police in thailand have moved in to disperse pro—democracy protersters who have gathered around government house in the capital bangkok. it came after the government brought in an emergency decree, following a series of protests. they've banned gatherings of more than five people. france and germany have announced new restrictions, to try to stop the spread of coronavirus. a strict night—time curfew has been imposed in paris — and in germany, areas with rising numbers of cases will see bars forced to close early and limits on people meeting. tough new restrictions are coming into force in the uk, with schools closing in northern ireland for two weeks. all pubs and restaurants, hairdressers and beauticians will also have to shut their doors for a month. an international study has

found that england and wales recorded one of the highest numbers of excess deaths from all causes, at the height of the pandemic. weekly data between mid—february and the end of may showed there were almost 100 additional deaths per 100,000 people. some hospitals are under pressure, intensive care and general ward beds filling up with covid—19 patients, and there is a need to find more space. the really tough decision for hospital managers is whether to postpone non—urgent work to free up beds for coronavirus cases. an intensive care specialist in the north west of england said that was now looking more likely. when your back is against the wall and you've got patients coming in with severe covid infections and also you are getting staff, medical and nursing staff who are also suffering from not only covid infections but exhaustion, the planned activity will undoubtedly end up suffering. gordon, who lives south of glasgow,

was due to have a hip replacement in march. it was postponed until this month and then postponed again. i received a text to say that the operation was cancelled because they required the beds because of the surge in covid cases. so far, only a few hospitals have said they are scaling back routine surgery. nhs leaders are keen to avoid having to shut down all nonurgent work as they did during the first months of the crisis. the impact of people staying away from hospital, either because their treatment was postponed or because they were worried about the infection risk, has become one of the central issues of the pandemic. the key questions are, how much damage has been done, and how many excess deaths? that is the total from all causes above the average. much of the uk fares poorly on that measure. a new study looks at the numbers between february and may and finds

there was no overall covid impact in this list of european countries. in others, the virus only had a low impact. there was a medium impact in france, the netherlands and sweden, and a high impact in belgium, italy, spain, england with wales and scotland. the health system pivoting to focus almost entirely on covid—i9 in that first wave will have had impacts on mortality for patients with other chronic conditions such as cancer, heart disease and dementia. but what is also true is that the full effects of that will not be felt until six, 12 months and even years down the line. british hospitals are far from alone in considering cuts in routine medical work. in the czech republic, some general hospital wards are being converted by builders into covid—i9 departments. hugh pym, bbc news. now on bbc news, the travel show. from deep inside a snow home to the walk of a lifetime. i do think this is a lifestyle now. this will never end for me.

hello, welcome to the show from my hometown in london where we're slowly rolling into autumn with still yet no end in sight to the restrictions that — while they've been put in place to protect us all, is still making travel pretty difficult. so we thought this would be a really good time to take a look back at some of our favourite trips right here in the uk. now before this all happened, this brilliant city was considered one of the world's great vegan destinations. so back in 2018, i went to find out why meat—free

had gone mainstream. i've only been vegan for maybe six months and even compared to when i started, the amount of vegan abundance of food in supermarkets — it's crazy. i was eating lots of chicken dippers and chicken kievs, i didn't feel that great, so i started eating more fruit and vegetables and i felt this energy i'd never really felt before. vegan in london in 2018 is really, really easy now. there are so many cool places to eat, you can getjunk food, you can get healthy food, you can eat anywhere. it's super easy. the vegan market is growing, it's incredible. it's so exciting, what's happening. according to the vegan society, the number of vegans in the uk

went up by 350% in 10 years, and that was before the huge trend in the last two years kicked in. it's particularly here in london where lots of the change has been happening. which might make this one of the best places in the world to travel to as a vegan. so, i'm going to take a fresh look at london as a tourist for the day and i'm going to enjoy some of those classic london travel experiences, but with a vegan twist. it all starts with a bus tour, of course, on one of these. and it's no ordinary bus tour. this is a vegan afternoon tea bus tour, offering a vegan version of the traditional british afternoon tea on an iconic red routemaster bus. what a way to see those sites.

a fellow passenger on board today is dominica, from the vegan society. how has veganism managed to attract the next generation? what is it that has changed? because it's been around for a long time. veganism has been around for 70 years, which not many people are aware of. but i think in the digital age of information, you log into your social media accounts, you are bound to see something about a veganism at some point. i think a lot of people sort of started to understand that animals are not here for us, they are here with us on this planet, and we share it with them. and as you can see, we can have all the things that meat—eaters have, like cake, you can basically veganise anything that you want. all i heard was the word cake, nothing else. cake, that sounds good to me. vegans do cake, i'm sold.

normally to make a cake, you need milk and eggs, what would you replace that with? vegan cake has all the normal ingredients you'd expect cake to contain, but for example, instead dairy milk, you can use almond milk or soy milk. replacing eggs is as simple as mashing up a banana, because eggs are used as a binding product, rather than for flavour. so the banana has a similar consistency. this is good. this is good, a tour bus around london eating foods that will help us live forever. i miss my vegan food. i can't wait to get back once those guys are open again. now, back in 2017, we met chris, who set out to walk the entire

circumference of the uk, which is seriously impressive when you take in those stats. that is 19,191 miles, which isjust over 31,000 kilometres. well done, chris! the truth is, it's the places that you have to work to get to that are the most special. ifeel more connection with the uk now as a whole than i ever have in entire life. every day is a new day. i like the fact that have to work for the simple things in life that we all take for granted.

hi, my name is christian lewis. this is my dog jet and we are walking the coastline of the united kingdom. i started in swansea. the united kingdom isn'tjust on island. there are loads of separate islands off the united kingdom. in fact, 700 off the west coast of scotland so we have tackled those as well. we are on the north—west coast of scotland, just about to turn the corner having been on the move now for two years. so i reckon about another 1.5 years before we finish. jet and are actually on the side heading out... i think people would be very surprised to hear that the uk coast, including the islands, northern ireland, is surprisingly around 18,000 miles. to put that in perspective, if you were to fly around the world as the crow flies, that is around 25,000 miles. before i started this, i suffered really badly with depression, had anxiety. and this would go on

for a long, long time. i went for a surf one day and i remember coming out and looking at the cliffs and i honestly just thought to myself, walk home. so i started walking along the coast and i've been going for two years now. there is no plan, it really is just simple. i keep the sea to my left—hand side and i know that eventually that will take me round to where i need to be. i go as far as my legs can take me each day and i camp when i think it is time to camp and repeat the process the next day. i'll show you where i slept last night. not complaining at all. my dog, jet, i rescued her on the way. she wasn't in the best nick when i first found her. she was very skinny and thin but there was an immediate connection between jet and i. i felt that kind of

brokenness in her maybe i had felt before. we bonded immediately. some of the stuff that she tackles on this coast, i wouldn't ask another human to do. we have such complete trust for each other that if i go and do something,before i know it, she is shooting past me because if she knows i'm doing it then she will do it. i've just arrived in scotland. i'm stupidly happy. the wonderful thing about the united kingdom is that every single part of the united kingdom that you go to, there is a change. and it's not subtle, it is there in your face. mother of zeus. good afternoon guys. it is a really wet one today. nice to have the scottish whether back. oh my goodness. hailstones and they hurt like hell. i started this walk with £10 and two days worth of rations. i'd just given up the house so i had nothing really.

i have gone from being one of the most isolated people you will ever meet, shutting myself in a bedroom for three weeks, not seeing anyone, scared to go to the shops. to being one of the most confident, outgoing, happiest person you will ever meet. i do think this is a lifestyle now. this will never end for me now. it's a great lifestyle. i don't have tvs or anything. i don't need one do i? got a lot to thank this place for. c'monjet. that was three years ago now and believe it or not, he is still on the road and he's about to join me right now. chris, how's it going? hello travel show, how are you? how have you been getting on since we last saw you? once we finished 0rkney, is a beautiful place. i love the history and i love 0rkney people equally. it was the biggest challenge to come. we were heading up to shetland.

shetland during the winter is not a place to be in a tent, but i can promise you, it was absolutely brutal. i spent locked down on an island on my own, totally uninhabited just a couple of sheep, and spent the three months there. it was wonderful, i was foraging for food, catching lobster and crab. where are you now? inverness is the next big stop. i'm excited to get there. it is actually going to be the first city i have been to in over two years. it's great to catch up with you again travel show and i hope to see you again soon. mehbooba mufti chris has raised £14a,000 and counting, which is which is an incredible amount. well done mate. now we head back to scotland and in 2015 where jo whalley was pushed to the extremes in the snowy highlands. one of the best places to dig is this small valley 1,100 metres up the mountain. it's nicknamed the snow house because of the drifts that collect here.

i am so cold, it is so snowy. i can't actually imagine how we're going to stay here tonight. the big killer in terms of your own temperature is the wind, and when we get in the snow hole we are totally out of the wind. what is the windchill now, what is the windspeed? we are getting in quite a sheltered hollow now so it is probably only 5—10, 15 miles an hour. when we came over the top it was considerably more than that, as we have experienced. while we were preparing the equipment, three of the team, lorna, gregor and dave had made a start by digging tunnels into the snowdrift, and when deep enough they will connect them to form a cabin. we are tunnelling into the snow at the moment, we have to go in a good metre from the top here. do you want to come in and have a dig? yes. and how long does it take to do this normally?

it very much depends on the snow conditions, we have relatively soft snow but certainly three hours plus, sometimes as much as five hours. five hours? digging, yeah. so it is going to go dark not so long away. this is a snow sword designed to be able to cut through ice and snow, and by using this we can often remove the snow far more efficiently and we can cut locked out rather than chipping away. will i be ok here, this isn't going to collapse? no, no, the strength is in the thickness of the snow. this is quite narrow so it is well supported but when we actually make a living space, we want to make sure that as narrow as well so it is well supported. oh, that was a good bit in the middle.

i will now get in there with a shovel. what is it about putting yourself out of the comfort zone that people enjoy? i suppose it goes back to, it engages the brain. you forget about your worries and you are concerned about keeping warm and surviving. it takes life back to the elemental, it is about survival. but surviving in style, we hope. we have been digging for a couple of hours now and the camera is finally starting to completely freeze over, and i am also freezing over. so we're going to focus on digging, otherwise we may not have anywhere to stay tonight. we chipped and carve away at the ice until eventually it starts to take shape. andy has built over 50 snow holes with groups of tourists. he assures me he has never had one fall down before. it is hard work but it is

finally starting to warm up in here. oh, thank you so much. 0h! that is amazing. so we made it, this is our beautiful snow hole. there is a nice vaulted ceiling up there, i can't believe we did it! cheers everyone. jo whalley going to great lengths to social distance before we had even heard of the term. always ahead of her time. 0k, make sure you stay with us because coming up, we have some more great trips, including... christa larwood living out her game of thrones fantasies in northern ireland, and rajan in the uk's smallest city. this week we looking back at some of our favourite trips to the four corners the uk. next we are off to northern

ireland where the game of thrones novels were turned into the hip tv show, and where you can live out the fantasy for yourself. you know nothing john snow! you know nothing! ok, so i have a confession — i am a giant game of thrones geek. and i'm super excited, because this place has to be top of the list for any true superfan. welcome to castle ward, or to what many tv viewers will know as winterfell. and well, when in winterfell... dramatic music evening my lady, where do you hail from? from london. london. and which house do you represent? oh, i'm not sure i have a house.

house of larwood. house of larwood, never heard of them — sounds like something the night's watch would have dragged in. i believe you are here to learn how to do archery. i need people to hunt or to fight. 0k. are you up to the task? i hope so. i hope so too, otherwise there is a penalty. 0h. 0h, a beheading... that seems measured. absolutely, because you are absolutely no good to me here at winterfell if you can't hunt and you can't fight. i will do my best. think of it coming out of a quiver, three fingers on the drawing string and then draw back so that it brings to your right eye. loose! all right. i hit actual thing! that'll do, your first arrow ever and you hit the target. 0k. archer ready. draw! hold... loose! look at that. yes!

well done you. yeah! so this place used to be a farm, and yet now it's a huge tourist attraction. how did that happen? we are where game of thrones started, so it's the perfect place to start your journey, to go on and do some of the other sites that are around. yes, they have gone off to croatia, yes, they have gone off to iceland, yes, they have gone off to morocco and so on, and that's fine — but most of it is shot here. and it has turned into what we now know as screen tourism, something we have never had before. yes we have the giant's causeway, a unesco world heritage site and it is beautiful, and all that, but people used to go there and there alone, and then they would take off. now they come to see many other parts of our province. we are digging a bit deeper in the archives now. back in 2017 we went to the uk's smallest city, st david's in wales, where one man was on a mission to paint a portrait of every single resident. the pembrokeshire coast national park, as remote and rural as it gets.

this is st david's peninsula on the south—west tip of wales. it is a radiant and picturesque part of the world, even in midwinter. but i am not actually have a scenic beauty. i am here to find inner beauty. st david's cathedral, built on the 12th century, sits on the site of the old monastery, led by david 600 01’ so years ago. and this is why st david's is a city. yes, this tiny community of 1800 people is officially a city — britain's smallest and supposedly the second tiniest in the world. although in the 19th century there was a bit of a setback. there was a odd years ago the victorians decided this didn't make sense for very small places, and quite a number of cities were no longer cities.

25 years ago, the current queen rode to the rescue and gave st david's city status back. and this man, who first chanced upon st david's 37 years ago, has been marking its quirky status with a very special pledge. basically what i start doing with portraits from life is to do a very brief outline of the head... because graham has vowed to paint portraits of every single one of the city's1800 residents, plus a few outsiders for the hell of it. focus on the eyes, which are honestly very important part of the psyche i think, the soul, and the focal point comes through. originally a landscape artist, he started doing portraits 1a years ago, but it was only five years ago he undertook the mammoth task to do the whole population, and then some.

he has done 600 so far. the initial project was painting, say, 100 portraits and having them as one big image, so it would be like a big painting. and then ijust thought, if you are doing a hundred, i could do a thousand, and then i thought, the population of st david's is not far off that, so ijust came up and thought of the idea of the city of portraits. it sounded quite nice and that is what i try and do. did you work out how long it would take you? no (laughs). there are probably more art galleries than anything else in st david's, although graham's place is also a studio and his living quarters too. it is a real one man and his dog operation at the new street gallery. his models, however, see it all as a therapeutic exercise as much as anything else. i have quite enjoyed it because i am a very busy mum, studying, working in the cafe, doing myjewellery, so for me just to sit down, it is a bit of time out, really, a bit of time for reflection. it is a mammoth task for graham, and the plan is to exhibit the first 800—1000 portraits in the cathedral.

what are you actually achieving by doing this? the social history, i think, somebody has described it as — for me personally, it is integrating more and more with the community. do people ever complain about the way you have depicted them? i think people have been slightly shocked, possibly a bit jowly there. it doesn't matter what age you depict somebody, you still see the inner beauty. and guess what — a few days later, i got this through email. i am now an honorary citizen of st david's. so that's it for this week. coming up next week: rajan is in rome, finding out what fanfare is in store for its 150th anniversary of being italy's capital. and carmen is injapan, trying an unusual 600 year old form of transport.

this is great! in the meantime you can follow us on social media, giving you just a little reminder of what is still happening in the world, even though we can't visit. until next time, stay safe and i will see you soon! bye for now. hello there. when you think back to the start of october and just how wet it was, it's probably a good thing, actually, that we are in the midst of quite a quiet spell of weather. for many of us, we will have skies like these, over the next few days — often pretty cloudy,

but with some brighter spells at times. high pressure to the north of the uk. low pressure in northern italy. and between these two areas of pressure, we've got north—easterly winds feeding in. and those north—easterly winds are dragging in a lot of cloud from the north sea. thick enough to bring some scattered showers across eastern areas of scotland at the moment. and we've got a few heavy showers just running into north—east england, although these will ease over the coming few hours. temperatures about 5—8 degrees celsius for most, but a bit colder where the skies do manage to stay clearest longest. 0n into thursday, then, and these north—easterly winds will continue to feed the cloud in for many areas. the west is best in terms of any sunshine. but i suspect we will have quite a few showers at times through the morning across the wash area. and then the showers probably break out more widely across east anglia, as you head into the afternoon. all the while, we'll see this line of showers, through most of the day, affecting east kent and running on into the channel islands, where, for some, it could be quite wet. although, for many of us, again, away from those eastern areas, it will be a relatively dry day. brisk north—east winds

gusting about 30 mph, around some of the north sea coasts, will make it feel rather cool. now, we still have those north—easterly winds for friday but, if anything, they're a little bit less strong. and again, friday is the day with rather a lot of cloud around, a few bright or sunny spells, and we will continue to see an odd shower or two popping up. the majority of these, again, affecting eastern parts of scotland and eastern areas of england. what about the weekend weather prospects? well, a lot more of that cloudy weather on the horizon, with a few light showers from time to time. now, you'll start to notice the winds going round to more of a northerly direction, across the far north of scotland, bringing the showers in here. so a greater chance of seeing some showers for shetland and 0rkney, where things will start to get a little bit cooler. 0therwise, again, a lot of cloud around, some bright or sunny spells

and temperatures 11—14 degrees. sunday sees that colder air moving a little bit further southwards across the north of scotland. so temperatures will be dipping away here. again, a lot of cloud, a few brighter spells, but i think a greater chance of seeing showers across the northern half of the country, turning colder in aberdeen — highs of eight on sunday.

welcome to bbc news — i'm mike embley. our top stories: police in thailand move in to disperse pro—democracy protesters gathered around government house in the capital. france and germany announce new restrictions, including cu rfews, to try to stop the spread of coronavirus. tough new controls in the uk. schools are closing in northern ireland and pubs and restaurants are also told to shut. the first lady reveals that 14—year—old barron trump contracted covid—19, but suffered no symptoms. could grey power be the x—factor in the presidential election? we report from a retiring — but not exactly shy — battleground in florida. how many of you just want the selection to be over?