president trump has made his first official appearance since his post—election press conference last week, laying a a wreath to mark veterans day at the tomb of the unknown soldier, in arlington cemetery. president—electjoe biden paid his respects at a ceremony in pennyslvania. while president trump still holds back from conceding defeat, the state of georgia has announced its first ever vote recount. joe biden leads there by just 1a,000 out of the 5 million votes cast. the counting will be done by hand. all pro—democracy lawmakers in hong kong have resigned from the legislative council after four of their colleagues were expelled. it follows a ruling from china saying only those it regards as patriots can serve.

one of the boris johnson's closest aides has dramatically resigned from his role in the british government. lee cain held the key position of director of communications at 10 downing street. his departure is being seen as part of a wider power struggle. our political editor, laura kuenssberg, has more. it has been a bumpy time for the government and to some not surprising he has left hisjob. it is more complicated than that. this was notjust some random resignation. multiple sources have told me today that he had been offered the job to be the prime minister's chief of staff. but through the day, it became obvious that wouldn't work out. there was stiff resistance from some quarters, including, i understand, from the prime minister's partner, who objected to that appointment being made. so, huge questions of rival factions inside downing street vying for influence through the day.

and tonight, it's also been suggested to me that other departures may follow mr cain out the door in some kind of protest. potentially dominic cummings, the prime minister's most senior adviser who has been very, very close to mr cain, working very much as a duo in terms of offering their advice to boris johnson. now on bbc news, the travel show. this week on the show, things are getting cultural. but soft! what light through yonder window breaks? it is the east, and juliet is the sun.

hello, and welcome to the travel show, coming to you this week from the barbican centre in london. well, that was ade back in 2016 at the birthplace of shakespeare, and, as he so dramatically demonstrated, soaking up local culture is by far the most rewarding way to travel. but, as we know, cultural entertainment has been hit hard by coronavirus. this venue has been opened to the public again sincejuly, but, as of this week, it's had to temporarily close under the latest restrictions. so this week we're going to reminisce, looking back at some of our favourite arts and culture moments on the show and keeping ourfingers firmly crossed that we'll be back in that front—row seat again sometime soon. here's what's coming up. we'll be seeing how carmen got lost in an arts festival in taiwan... ..and when mike sawjust what goes into rio‘s carnival.

this is all for your parade? it is. and grip and turn... plus, when i put my fingers to the test in los angeles. boom. boom! but first, wejoin ade in new york city. improvisation, in its simplest form, is the art of creating a scene or play with absolutely no preplanning. we all are in unfamiliar territory... i've come along to the pit in manhattan to give it a go myself. the venue offers classes for first—time tourists, as well as a place for more experienced comedians to hone their craft. i don't really... lesley collins, an improv veteran, led the class. i think i did see a ghost, not recently, but, like, a few years ago. they yell to kick off, we did some warm—up exercises. unboxers... all: five! boxer briefs. everyone was given a category and had to list seven things in quick succession.

seven types of. . . hairstyles. the bob. one. bang. all: two. short hair. three! long hair. four! pig tails. five. long tail. six! tail! seven! i'm really nervous. i'm about to get a category and i've got to name seven different types. what's going on? games over, time for the comedy to start. i let the pros go first. ever been in an old—timey gang fight? laughter all you're given is a word or song, and where the skit goes from there is totally up to you. my fists are always right, bro. good, you're gonna need to keep them there. i like your attitude. i like your game face. but this isjust like...

this is too much. and before long, it was my turn. with knots in my stomach, i took to the stage. you asked for a seven—storey bronze statue of yourself. that's. .. laughter i mean, you had a school and a hospital levelled so you could put this here. it's beautiful, though. it is beautiful. don't get me wrong. i'm coming around to it. i would think you would. you're a genius. i mean, it takes a long time just to get around it. uh... good job! applause all right, so the other guy definitely put in most of the work, but i gave it my best shot. ade there very bravely finding his funny bone in new york city. better him than me. but if you'd like to join some classes, you no longer have to be there on—site. just check out the pit‘s website, where you can find out about joining online classes. and ade isn't the only one who's taken part in an improvisation challenge.

back before he was well known in hollywood, henry golding took part in an event known as a larp, or live—action role play, in poland. it was set in 1917 and all participants had to take on a character. now, did he learn his fine acting skills there that then shot him to hollywood fame? let's take a look. i have my character details here. my name is robert abbott. i'm a former war correspondent, a journalist, and i've seen all the atrocities that have been happening on the front line. "you are short tempered. you weren't always this way. but the war has changed you, and not entirely for the better." i don't think i've kind of gotten into it, as of yet. how is the kind of easing into it? you just have tojump in or...? oh, that's a good question. is it safe to say that it's all in—game right now? yeah. you must...

you must believe that everything is in—game. and if it's not, then you would know in some way. then people would do something. i hope so. because these ladies here, the one on the right is crying. and i want to kind of go... yes. exactly. .."are you 0k?" but you shouldn't? no. unless you're in character. yes, of course, if you want to do something about it, in—game, then of course it's all right. but, yeah, it is a trap. i do want to kind of feel that, but i'm quite conscious, cos i've got these guys following me... oh, yes. all of a sudden, i'm handed a lifeline, a mission in the form of a little scandal. so, it seems like one of the young maids was spotted alone in the forest with one of the german nobles. ruffled hair and everything. and in a state of undress? oh, i wouldn't quite say so, but... ..i‘m sure it wasn't far away.

excuse me, ladies. could i have a moment of yourtime? i feel like it's down to me to expose the shady baron for what he is, and slowly and surely i actually begin to have fun. i heard something about a rumour and a maid... um, a baron and a maid. i don't know which maid. it's probably for the best that i don't know which maid. and do you know which baron? we... everybody seems to be getting a different name. a german baron, i don't know. a german baron. right. where were you last night? i've had reports that they saw you quite late in the evening with a mysterious... ..young lady. mysterious? that is what they say. it is nothing mysterious. it's the lady and me talking about family relations. 0k. yes. and we talk about the war. right. i can't get anything out of the baron himself. so my only other route is to

head down to the servants' quarters to find his mistress. but i find my way barred. well, ifind it a bad question, to be perfectly honest. still pondering my next move, i get dressed for dinner. and the actor was heard shouting, "no, alexander, i am not your man." the nuggets of gossip i've been given delight my dinner mates. i would not lie. but little do i know there's a plan in store for me. ok, so what we have here is a telegram, which will be sent in the game to be delivered to robert abbott at 7.30pm. and what this telegram says is, "to robert abbott. robert, your correspondence accreditation has been revoked by the war office. we did everything we could, but they wouldn't budge." thank you very much. "i'm sorry. you won't be going back to the front. come back to london.

we'll sort out what comes next." this is preposterous! i came here with integrity...of journalism, and you throw it in my face, all of you! it is not my fault that the baron can't keep his hands off women! a servant, nonetheless. so away with your press pass, away with your nobility! oh, an impressive effort, i think you'll agree, and maybe even a little glimmer of the star he was to become. well, at the start of the year, before coronavirus came along and changed all of our lives, mike corey headed to rio in brazil to have a look at all of the big preparations going into carnival and to understand the amazing impact it has on the local community. mike: carnival began here almost 300 years ago as a ball for

the portuguese elite. but since then, it's opened up to everyone. local groups called samba schools prepare all year round for the event, signing floats, costumes and planning epic dance routines. these schools are often located in poor neighbourhoods, which, beyond carnival preparations, also provide havens for local children, teaching them vital skills to help them later in life. this is you in the photo? yes. it's got to be right. with... this one. yes, that's me. the smile‘s the same. king benefited first—hand from the social outreach provided by her samba school. you know, when you grow up in a favela, you don't have a lot of opportunities, so when you get a chance to be... ..have one opportunity, you just grab it. so i start at the social project. i was about nine. and then i got a chance to learn english. that's why i'm communicating with you, because i got

the course for free through this special project. so, this is the part that most people don't know — there is a behind—the—scenes where they are worried about people to actually be part of the samba schools, right? so... party's good. but the social idea, it's much more important. patchy public funding means the samba schools have to find clever ways to support themselves. king's school, grande rio, has turned to tourism. they've opened the doors of their workshop to those who want to catch a glimpse of the monumental effort that goes into carnival‘s centrepiece parade. along with other ex—samba school students, king is now one of the tour guides here. wow. this is the backstage of the carnival. this is the most fun i've ever seen in a warehouse. i think so. we have actually six floats in here. only six floats? only six inside of this

warehouse, only six. i guess i assumed this was a float, that's another float... no. ..that‘s a third float. but they're going to be the size of city blocks. yes, yes. they'll be massive. you can really see the scale of the operation. i'm having a hard time understanding this. this is all for your parade? it is. this is only for our samba school. all this warehouse, all these costumes is ours. all the welding, the sewing, the machines. everybody‘s working on one show, your parade. yes. everything. we can have about 3,000 costumes easily. grande rio has been running for more than 30 years. the school's current leader, camilla, has grown up with it. we have, like, a educational programme called the school of carnival. and we have many courses all through the year for free. when you meet the families and the kids and you understand the passion that they have, why not to get this and transform the tool of education?

especially brazil, places that needs a lot of effort to make people's life better. of course, parade, it's amazing, something that the kids love, but all year long, you need something more for these kids. mike in brazil back injanuary. well, what a difference a year makes. we managed to get a hold of camilla to find out what's happened since. well, as soon as the pandemic started, we needed to close the warehouse. and this was in the middle of march. it was a disaster. and if you go out to our warehouse now, it's very sad, because you're going to see no—one working there. we had to adapt, as all the world did, to start to run our activities in an online way, because we wanted to talk to a lot of people so we didn't stop

to give support to the families. even if there wasn't the money support, but the emotional support that i think everybody needs at this time as well. so, carnival usually happens and february or march. i don't know if carnival is going to happen next year. our love and our enthusiasm, it's still inside of us. so we're waiting for better times. fingers crossed things are looking up soon. well, still to come on the travel show, carmen's put through her paces at an arts festival in taiwan. oh, my god! and i get my hands on the trend that was sweeping la dance culture back in 2015. so, stay with us. next up, we're off to taiwan, where carmen headed to take part in an arts festival and soon found out she was in a little over her head.

let's find out how she fared back in 2018. so, it's the annual taoyuan arts festival and a local dance company have invited me to take part in a performance that they're doing for today's parade. hi, you must be roger. hi. iam. let's get to it. well, 0k. the festival is held every year close to taipei, and teams from all over the country and further afield come to compete in a celebration of music and dance. it's a big high—profile event, so my team are taking a real risk by letting a total novice join their ranks. 0k. you go around the circle. round the circle? 0k. with only an hour to go before the start of the parade, troop leader roger walks me through my role. i'd rather be hiding somewhere at the back, but he's got me leading the whole team. look at the dragon. swing. swing this way. yes. oh, so like an eight. yes. like an eight, ok. the idea is that the dragon follows the ball and stick that i'm holding.

if only i knew where i was meant to be heading. she yells and laughs oh, my god! miraculously, the other performers follow my somewhat frantic lead. let's just hope they'll be this accommodating when we do it for real. further downtown, the crowds are building, and so are my nerves. i hope no—one laughs at me. in the first section of the parade, a dozen or so local high schools will compete for best performance. the streets are crammed with friends, families and teachers all waiting to see their groups perform. oh, there's at least a thousand people here. it's a lot more than i thought. ok, tell me when. now? and all of a sudden, i'm on. my mind seems to go totally blank and it's all the noise and colour. luckily, roger is there to give me a push in the right direction. where? over here? somehow the team follow my lead, although i really have no

idea where i'm going. ok, now in the middle? yes, yes! nice. she laughs sorry! it's ok! and then my big dragon stick seems to develop a mind of its own. oh, sorry! she laughs i was really, really nervous and it was quite stressful. oh, my gosh! i tried to remember my moves. i think i only hit two people with the ball. but it was — it was exciting. my mind went totally blank when i got out there, and i forgot to count how many times. and, oh, it was... it was a panic. i was in a state of panic. i'm sorry to the people that i hit with the ball.

it seemed to go on forever. and i can't believe i was part of a dragon dance on the streets of taiwan. who would have thought? and, finally, i'm no stranger when it comes to cultural activities on the show — from eerie underwater music in denmark to ice music in norway. but i want to head back to 2015, when i took a trip to los angeles to try my hands at gloving. it was a trend in dance culture at the time, popular along the american west coast and starting to spread elsewhere. and a warning — this does contain flashing images. glovers perform what are called light shows, kneeling in front of one person to take up their entire field of vision. it's transformed from a novelty prop to a form of dance, performance art, or even a sport, with its own

terminology and scoring system. it's a very strange thing, all of this. you can see how much training has gone into these performances, it's kind of amazing. five years ago, brian lim created what's now one of the leading companies that makes these gloves. they've built a huge community of glovers and host the international gloving championship each year. my girlfriend actually got me into gloving. she put gloves on me at the club of avalon in la and ijust fell in love. we created an event called friday night lights. first week, it was 10 people, then 20, then 30, then 50 to 100, until it was just like, "get the hell out of here, kids." so, how do these gloves work? it's actually quite simple. these are the elite microlights that actually go inside the fingertips of the gloves and they have an accelerometer in here so that when you move it, it knows to change

the colours even faster. but it hasn't always been an easy ride for glovers. some venues and events have banned the gloves amid concerns that they may have unwanted associations with drug culture and that people sitting watching light shows could cause a fire hazard. and that's why we created the hashtag #glovingisnotacrime because glovers are not criminals. today you see these glovers here, they're harmless little kids, you know, just trying to practise their art form. so, these competitions, when you have, you know, 50—plus judges, you have a scorecard where you're being ranked on what makes a great light show, it really legitimises the art form itself. materia was a runner—up in the open gloving contest. all flow comes from one simple move, which is the finger roll. 0h. that is what everyone says. this is the hardest my brain has ever had to work. i'm not kidding. so, this could lead into going here, going there going here, going here, going here, here, here, here, here,

here, here, here, do it a little bit quicker. one, two, three, four, five. and grab and turn and click and meet and figure eight. boom. both: boom! boom! well, that was five years ago, back in 2015. so, did gloving take off? we managed to get hold of evan, aka materia, to find out what's happened since. our last international gloving competition, igc, was hosted back in 2016. got to give a huge shout—out to corey defeo, known in the gloving community as teddy. his new competition called four kingdoms collide, that really kind of brought the vibe back. it kind of reignited a lot of people's hearts to realising the legitimacy of this competition and gloving as well.

we also have gloving's first and only book, mastering the art of gloving. gloving has had an immensely, immensely huge impact on me. it just connected me with some of the most amazing groups of people. you know, through gloving, i was able to find these people to the point that it no longer revolves around gloving. you know, i've secured such amazing friendships with, you know, the best people in the world. and it wouldn't be there if it wasn't for gloving. well, that's all we have for today. but here's what's coming up next week. alana yzola heads west to las vegas to find out why more people have been eloping during the pandemic. i think it's time for my big day! let's go. so, dojoin us, then. but in the meantime, materia, play us out.

travel show theme tune plays hello there. the weather will quieten down for a day or so before it turns more unsettled as we move towards the end of the week and the weekend. but today's dry and settled weather is thanks to a ridge of high pressure. but it won't last long as cloud and showers start to push into western areas. now that's the overnight wind and rain clearing away from the east coast. this ridge of high pressure settles things down briefly before the next low pressure moves into the west

of the uk through the afternoon. so we could have a hang back of clouds and showers for a time across the east, hanging around shetland pretty much all day. and much of the country is dry with plenty of sunshine around, but you'll see the clouds thickening up out west. outbreaks of rain pushing in here, more prolonged rain pushing in for western scotland by the end of the day, along with the strengthening winds. temperatures down on what we had yesterday, 10—13 celsius. now it's dry for much of central and eastern parts of the country as we head through the course of the night, but this band of rain, some of it heavy, and strong winds slowly pushing eastwards followed by some blustery showers. very windy conditions across the northwest of scotland, but a pretty blustery night for most areas. those temperatures generally in single figures — high single figures, mind you, we could see 9—10 celsius across the south of england. so this is the pressure chart for friday, low pressure to the north west of the uk, lots of isobars in the northwest, so very windy here. but it will still be quite gusty

with this band of rain lying through central parts of the country for friday morning. that should eventually clear way to the north sea, and skies will brighten up for most of the afternoon. but there'll be lots of showers rattling into northern and western areas — some of these will be heavy and quite frequent with rumbles of thunder across the northwest of scotland. those temperatures 10—13 celsius, and with the wind it will feel on the cool side, despite it being fairly mild. the low pressure really dominates the scene as we head to the weekend. you can see lots isobars on the chart, particularly across the south of the country, and plenty of weather fronts indicating some rain. after the last few cool days, it looks like it'll turn milder again into the weekend, particularly on saturday. something slightly cooler pushing in from west as we head through sunday, especially across the north of the uk. so a pretty wild weekend in store, some heavy rain around, strong winds, gales across the south coast. very mild for a time on saturday, feeling a little bit fresher on sunday.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. my name is mike embley. us president—electjoe biden names a key appointee to his administration — longtime aide ron klain will serve as white house chief of staff. as president trump still holds back from conceding defeat, officials in georgia confirm they'll recount the votes cast in the state. pro—democracy lawmakers in hong kong resign en masse, after four of their colleagues are expelled by china for backing independence. as america's covid—19 cases climb to a record high — there's a warning the country's hospitals could soon