an internet blackout failed to dampen dissent in myanmar as thousands of people took to the street�*s of the main city yangon to protest against this week's military coup. they're calling for the release of elected leader aung san suu kyi and others detained by the army. pharmaceutical company, astrazeneca, says a small trial suggests the coronavirus vaccine it's developed with oxford university, does not appear to offer much protection against mild or moderate disease, caused by the south africa variant. but the firm believes the jab would protect against severe disease. thousands of indian farmers brought some of the country's major roads to a standstill to show their opposition to new agriculture reforms, that they say would leave them out of pocket. dozens were arrested with more than 50,000 members of the security services being deployed for the protests.

a leaked document has revealed that borisjohnson is considering a reform of the nhs in england. the changes could see a reduced role for the private sector and sweep away changes introduced by david cameron's government in 2012. nhs commissioners would no longer be required to invite private companies to bid to run services and there would be more focus on hospitals and social care services working together to improve patient care. our health correspondent katharine de costa reports. an ageing population brings with it the challenge of providing more complex care. hospital beds can often be tied up, waiting for a care package to support elderly patients at home. i think the devil will be in the detail... many health professionals feel controversial changes, made nearly a decade ago, left health and care services fragmented. i don't think you will find anyone in the nhs who won't be glad to see the back of competition rules. it's really got in the way of working effectively

across the health and social care landscape, we all work better when we work cooperatively and we've seen that during the pandemic. i think where people's reservations will be is about ministers having a much higher oversight and say in what happens in the nhs — they haven't always shown that they have the expertise to do that. in 2012, under the cameron government, lord lansley handed the control and finances of the nhs to nhs england, with an annual strategy set by the government. it meant that nhs services were bought for patients by gp groups, including from private providers. the new proposals roll back on much of this and will allow ministers to more tightly control how the nhs works, as well as deliver public health and social care plans. but health campaigners are not convinced. this government has been more dependent than ever before on the private sector. during the pandemic we've had private sector brought in to test and trace, we've had private sector brought in to run laboratories, parallel to the nhs.

we've got a four—year plan now to use private hospitals, while nhs beds in large numbers remain closed and out of use. so, this isn't a government that's been looking to marginalise the private sector. but one former health secretary supports the plans and wished he'd been able to get a grip on social care. the thing i didn't manage to do which i tried to do, which is the next really important step, is a ten year plan and a sustained funding increase for the social care sector because that goes hand—in—hand with the nhs. we need to be much better at looking after people at home. the department of health and social care said it was rightly considering where changes need to be made, with more details still to come, but labour's questioned the logic in making big changes during a national crisis, when services are already at breaking point. katharine da costa, bbc news. now it's time for the travel show. this week, we look back at some

of our coldest adventures. from frozen hotel rooms... ain't gonna lie about it, it's cold. to a ride across siberia. people who live there, they say you will lose your face on your first day. and my solo bobsleigh ride. i could go again, right now, let's go. hello and welcome to the travel show, coming to you this week from...my living room, here in hertfordshire. 0rdinarily at this time of year, we would be well into the ski season in europe, and i would be braving sub—zero

temperatures to get out there and bring you some of the best snowbound adventures from around the world. this is really very nice. i can't imagine it'll be warm when when we get out, though. we might not be able to go anywhere just at the moment, but that doesn't stop us looking back at some of our favourite adventures, some of them at below freezing temperatures. like the time a couple of years ago that ade went to the famous swedish icehotel, not exactly the place you would want to get locked down for a couple of months, i'd say. it's not what i was expecting. i was expecting an igloo or something like that. for more than 25 years, we've been building igloos here. it's been a winter project, a seasonal project. but this is our permanent... it is new. it's the first season that

we're running the icehotel 365, a permanent ice hotel. why have an ice hotel all year round? because people want to do it. seriously? simple answer. when you're this far north of the arctic circle, there's daylight for 2h hours during the summer, and the icehotel has found a way to harness that energy, bizarrely, to keep temperatures inside below freezing. look at this! it's like a winter wonderland. there are 20 rooms in this new, permanent hotel, each uniquely sculpted by artists from all over the world. so it'sjust me, and my beautiful ice bed. who's in here? 0h, hello, ade.

ijust made your room ready. oh, wow! what temperature is it in this place? minus five. it reminds me of my first councilflat, when i couldn't afford heating. he laughs. you will become very nostalgic when you sleep here. because the room is literally freezing, you need special gear to survive the night, including a sleeping bag that can withstand temperatures of —25 centigrade. this is your bed. you have a normal mattress but the frame is ice. will this keep me warm enough in —5 degrees? yes. this sleeping bag is for winter purpose. i'm lucky enough to have a suite, which comes with a warm bathroom. if you panic and you can't stand it, you can hang out in here as well. oh, i geta warm room!

yeah. of course, i won't be spending much time in the warm room, other than to just get in. my guide, stefan gives me some advice. what people usually do, they go with their whole head. breathing becomes moist inside your sleeping bag and moist makes you colder, so the best way is to keep your face in the open. keep your face in the open? yeah, and breathe out in the air. enjoy your cold night. thanks, steffan, i'll bejust chilling here. look, there's pros and cons to this. the great thing about it is, it's beautiful in here. look around! and also, the silence is just incredible. so peaceful. but it's cold.

i ain't hiding, i ain't going to lie about it. it's cold. ade there, sleeping on a block of ice in kiruna. things are going to stay cold as we head to siberia where temperatures can reach —60 celsius, to meet a man who motorbiked 1000 kilometres to a place that has been declared the world's coldest village. between yakutsk and 0ymyakon is 1000km. so i travelled 200km per day. so remote. nothing around, just mountains, forest, tiger and cold. it is the permafrost land. nothing around, just mountains, forest, taiga and cold. it is the permafrost land. when i started on the first day, yakutian, siberian people who live there said,

"please don't do that." karolus, you will lose your face on the first day. the frostbite will eat you. even though i had a helmet and some protection, motorcycling in winter on the road doesn't promise to save your life. i was riding for hours alone. what is happening inside my head, i call it sometimes active meditation. riding in such hard conditions, so cold, i have to be only now and here because if i give a chance to myself to think 0k, where will be warmer, i am hungry, i will get food and so on, then it becomes so cold that it is impossible to ride. i have to accept all of this cold, and completely relax, otherwise it doesn't work. 0n the third day of my ride i really had a feeling of oh, i'm home. there is no hotel at that night, i received a little tent

with a small stove inside. that night was 48 degrees below and inside the tent we measured —13. (bleep) cold, inside the tent you want to relax. but then i said ok guys, let's go out and see into the night. most of us was like, i have never seen sky like this. actually feeling like we are in space somewhere. the last 30 kilometres was so mentally tough for me. in one moment i opened the throttle more, you know, 100, 120 kilometres an hour, steering started to freeze so i could see i could not move it. i started to look for the straight lines, not to use it too much. and then i arrive and i saw the sign, 0ymyakon. no thought, emptiness, ok, i'm here.

when it is —55, the town looks pretty empty. and then maybe one hour later, it is done. the last thing left is to have a swim in the river. and you will be pleased to know that karolis survived that freezing dip in the river, and has been continuing his journeys around the globe. we caught up with him recently for an update. hello, hello, thank you for having me here.

what happened since the coldest ride? a couple of seasons went through, and i had some interesting rides. one of them was around the world in a0 days on a motorcycle, it's around 1,000 kilometres every single day, and a few flights over the oceans. i went around the south of india on a motorcycle, 3,000 kilometres in nine days. the traffic actually was mad, mad traffic in india. ok, so what's next, within this pandemic? still, the situation around the region is all these bubbles of the countries where we can fly and drive and visit, probably it will be probably close north, i hope it will be finland, hopefully very, very soon i will be on the north, in the cold again. not only riding, but having a cold swim. cheers, good luck.

amazing. now stick with us, because still to come: we enter an endangered glacier. i can't believe how beautiful it is. and i try a bobsleigh run headfirst. wish me luck. so don't go away. we are heading now to the swiss alps, home of course to some of the world's most spectacular mountain scenery. but it is also where global warming has had a shocking impact on a centuries—old tourist attraction. a few years agojo went to discover what is happening. this is the tiny village of gletsch in the swiss alps,

and it owes its existence and name to the rhone glacier that sits above the valley. the word "gletscher" means glacier in swiss german. this mass of ice is one of the largest in switzerland, and also the source of the river rhone. in the mid—19th century people started to come here from all over europe to see the glacier. at that point, even in summertime, it stretched all the way down to the village. now the view is very different. and you can see on this signpostjust how far it used to reach. in 1856 i would have been literally standing on the glacier.

it is strange to think that now i can't really see very much, just a tiny bit of ice at the top of the mountain. the scale of the ice melt is extreme. between 1856 and 2010, the glacier receded by more than 11100 metres. as the ice has retreated, a new glacial lake has formed. we walked down to a spot where you can see right underneath the glacier. wow, unbelievable. you can see it. so blue. you can see here. it is all loose, the ice. i can't believe how quickly the water is pouring down from underneath the glacier. every few seconds, whole chunks of ice are tumbling down from the top of it. it is quite heartbreaking, really.

if it keeps melting back, it will affect tourism in the region. most who visit come to visit the grotto. the blue ice is reaching. you can touch it. it is beautiful. this tunnel through the ice is 100m long. i can't quite believe how beautiful it is. you can see the very clear ice, the bubbles there. it's 200 years old, the ice here. it's so blue. so blue, exactly. here we are in the heart of the

rhone glacier, this space here. it is so peaceful here. it feels like a church of ice. for years, uv resistant blankets have been used to slow the melt. this technique has been repeated across europe, and recently in china. but since we visited, the swiss government has warned that unless carbon emissions can be reduced, 90% of the remaining glaciers will have melted by the end of the century. next, we are heading north of the arctic circle, to finnish lapland, and christmas may have come and gone, but there are still plenty of reindeer to be found there, as ade discovered. this is a proper winter wonderland. it is so beautiful out here. everywhere you look

is just a postcard. there are more reindeer in lapland than people. there are around 200,000 of these animals, and most of them roam free. but some of them, like these ones, are tamed and specially trained for the reindeer safaris. just a little blanket. finally, it's my turn to have a go. if you want to go, you just say "go." so i just say "go?" as simple as that? go, go, reindeer, go! he's not listening to me! go reindeer! go! i can't say i didn't try, but this reindeer is just not interested. maybe we take the next one. 0k, we take the next one. before i set off, eric gives me some last few tips. just pull it.

he'll stop in an emergency. then he will stop. that's my handbrake. yeah, baby! we're going! look at this, controlling this powerful beast. my gosh, he is picking up speed! go, go! this is so spectacular. my first—ever sleigh ride. i don't know how much this sleigh weighs — it is probably around half a ton, maybe a little less — but that reindeer is pulling it, as well as myself, so easily. such a powerful beast. let's go, son, let's go!

it still might not be the fastest ride, but seems to be the smoothest and most magical way to enjoy this landscape. to finish up this week, no doubt one of the most intense experiences i have had on the travel show. a couple of years ago, i went to latvia, to visit a bobsleigh run used by winter 0lympians and the odd tourist who is brave enough to give it a go. for some reason, the producer decided that included me. welcome to sigulda's bobsleigh track, one of the very few in the world where tourists can get the same adrenaline rush as professional racers. built under the soviet union in 1986, the track has played host to international competitions in luge, skeleton, and bobsleigh rides, with some obvious success.

the track is now used as a training venue for several latvian champions, but there are no competitions on today, which is lucky for me, because it means i can try it out. but having a look, i don't feel so lucky. ok, let's go. get the team together... we're about to set off 100km down a very icy hill, but, luckily, i have an expert pilot. fingers crossed everything goes very smoothly. apart from the pilot steering the bobsleigh from the front, a team also includes pushers and a brakeman. but tourists get it easy — theyjust need to duck and hold very tight. this track is almost 1500 metres long and you need a pretty strong stomach

to manage its 16 curves. oh, man! whoo! i think that is one of the most intense experiences of my entire life. that was like being in a very, very active, very cold tumble dryerfor a minute and a half. i don't even know how long it was. that was completely insane. another winter sport that can take your breath away is this, the skeleton. imagine a luge with no brakes or steering aid that you ride headfirst. martin and tomass are brothers, and they are both world and olympic champions in this sport. it is our home track

and we did many runs here. for learning, it is great. i agree, because if you learn and you can survive here, then you can survive anywhere. you must love the sport to devote so much of your life to it. what do you love about it? i don't like trainings and this stuff, but i love competition. so that is the best part for me. i don't think i'm ready to try one of the full—blown skeletons, but there is a tourist version available that is a little more my speed. wish me luck! it's called a frog, and for this one, there is no crew to make me feel safe. 0h! oh, my goodness!

oh, my god! this might be the easy option, but is still intense. a very cool experience in latvia, but fair warning — it is not for the week of stomach. that is it for the week's programme, but coming up next week, we look at dubai's world expo, postponed in 2020, but set to go ahead this year, with 11 million visitors expected. we find out how plans at this huge event space are taking shape.

and we find out if south korea's popular fortune tellers can guide us through the months ahead. after this year, it is a golden time for you. a golden time for me? sounds good. in the meantime, keep up with us on the bbc travel accounts. from me, christa larwood, here at home, and from the rest of the team in theirs, it's goodbye. hello. it's been called the beast from the east 2 and during sunday, we'll find a strengthening

easterly wind that will bring in much colder air, and that means we're going to find snow falling more widely. the focus of the snow over the past few days has been in scotland and it's still snowing here now, but the emphasis changes more towards the south—east of england, where we're closer to storm darcy. that is bringing with it thicker cloud and added moisture, which is bumping into that really cold air that we can trace all the way back through the baltic sea and up towards the arctic. so we're going to find snow falling by the morning in the south—east and east anglia. it may well be quite slippery elsewhere, and further north we'll find snow showers coming in off the north sea. let's focus on the heavier snow where we have this amber snow warning from the met office. it covers parts of suffolk, essex and kent, widely five to ten centimetres, more in some places. and it's going to be blizzards and drifting as well, with those winds continuing to strengthen. notjust snowing here, it's going to be snowing widely across the south—east of england and east anglia. further north, those winds will blow snow showers in off the north sea across scotland, northern england and northern wales,

one or two for northern ireland, probably drier towards the south—west and parts of the midlands. but the winds will be strong, perhaps even gale force around some of those north sea coasts, and it will of course make it feel cold. temperatures will be lower than they were on saturday. add on the strength of the wind, and it will feel much colder. and that run of cold easterly winds continues for the start of next week. that cold air coming over the slightly warmer north sea generates all the cloud, which generates the showers, which of course will be of snow. and those will stream their way in across england, heading towards wales. lots of snow showers coming into scotland as well. a bit drier for northern ireland. shouldn't see heavy falls of snow in the south—east of england, but it's certainly going to be very cold here, temperatures maybe below freezing all day with that covering of snow and because we have those strong winds, it will feel much colder in the wind.

we're likely to find some more snow showers mainly for eastern parts of the uk during tuesday, but by the middle part of the week, it may be a bit drier. not as windy, but it's still going to be cold.

welcome to bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: an internet blackout fails to prevent protests in myanmar — thousands take to the streets in the biggest demonstrations yet against the miltary coup. translation: as a citizen who was born in _ translation: as a citizen who was born in this _ translation: as a citizen who was born in this country, - translation: as a citizen who was born in this country, i - was born in this country, i cannot accept the unjust takeover by the military. because of this military dictatorship, many of our lives have been destroyed. we cannot let our future generation meet the same fate. a study suggests the oxford—astrazeneca vaccine doesn't protect against mild and moderate forms of the south africa variant of coronavirus. in india, thousands of farmers block roads across the country in a protest that sees the deployment of 50,000 police officers.

as switzerland marks 50 years since women won the vote — we ask why the big delay in one of the oldest democracies.