also saw saturday some heavy thunderstorms, worked into parts of essex and in writtle brought a0 mm of rain in the space ofjust an hour and through the 2a hours we have 57 mm and that is over a month, so the majority of that brought flooding around the writtle area, including around

the chelmsford area. looking at the weather picture, we see that excessive cloud and it is marching its way northward. murky around the coast and hills with fog and quite an extensive drizzle and occasional heavier rain mixed in. a humid, warm feel to the air. temperatures starting off sunday morning around 18 degrees in the south. sunday, a cloudy start for many of us and heavy downpours on the way. i think we will see the skies brighten up but the best of any sunshine will be across northwest scotland. through the day, we will quickly see thunderstorms working in the southwest england but another batch of storms is likely to affect southeast england, east anglia and the midlands and maybe wales. thunderstorms capable of bringing torrential downpour so i think we could see some further localised flooding particularly sunday afternoon. for monday, we see an area low pressure drifting northwards so again, we are looking at heavy thundery downpours at times and notice the rain

is turning to move northwards and after a dry few days across parts of northern england, northern ireland and scotland, it will be a greater chance of seeing some rain working in here and it will continue to feel humid but again those downpours will be very heavy so there is an ongoing threat of localised flooding. we have humid air with us at the moment, but it looks like by thursday we will start to get coolerfresher air following in across the uk behind that cold front. but it will stay pretty cloudy in the week ahead and there will be further bursts of rain at times, it is only really later in the week that it starts to turn a bit brighter and a little bit fresher as well. that is your latest weather. goodbye for now.

welcome to bbc news — i‘m aaron safir. our top stories... protests on the streets of belarus for a seventh day — as pressure continues to grow on president lukashenko. president trump claims plans for universal mail—in voting — proposed for november‘s election — will be catastrophic. south africa announces a major easing of lockdown restrictions — people will be able to buy alcohol and tobacco. and — ms dhoni — one of india‘s greatest ever cricketers — announces his retirement from the international game.