a lot of christmas lights are going up this weekend, and if you're planning to impress anyone with a grand "switching on" ceremony, here's a valuable lesson in the importance of timing. four, three, two, one... that was the mayor of bridgwater, in somerset — and a council colleague — being a bit slow with the ceremonial plunger. u nfortu nately unfortunately the timing was a bit out. but in the spirit of christmas, well done. bridgwater always puts on a cracking show at christmas. i was going to ask for one of those ceremonial plungers in my stocking, until i saw that. time for a look at the weather with louise.

milder, but a little lonelyjury side this weekend, quite a lot of low cloud and mist and merck and showery rain drifting its way northwards this afternoon, the best of the sunshine across scotland and northern ireland here, and top temperatures down to the south not quite as warm, 6—8, temperatures down to the south not quite as warm, 6—8 , but the highest values of 10—13 across central and southern england. through the night tonight, that lead continues to drift its way steadily northwards with the exception of the far north—east of scotland, and here temperature perhaps in rule spots with a touch of light frost. elsewhere, it is going to be a grey, gloomy sunday morning, at a low cloud lingering for much of the day, but it will stay largely dry and it will be milder than it has been of late, so temperatures likely to peak between 8—12 .

hello, this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines: iran's president rouhani blames israel for the assassination of a top nuclear scientist, saying his country won't be deterred from its nuclear ambitions.

a warning that hospitals in england could become overwhelmed with coronavirus cases, if mps don't back new restrictions. the retail empire arcadia, which owns topshop, burton and dorothy perkins, is on the brink of collapse, putting 13,000 jobs at risk. the eu's chief brexit negotiator, michel barnier, and his uk counterpart are resuming face to face talks in london in an attempt to agree a post—brexit trade deal. now on bbc news...the travel show. this week on the travel show... the gadgets that could get us back on the road... ..new solutions for ancient problems... this thing is so much better than any of us can do. here he comes!

and kangaroo island bounces back. do you want any milk? it has been awesome to see. yeah, the resilience of the wildlife. hi, welcome to the show, coming to you this week from the eerily quiet london city airport. hence why i am allowed to talk to you from the actual runway. take a look at this. this is bonkers! normally this would be buzzing with planes taking off and landing, but as we all know, travel around the world has pretty much stopped. but nevertheless, we are going to do our best to try to keep you all inspired until travel resumes once again.

but until then, stick with us and hopefully we will be out on our adventures very soon. let's face it. 2020 hasn't been a good year for travel. a year of lockdowns, border closures, and bands. border closures, and bans. but don't worry because behind the scenes, the travel industry is buzzing with exciting gadgets and innovations to get us all back on the road again. from protective seat design... ..to covid—i9 destroying uv light swords. but the thing with the biggest impact in the short term is testing. and i have come to london city airport to find out how it could work. there will be day testing regime in place prior to christmas. testing will take place once you have arrived back into the uk. you will go to a testing centre

and get tested and if that test is negative, then you will be able to be released from quarantine. however, as the industry, we really do wish to see a departures testing protocol. and what that would mean is that passengers would be tested before they fly. it would mean that a quarantine period when you arrive is no longer required. what are the main challenges you foresee with all of these processes? capacity is one. if we are requiring to actually test significant numbers of passengers on site before they fly, we will need to find space to do that. there will need to be trained staff available. we think that is going to take some time, but we are very confident we can do that. and we are hopeful that by next summer, we will be approaching some degree of normality. but as testing, and even vaccinations, become more common, there is a whole load of new questions. like how do you trust that the person travelling next to

you is covid—safe? commonpass is a health pass that lets people securely and privately share their covid status across international borders, whether that's testing or eventually vaccination. the challenge right now is the current system for ensuring that somebody does not have covid — who's sitting next to me or crossing the border — is a piece of paper that was got from a lab. there's no standard format for that paper and it can easily be falsified or even counterfeit. with commonpass, we have a way to know that this is coming from a certified lab. so what happens is, when you're preparing to travel, you'll say, i'm flying from london city airport to new york, you'll pull out the commonpass app, it will tell you you have to fulfil particular requirements and when you have fulfilled all those criteria, it generates a qr code which then you can show at the entrance

to the airport, the aircraft or at immigration in the united states. how do you keep people's personal health data safe? commonpass is a non—profit organisation. we don't actually have access to your data, you control your data, you control who gets to see it, it is basically on your phone and at the source of where the data is, we don't have any access to that, nobody has any access to that. commonpass is hoping to become available in the new year, but some countries‘ entry requirements don't end at the airport. take a look at this — it's a pretty simple device, a wristband. once i put it on... and now it should transmit my location. these kinds of tracking devices have been trialled in several countries to stop people breaking lockdown rules. there's been an unprecedented rise in all kinds of tracking technology. around 120 contact tracing apps are being used worldwide.

you kinda look like a very cautious person to me, sam. so what are your main concerns? my main concerns really are about the speed and proportionality of these new measures. we need to make sure that they're transparent, held accountable and don't last for any longer than they‘ re needed. there is a danger, though, isn't there, sam, that we could scare people and overhype this? this whole surveillance thing. do you think it's slightly over the top and we're worrying more than we should be? i don't think so, no. i think we need to really be careful that we don't sleepwalk into a surveillance state with tools that aren't necessarily effective for fighting back in a public health crisis. it's like something out of a sci—fi movie. what should you be looking out for, then? so when you're looking at a privacy policy, some of the really important things to look out for is how long your data is being retained for. there should be, under gdpr, certain restrictions on how long a company or a public health body can access your information.

there's other things like permissions. if you look at certain apps that will have a lot of permissions that allow the app to read other aspects of your phone, look at your contacts, for example, as well as monitoring what you're doing online. so there are some simple steps to take that will allow you to make sure the app you're downloading is safe. this year has disrupted travel more than anything we've ever known, but as big as the problems are, the solutions too can be brilliant. as long as we stay careful, i'm hopeful we'll soon be out there experiencing the world again. next this week, we are in the swedish capital of stockholm, which is actually made up of 30,000 islands, islets and rocks jutting out into the baltic sea. it means there is a big maritime

tradition, which if you know where to look, results in some pretty interesting souvenir shopping. we went to have a look. my name is freddy braun. i am the owner of fartygsmagasinet. translated, the ship's warehouse. we were since many, many years ago, engaged in dismantling ships, taking care of all the beautiful interiors. we started actually with two empty hands with two empty hands and it became like part of myself. today, there are no longer such ships existing. the few that are left are either museum ships or belonging to some private people.

but we knew in advance there will be a day where they are all gone, so now we consume whatever we have in our warehouse. here we have a piece of the cutty sark, so it is actually a trophy of a famous ship, i would say next to the titanic the most well known in the whole world. one does not see to it that these things just being brutally destroyed for the future because all these nice interiors, if they would have been ashore in a building they probably would have been protected, but when it came to ships there was nobody interested, so i started to collect, first for my own and gradually i got more and more involved. a good customers are based locally, but more than half of that comes

from all over the world. but more than half of that comes interior designers, collectors, phone interior designers, collectors, film companies. i have a few pieces, smaller figureheads, a few instruments and a few models, which are more close and are not for sale. instruments and a few models, which are more close to my heart and are not for sale. 0k. we are onto something totally new next. or is it something old? can't make up my mind. our future of the past series takes a look at some amazing tech scientists are using to uncover, restore and protect humanity's ancient history. we begin in northern guatemala, at the maya biosphere reserve, deep inside this vast rainforest lies the remains of one of the largest mayan cities. tikal. at its height, around 1500 years ago, it was home to as

many as 90,000 people. so we so we sent amanda to find out how advancesin so we sent amanda to find out how advances in archaeology have uncovered some long buried secrets. 0ne uncovered some long buried secrets. one of the biggest challenges to archaeologists in the maya biosphere reserve is the fact that it is extremely difficult to find or identify structures in a jungle is thick and wild as this one. and that is where a technology that is relatively new to archaeology has been transformative. so this hill is supposedly a pyramid. they think it might be may be as big as the great pyramid. it is definitely steep, but it looks like a hill, so it is pretty amazing they are able to find that out through lidar. so only 10%

of tikal has actually been excavated and discovered ? of tikal has actually been excavated and discovered? lidar is a type of remote sensing technology that is used to create extraordinarily detailed 3d maps and representations. in the reserve, lidar is being employed in two ways. from aircraft to create topological maps and from hand—held scanners to build better 3d models of a particular site or structure. the project that involves beaming lasers from aircraft, the largest archaeological survey ever undertaken in the mayan low lands, is the initiative of the foundation for mayan cultural and natural heritage. and what is lidar exactly? what makes it such a great tool? really strips of the forest canopy, with billions of laser beams set individually each return every time

they hit something in the surface and that will give tremendous understanding of the forest and the biomass. how millie billions of laser beams are actually... ? i think they said they had 60 billion returns, so that is an incredible amount of data. and how long did it ta ke to amount of data. and how long did it take to collect that? really only a couple of weeks. it is something like eight flights. it is 2100 square kilometres of area that was covered in that amount of time. when you obviously have a great understanding of how sophisticated the mayans were, but did the lidar increase that understanding? yes. the lidar showed without any doubt that we totally underestimated their engineering capabilities in terms of landscape, modifications to make the landscape, modifications to make the land more sustainable, to irrigate,

bring water to places that they were cultivating. to stop erosion. pretty mind blowing. that's howl cultivating. to stop erosion. pretty mind blowing. that's how i felt. and i thought the mayan were pretty sophisticated already, but not at this scale. one of the sites, where lidar has been especially helpful, is this place. so this was all through one came? yes. for the first king. this king we know was powerful. we didn't know the extension of the power. lidar is helping us to recognise everything that this king did... his family and his legacy, that was the creation of oui’ his legacy, that was the creation of our dynasty. so a find like this tells you, 0k, there is a king, and then the lidar helps you realise what the whole context is the landscape and just how powerful he was... yes. everything that he

built, we can make sense of it. when you got that lidar data back and started to see all that stuff and put those pieces together, what did you think? it was wonderful, i was like, oh, my god, oh, my god! for hours, i was like oh my god, look at this! it is very humbling because you have been mapping and you think you have been mapping and you think you know what you are doing for all of my careerand you know what you are doing for all of my career and this is so much better than any of us can do. yes. and can do it can do what we do in 20 years in two days. the same work, and it is better. with its extraordinary archaeological sites and wildlife, maya biosphere reserve has long been a major draw for travellers to guatemala. it is thanks to lidar, however, that we 110w thanks to lidar, however, that we now understand its history and its importance even more. and if you are

a history geek, we've got some more treats for you next week, when amanda heads underwater in italy. and finally, this week, we had to kangaroo island. —— we had to kangaroo island. —— we had to kangaroo island. kangaroo island is about 70 miles from the coast of adelaide. people come here for its seclusion, its golden beaches and its abundance of wildlife. but last summer, it was one of the highest profile casualties in australia's worst wildfire season on record. the flames spread over 16 million acres, mostly in the south—west of the country, in new south wales and victoria. it destroyed thousands of homes and businesses and claimed the lives of at least 33 people. according to the wwf, it also killed or displaced as many as 3 billion animals.

here at the kangaroo island wildlife park, the owners found themselves directly in the fire's path as they fought to save some of the country's most iconic creatures. this little one is grace. grace came in from a road accident when her mum was unfortunately hit by a car and killed, so she has been with us for nearly two months now. it's really important that they do have their teddies. she holds onto that and sees it as her mum. it gives her comfort. if she doesn't have one, she does start looking for one, she gets quite stressy. this is the koala orphanage we've got at the park. hello, you two. it holds all sorts of different animals, not just koalas, but it was established during the bushfire as a response to the need that we had. the park was a hub for all

the injured animals coming off the fire ground. at times, the flames got within a couple of kilometres, threatening the centre and everyone working there. 0bviously, because i've got little conor, we evacuated twice. when i left the front gates, i didn't know if i would be coming back to absolute devastation or whether we would come back to having a business still here. dayna's husband, sam, took the extraordinary decision to stay behind and fight the fire. fortunately, the centre was spared, allowing the family's work to continue. throughout the entire fire period time, we ended up with over 600 koalas come through, and around 150 other species. a lot of the animals that were coming in through the fires primarily presented with burns.

quite a few had burnt down to the bone, and the best thing was for them to be euthanised, so we did lose quite a lot as well, but pretty much all of them came in very dehydrated, so quite a large range of injuries. it's really amazing to see how well they coped with the fires, and how well the ones that are still out in the wild have adapted to the changing conditions, so their habitat was completely destroyed and they've managed to pull through and be eating the regrowth rather than eating established trees like usual, they've been a lot more resilient than expected, so it's been awesome to see the resilience of the australian wildlife. throughout the crisis, the centre received a wave of international press coverage and donations from all over the world. the whole area got a lot of attention because of

the unusual intensity of the bushfires. nearly half the entire island band, consuming almost all of this national park. some of the fire started here, after lightning struck dry vegetation and conditions made worse by climate change. so nearly everything went. you know, the visitor centre, the accommodation, the rangers houses, university buildings. it was a very emotional experience. you know, you love a park, you love what is here and what it represents and to see it all wiped out in such a short period of time... but an amazing recovery has begun. so during the fires, different things cope differently, so different things cope differently, so the barks that are going here nice and tall, they have a thick bark which burns off in the fire and burns really fast, and so they shoot

out lots of shoots all up the stem. so the australian bush needs fire to regenerate. it is a way of cleaning it up. it removes diseased wood and old wood and a lot of things only germinate afterfire. most old wood and a lot of things only germinate after fire. most people won't recognise it has been a fire probably in three or four years' time. and then some of those species will take 10—15 years before they are actually doing a lot of... for the next five. but the recovery is farfrom the next five. but the recovery is far from complete. international tourism hasn't been allowed in australia since march. so the only visitors to the island this summer are likely to be people coming from the mainland. we were able to reopen again after covid—19. south australia was really lucky, thejuly

holidays are really busy. south australia could only travel within a state, so it is also to support people who have never been to kangaroo island came over. people who have never been to kangaroo island came ovenm people who have never been to kangaroo island came over. it is importantly park is open because it isa importantly park is open because it is a major tourist attraction and the island has two main industries, farming and tourism, so you need have both industries flourishing for a good economy. right, that's your lot for this week. coming up next week: to the batmobile! christa's here to look back at some of our favourite trips to north america. laughter from ice canoeing in canada... so how do you feel right now? i need to sit down! ..to paddling around the world's shipwreck capital. and here you are, on top of this massive wreck that's been there for over 100 years! until then, from all of us, looking longingly at the check in desks

at london city airport, it's bye—bye. hello there. he where the story this weekend is a little bit drab and dreary, i'm afraid, but at least it is milder than it has been this week. many woke up to scenes like this, a lot of low cloud, misty, murky conditions and it may well lingerfor murky conditions and it may well linger for a murky conditions and it may well lingerfor a lot of murky conditions and it may well linger for a lot of the day. two weather fronts bringing like linger for a lot of the day. two weatherfronts bringing like patchy rain at the moment, but to the north of that is still in the cold air and thatis of that is still in the cold air and that is where the best of the sunshine will be, but to the south we are starting to drag in more of a south easterly flow, so milder air for many. the rain is fairly light and patchy. this has been the story

so and patchy. this has been the story so far, drifting out of cornwall up through wales into the west midlands and continues to move steadily north. it will weaken as it does so as well, so a band of light, patchy rain continuing to drift northwards, and quitea rain continuing to drift northwards, and quite a lot of cloud generally across england and wales. for the best of the sunshine, northern ireland had much of scotland for the afternoon, but here it would be quite as warm after that cold start, temperatures are likely to peak around 5—7 . further south we could see double digits, 11—13 the expected time. as we move out of saturday to the early hours of monday and that early morning cloud continues to drift steadily northwards, acting as a blanket, very nice indeed. as we clear see those clues goes lingering in the far north—east of scotland in sheltered rule glands we could once again have a touch of frost, but temperatures widely holding up at five or 6 degrees first thing, but againa dre, five or 6 degrees first thing, but again a dre, drab, dreary day and it is likely to linger throughout the

whole of sunday. the best of brightness into the far north—east, may be the western fringes seeing a bit of bright weather for the afternoon, but temperatures widely 8-10 , afternoon, but temperatures widely 8—10 , may be 12 across the south—west and the channel isles. as we move out of sunday into monday, we move out of sunday into monday, we have got this weather front that is going to push into the north—west, bringing outbreaks of rain, but once again it brings a change of wind direction as the winds swing round to a north—westerly, so the milder air, the yellow tone, is going to be pushed out of the way and we will see a return to something a bit cooler as we go through the week. so yes, there is the potentialfor some rain around on monday, but as we head towards friday, noticeably cooler and some of those showers on higher ground could once again turn wintry.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. iran's president rouhani blames israel for the assassination of a top nuclear scientist, saying his country won't be deterred from its nuclear ambitions. a warning that hospitals in england could become overwhelmed with coronavirus cases, if mps don't back new restrictions. new figures reveal a million more americans caught covid in less than a week — 1500 people are now dying every day and health workers are feeling the strain. the eu's chief brexit negotiator, michel barnier, and his uk counterpart are resuming face to face talks in london in an attempt to agree a post—brexit trade deal.