president biden has signed a series of executive orders to try to reduce the impact of climate change. he's called it an existential threat. he's said climate considerations should be a focus of american foreign and a national security priority and said the us must lead the global response. among new measures announced is a moratorium on new oil and gas leases on public land. the row between the pharmaceutical company astrazeneca and the european union over a shortage of coronavirus vaccines has escalated. the eu's health commissioner has insisted that astrazeneca come up with a clear plan to deliver on their contractual obligations to supply vaccines. a team of world health organization experts investigating the origins of the pandemic are preparing to begin work in wuhan. they've been isolating in the chinese city for the last two week and will study research institutes, hospitals and the seafood market linked to the initial outbreak.

borisjohnson has said most pupils in england won't be returning to school, until march eighth at the earliest, meaning many more weeks of remote learning. mrjohnson said he was acutely aware of the pressures on parents. there was also a promise of more funding to help children catch up on missed learning, and extended support for children on free school meals. branwen jeffreys has been talking to pupils, teachers and parents in warrington. they move the sea creatures inland... only a third of pupils were in today, leaving year 6 spread out in class. their classmates not back for at least a month. we're not really used to having so many people in because of how long it's really been like this. i'm looking forward to having everyone back in school, because i miss all my friends, and at least i've got some of my friends here. everyone will- definitely be happier, harder than working in school, which i do know because last. week i think i worked .

from home for two days. to help kids catch up, a promise today of more money. but for those running schools, some questions are more urgent. two weeks' warning isn't long to plan for reopening. is it going to be a staggered return? is it going to be similar to what they expected us to do in september? are we expecting certain year groups to come in? are we starting from day one with everybody in? we need to know those kinds of things. so when will classrooms fill again? well, march eighth is a tentative date — an ambition. so much depends on the pressures on the nhs, the infection rates, the vaccination programme. all that's certain for parents and for children is they're going to have to manage at home for a good few more weeks. the biggest education union said the prime minister couldn't guarantee school return in early march. at the moment over a million people in the uk are infected

with covid, and he can't know what the death rate will be, so i think this is premature, and i think it will give parents and children some false hope, and that's the last thing that they need. schools will be the first to open, says the government. no—one, including parents, thinks these decisions are easy. i am quite lucky, because i am a key worker, the girls are at school, but i think, for the kids' mental health, it is very important for them to be at school. i understand the prime minister has a lot of pressure. i would hate to be in his position to make that decision. it's difficult for the government but, again, like i said, there isjust no light at the end of the tunnel, and we should be a lot further down the road now than we are. i've got some really close friends that are at home. with three children of three different ages, and it's not| doing very much for their- mental health, to be honest. families and schools will have to go on coping, with the promise of a plan by late february.

branwen jeffreys, bbc news, warrington. it has just it hasjust gone it has just gone half past when in the now on bbc news, the travel show. this week, some of our favourite adventures from south—east asia. 777 steps. from the top of a buddhist temple... and here we come to a bridge. to a bone shaker in the cambodianjungle. wow! from the traffic jams of manila... you don't want a distracted driver. the traffic here is a little bit crazy. hi bunma, hi pearl. to baby macaques in thailand. bunma, don't try and steal pearl's. hi and welcome to tokyo.

well, travel is certainly a long way off what it was this time last year but that's not stopped us from digging deep and pulling out some of our favourite trips from the archives for another airing. and this week, we're revisiting one of my favourite parts of the world, south—east asia. home to some of the world's most incredible beaches. food. and of course, wildlife. well, over a year ago, i visited thailand to find out why campaigners, along with social media giants, were asking people to think first before snapping a selfie with a wild animal. i am heading to the wildlife friends foundation three hours' drive south of thailand's capital bangkok to find out what's being done to help out animals being used in the tourist industry.

the 165 acre complex houses a rescue centre and thailand's first wildlife hospital. there's also a refuge for elephants, so there are plenty of photo opportunities. if i go on instagram and search for say, �*elephant selfie,�* under that hashtag, there's almost 15,000 posts. but when i click on that hashtag, i get a warning that says, "protect wildlife on instagram. animal abuse and the sale of endangered animals or their parts is not allowed on instagram." the page asks the poster to be wary when paying for photo opportunities with exotic animals. it's an issue charities are trying to tackle on the ground. so how big a problem are these animal selfie pictures? it's huge, it's huge. let me show you a few of the things i've come across during my time here working in thailand. for example, here we have a gibbon being used as a photo prop animal. it is very, very common to see a baby gibbon or a slow loris

being carted around by a guy and people might pay 100 or 200 baht to get that one—second selfie, but sadly it is a lifetime for that animal. there's a few more here, this is a liger. what's he riding on? it's a liger, which is a cross between a tiger and a lion. the liger is the biggest wildcat you can have and this guy is riding it. a lot of these animals are just beaten into submission. this animal here, you can't see unless i zoom, but he is on a very, very short chain. this is a family, we don't know if the animal has diseases or vice—versa. these guys could have a common cold and it's very easy for that to be transmitted between the great apes. infant animals are particularly vulnerable to the photo prop trade. here in the wildlife hospital, babies that have been rescued or abandoned are cared for in the nursery. in the wild, these animals would hold onto their mothers throughout infancy so they instinctively cling onto each other to try and recreate the warmth and security they would normally get from their parents.

hi guys. this is our baby long—tailed macaque. bunma and pearl. 0ne male and one female. hi bunma, hi pearl. so have i got bunma? this one bunma. bunma, why does he want that one? don't try and steal pearl's. the owner bought her from a black market. this means her mother was killed by a poacher. it's nice they have got each other now. yeah. they know they have each other and it's a good thing for them. look at these sweet little baby macaques, pearland bunma. i love how they're so affectionate with each other. it's too young to be separated from their mother. removing a young animal from its parents impacts their behaviour for life.

tom takes me to meet two indonesian orangutans who staff are trying to reteach wild habits to. maggie was found abandoned near the rescue centre. chico grew up in the photo prop industry and then was kept as a pet. he was given to the team here when he became too big to handle. we have carers who bring maggie and chico into the forest every day, and we encourage them to climb in the trees, usually by throwing fruits into the trees wrapped in vines or something like that. we were hoping that he would copy maggie who is more wild. chico is a little bit more fond of humans. he's coming to say hello now. 0k. hi chico. should i be worried? it's ok, just stay calm. hi chico. 0h, hello. chico's holding my hands. hello chico. 0h, hi. i think chico likes my shoes. i didn't quite expect that, human interaction. he's almost like a small child.

does that hark back to the days when he was used as a photo prop or even a pet? he would have been pulled from the wild as a very young infant and has been with humans most of his life. we're trying to erase that to a certain extent but the stark reality of a photo prop animal is, it's not all fun and games like we just saw then. yes he was having fun with you but if he was to do that to a tourist, he would get beaten with a stick and that's how they would control these animals. so chico could probably never be released back into the wild. i wouldn't like to say never but it would be long process to rehabilitate him to a state where he would be a release candidate. fun times. well, that was over a year ago now. let's check in with the wildlife friends foundation and i've got tom on the line from thailand. hi tom, how are you? hi. doing 0k. i rememberfrom my visit

there that your foundation relied so much on tourists and their volunteer efforts, it must�*ve been a pretty year? yeah. right now, we have closed completely. the guests that come and visit us and stay at our eco resort could not come any more so our income went from being sustainable to basically zero. we are running from month to month. we currently have funds that will take us up to the end of february. of course, if an animal comes through the door, we have to be here and there are still 700 lives we need to feed and take your everyday. wow. do we have an update on some of the animals that i caught up with? how are maggie and chico? they have both moved into a huge open—topped enclosure. when you were here last time, you were in the forest with them. we were taking them out of an enclosure they were in at night—time every day for walks into the forest. they now have a huge forested area. bunma and pearl were the two infant baby macaques.

they moved in with a surrogate mother, and adult macaque, and now they have a mother figure that can teach them how to behave. oh, that's lovely. thank you so much for your time. next up, we're heading to the philippines where mike jumped on board manila's most colourful mode of transport. one of the first things you realise when you land in manila is the traffic is awful. hurry! laughs. with no metro and a very limited bus and train service, the backbone of its public transport is currently this. it's a jeepney. the design is modelled on the usjeeps that were abandoned here and repurposed after the second world war. to this day, they're still the best way to get around. the problem is the system is quite tricky for a newcomer to get to grips with.

0k, as i weave my way through the traffic that is now on the sidewalk, i'm looking for one that says libertad. and it should be on one of these in paint, the place i'm looking for. libertad, this must be it. if you have a smartphone, it makes things a lot easier. there is an app called is sakay.ph where you can put your origin and destination. so in this case, we're in intramuros and we want to go to libertad so it tells us to walk here where thejeepney is and that's about a us dollarfor an hour's ride. it's not bad, that's pretty cheap. we're taking this journey on a weekend when the roads are quieter. during the week, jams can go on for miles. and i soon discovered that if you sit right behind the driver, you're expected to help them out.

10 pesos. so how the system seems to work, as the people comes on, the money starts to flow and it all comes through me because you don't want a distracted driver, especially in the streets of manila because the traffic here is a little bit crazy. so it is my first time on a jeepney today. i am wondering if you have any tips for me. it's better to sit beside the driver because there is more fresh air, and at the same time, it prevents the whiplash effect of the long jeepney. the whiplash effect. i see. almost like a fish's tail so it's more stable at the front then. keep your bags close, always. always here. yeah. if you want to tell the driver to stop, you just tap on the roof. one more time. that's go? that's stop. two is go.

that's stop and two is go. i can do that about six times before my fingernail feels like it wants to pop right off. mike there getting to grips with manila's trafficjams. next up, a slightly more leisurely way of travelling where henry took something called a bamboo train in cambodia. alright, so this is us, huh? this is us. 0k, jump aboard. seat ia and ib. first class, as some would say. excellent. all right. so it is a pretty simple engine, is it? very simple, yeah. i hope we're going to be all right. is it fast? uh, fast enough. the origins of this railway go

back to colonial times, but it eventually fell into disrepair and was left half—forg otten. that meant that the khmer rouge overlooked the obsolete line as they destroyed the rest of the country's public transport infrastructure. once the regime fell, locals hacked through the jungle to clear the tracks and then started their own makeshift railway, and it is still running today. so this is quite distinct, actually. i've noticed that they're not wooden beams. what is the track made of? iron and steel. it was built by the french in the 1890s and it has survived all this time. i love how rustic it is but you still get that kind of, where the track meets each other, that do—do—do — the typical train sound and feel. this is the life! it is! and how long have the locals been using such a service, i guess? about 30 years — since peace came to the area. it was the only way for many of these people to get into town. and here we come to a bridge.

is this a bridge? 0h! oh, wow! it's rather precarious! this is a railway where you will find no timetable, no signal boxes and no ticket inspectors, and also very little in the way of passenger comfort. i think we have hit a bit of a problem — we've got somebody coming the other way! oh, my god! now, there is a simple rule — the train with the most goods or people on it has right of way, and you're going to find out what is going to happen right now. right on the bridge — the best place to stop. the platform itself gets lifted off and you're left with these wheels kind ofjust dangling around. 0ui, la bbc. bonjour, bbc! bonjour! so something like this kind of — did you come specifically to battambang to experience

the bamboo train? yes, when we talked about a train, we imagined, really, a carriage — not this of thing. there's a lot of work, actually. it's not like a luxurious kind of a trip. no! there is some work to do — you've gotta get off, you've gotta get on. yes, yes. that's part of the experience! there's a truckload — or should i say a trainload — of these tourists sort of coming by so pretty evident that this is a very popular form of transport in these parts. that was henry taking the scenic route there. well, stay with us because still to come on the travel show: i should have brought a spare pair of socks. why rajan is moaning about his socks. boiled snails. and one of the world's remotest food festivals. sucking noise. next up, we're off to rural myanmar, where rajan visited a holy buddhist temple known for its cheeky inhabitants. i'm heading to a pilgrimage

site that is so uniquely burmese — mount popa. it's a volcanic rock over 700 metres high. the i can just about see it through the fog. horn beeps. meet the macaque monkeys of popa. yes, cute at first, but there are 2000 of them and i must admit, the novelty wears off. ok, 777 steps. let's go. first, like all religious sites in myanmar, it is shoes off. shoes here, yeah?

it is certainly wet. i should have brought a spare pair of socks! and you do wonder who is really in charge here. a little bit spooky. people are actually being attacked by the monkeys! landing on their heads and stuff. the climb is steep and not helped by the fact that some of the steps are covered in monkey droppings. 0h! but the view going up is incredible — golden pagodas peeking through the swirling mist. ok, i've climbed the 777 steps to the top of mount popa, this ancient spiritual shrine. and because of that mist, it's eerily beautiful. that was rajan in myanmar.

well, lastly this week, we're off to the jungles of malaysia, where mike visited one of the world's most remote food festivals. actually, we're catching the eye of a lot of locals, because there's not that many foreigners — surprise, surprise — in this part of the world. i don't know half of the foods here today, and that is quite exciting for me. a local farmer called dayang offers to show me around. would you like to try our dure? i don't know what dure is... this is one of the local exotic vegetable found here in bario. it is a plant that lives in the jungle? yes. i could eat that all day. that's delicious. but it's got, like — i was thinking it was going to taste like spinach.

it doesn't taste like spinach at all. 0k. it has like, much heartier than spinach would. would you like to try the akep? yeah, we can try the akep. so akep looks to be boiled snails, in case you can't see. yeah, it's found in the paddy field here. it smells like boiled snails too. this is how we do it. so this lives in the jungle as well? yes. you suck it out? sucking. there you are. just like that. so you bite — you bit it first? yeah. just a bit. not too much. it's a little stuck on my teeth, ok. and you suck it? suck it, yes. just suck it right out. yes, once. sucking. there we go. how do you find —

the taste must be fantastic? i wouldn't — i wouldn't use that word, but it's not bad. it's very chewy! chewy! this is classic traditional kelabit food, sourced from the surrounding area. welcome to bario. dayang takes me to herfarm, where she grows one very important ingredient. it's cool, �*cause each plant has one pineapple? yes, so it will take about one year to ripe. but this looks one ripe. yes. this yellow one. yeah, where the colour is a golden yellow. so how do we — can we pick one? how do we pick one? sure, you can just pluck it. i'm going to have puncture wounds after this, but it's ok. yes, yes. hey, that was easy! ah!

and twist? yes, because it's a golden ripe pineapple. imitates trumpet flourish. yes, it is very sweet. look at this — my very first pineapple. 0h! back at the festival, locally grown pineapples have been made into jams, juices and even pineapple cider. down the hatch. it's a little chunky. how many of these do i have to drink to, you know, have a really good day? i'm not sure. shall we find out? i'm joking, i'm joking! since it started in 2006, the festival has celebrated both the cuisine and the culture of the highlands. up top, there are some bags with soda pop, cookies. the point is to climb up to the top, grab your prize and come back down. excuse me, sir. would you like to play?

he's telling me it's my turn. ok, you can go. so, start slowly from the bottom. freestyle ? freestyle, yeah, freestyle. ok, here we go. come on. as the games continue, my form doesn't really improve. come on, bbc! it was by a feather that we lost! applause. cheering and applause. a game that i'm not bad at — i think it's my height advantage. everyone gets a shot, or...? hold on.

let's watch. i guess you might think that coming so far away, you wouldn't be able to make friends or it might be a strange tourist experience. but i always find it's some of the best ones. when you come to these remote places, there's not many foreign tourists, so people are just so accepting and grateful that you're here, and will share everything with you. right, that's all for this week. coming up next time: rajan is here to look at the uphill battle europe's ski resorts have faced during this winter of lockdowns and closures... this bridge is the only way up to the village. ..and visits a beautiful italian hilltop village that's fighting for its future. it is a pretty stunning entrance as well, isn't it? well, until then, you can catch our more recent episodes on the bbc iplayer, and we are on social media too — just search �*bbc travel show�* and you will not be far off. but until next time, from chillyjapan, stay safe,

keep planning, and we'll see you soon. hello there. a bit of the weather tussle going on in the skies above the uk of the next few days between cold air to the north and east of us in milder air to the south and west. during the next 2a hours, the milder air will come through for many but on this dividing line going to see quite an active weather system and that's going to produce on one side pretty heavy rainfall. on the colder side of our weather system, the hills of northern england in southern scotland and into central and northern scotland, we could see significant snow which could have an impact on some of the

higher roots and it's here where we start the day, coldest of all, may be temperatures as low as —6, compared to ten or ii low as —6, compared to ten or 11 parts of cornwall. big north-south _ 11 parts of cornwall. big north—south contrast. there is the dividing line, rain, sleet and hill snow. the dividing line, rain, sleet and hillsnow. pushing the dividing line, rain, sleet and hill snow. pushing slowly to the north. drying up and brightening up to the south. quite misty and murky under that weather front but you can see it's on these higher sites, we are more likely to see the snow. it will hang around across parts of central scotland. skies brightening for england and wales. misty and murky in the north. still a bit of a breeze, incredibly mild. temperatures down to 14 degrees. it should stay dry and bright for much of the day. another batch of rain comes through thursday evening. rain this time round. snow continues to fall in northern parts of scotland. heavy thundery showers into the first part of friday morning across the south. still those north—south

contrasts, widespread costs in the far north of scotland. icy conditions to start friday. fizzling out, thundery showers across the south. temperatures still in double figures in the south but the colder air is starting to fight its way back. it will try and push back into the weekend. notice how it is pushing south. it can bring another mix of rain, sleet and snow, and had a potentially another one late on sunday. front goes on into next week two.

welcome to bbc news, my name's mike embley — our top stories: in my view we've already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis. we can't wait any longer. he calls it an existential threat — a warning from president biden as he signs a series of executive orders to make climate change a foreign policy and national security priority. european union officials attack astrazeneca over a shortfall in vaccine doses but fail to get the company to hand over supplies marked for the uk. how did the pandemic start? world health organization experts finally end their quarantine in wuhan, and prepare to investigate covid's origins. how the shares in one struggling online game company sparked a war with hedge funders.