a national day of mourning will take place in israel on sunday after friday 5 deadly crush at a jewish pilgrimage. 45 men and boys died after being trapped in a narrow walkway during the festival at mount meron, attended by up to 100,000 mostly ultra—orthodoxjews. india's expanded vaccination drive — offering all adults over the age of 18 a jab — has stalled with some states forced to close centres after running out of vaccines. the country is in the grips of record levels of covid—19 infections, reporting more than 400,000 cases in the last 2a hours. the head of the us—led military mission in afghanistan has warned against attacks on foreign troops as they start to withdraw, saying they had the means to " respond forcefully." the comments come after the taliban said they were no longer bound by an earlier commitment. a campaign has been

launched to raise money to build a memorial in st paul's cathedral to those who've died as a result of coronavirus. costing £2.3 million, it would be the first new structure of its kind inside st paul's for 150 years. charlotte wright reports. for centuries, st paul's cathedral has been a place to reflect on significant international events, which is why campaigners say it's a fitting site for this, a covid memorial. designed by an architect who himself lost his mother during the pandemic. there are now over 100,000 other families who will have gone through that same sense of dislocating anguish. and, for us, i think a memorial could not be more important. the plan is to build the memorial here at the north door, the site of a porch that was bombed during world war ii. and visitors will walk through

to an area of reflection, where there will be a digital book of condolence and they can call up entries, including photos and epitaphs. more than 7,300 names have already been uploaded to the online book. it's a different way of doing memorials, but it's having a physical and an online memorial together, which is a really... it's a new thing for us, but we think it means that thousands and thousands of people can be remembered. 0rganisers are hoping to raise £2.3 million to pay for the structure and install it next year. they say this would be a monument for all, regardless of faith or background. charlotte wright, bbc news. now on bbc news, the travel show. coming up on the show — getting up close to an american icon in new york. now for the the piece de resistance. the original. cooking up a michelin star takeaway in singapore.

so this is the chef extraordinaire. and i am on the hunt for london's fast—disappearing red phone boxes. if you say london, it is the telephone, the red telephone box. hello and welcome to the travel show with me, christa marwood, still here at home in london, but as you can see some things are starting to return to normal and, fingers crossed, we will be back up on the road sometime soon — until then, this week let's take a look at some of our favourite trips

to the world's most vibrant cities here on the show. well, new york is always one of our favourite attractions. maybe it's the sheer noise, bustle and knowledge that under normal circumstances, it really does feel like the city that never sleeps. and back in 2019, lucy was lucky enough to be given a behind—the—scenes look at one of the city's newest and perhaps most iconic attractions. lucy: i was up at 5am to catch the star ferry, the very first boat of the day to leave for liberty island hours before the arrival of the public.

wow! i've never seen the statue this close before. definitely worth the ungodly wake—up call. until recently, visitors that wanted to learn more about the statue�*s history were directed to an exhibit in its base. but the space was so limited, only a few people actually got to see it. that's all set to change with the opening of the new museum. the museum takes people all the way back to the statue�*s creation. it was designed by frederic august bartholdi, who built it in his paris workshop. the statue marked 100 years since the declaration of independence and the historic alliance between america and france. in 1885, it was shipped in 350 individual pieces

over to new york, where it was reassembled and unveiled to the american public the next year. now for the the piece de resistance, the original torch. the original torch! wow! the original torch, it stood up there from 1886 until 1984. the original torch had been changed from bartholdi's design to include a glass—panelled flame that could be lit up at night. in the 1980s, it was removed and replaced during a massive restoration of the statue. talk to me about how difficult it was to get the torch in here. well, i didn't have to do it! but it was quite a task. people worked for about two weeks from 3pm in the afternoon until 3am at night. they had this carrier that they laid the face on its back, and then put the torch on it. we had not put in all the glass here so that it could lift

quite nicely into its position, and it all worked quite well. and here it is. martin and his team have been in charge of conserving the torch and cleaning it up. well, today is the last day, it's sort of the clean down from the top down, and so as they're finishing up the lighting fixtures inside, myjob is then the final clean—down of everything that falls down. you're one of the last people who get to be here before it's off. i do feel very honoured. it's so iconic and you think about its history and how it stood for freedom and for liberty to people all over the world. it really is a remarkable piece of work.

lucy getting a close—up look at lady liberty back in 2019. many travellers, one of the benefits of exploring the world is getting the chance to try all sorts of local cuisine. back in 2016 henry visited singapore to meet a man whose street food earned him a michelin star. henry: this is singapore's largest hawker markets in the heart of chinatown, and it's ram—packed with stalls selling traditional dishes. 0ne stall in particular is causing quite a stir. this queue is absolutely humongous, full of all sorts of people from singapore, from around the world, there's a lot of tourists. you can imagine it for some sort of concert, but in fact it's for that hawker stall over there — it's one of two recipients here in singapore that actually achieved a michelin star, so i'm going to meet the chef.

hawker—chan! hi! so this is the chef extraordinaire, hawker—chan. and he's been doing this for over 30 years, right? yeah. wow! the stall has become famous for serving the world's cheapest michelin star meal. we're a well—oiled machine here, but i'm feeling the pressure. so one, one sauce here? 0ne portion costs less than us$2. but the waits can be up to three hours. oh! it's the rice! boiling! that was pretty good.

there are fears the tradition might die out. worst of the hawkers, the kids to do with a doing because it is hard work, hot, long hours, and if you sell any of the hawker food for more than $3 or $4, but is it a big question. we have to change the perception of hawker food is being cheap. wow, so this is like a full one—woman operation then? just you in the morning?

it'sjust me in the morning, yeah. just you in the morning? just me in the morning. this were actually encourage more youngsters to start a business in maybe a little bit better environment. it is not a traditional hawker centre, it is more rowdy, like i have made my food to this place because it is more of a hipster area. it is still hot and hard work but it is hoped these new, more contemporary surroundings will encourage the next generation of singaporeans to keep creating some of the best street food in the world. henry helping, hopefully not hindering, hawker—chan to keep his michelin star back in 2016. stay with us, because coming up on the show... wejump on board a magical bus in karachi. there isjust so much more to karachi than we know. and i go in search of london's

disappearing red phone boxes. so don't go away. now, karachi is pakistan's biggest city and almost 15 million people call it home. but it has had something of a reputation for not being the easiest, or maybe safest place for tourists to explore. back in 2017 ben went there to meet a group of people working to change that. ben: i want to get a taste of karachi and when you think of a tour you think of a friendly tour guide, some foreigners, a casual stroll around the city. but in karachi it is much different, it is done on one of these things. in a city linked more with

bombs and guns than tourist trips, the super savari express seems like a strange choice. but this is a unique kind of two of us, not only to change the image of karachi likely bottles go around the world. it is mainly to help karachi's locals reconnect with their city. in its early days each tour came with an armed guard, and at the old days, but as the situation has improved it is now beautiful bus. i love this bus, it is incredible. what is the history? you see it everywhere in karachi. the concept works along the lines of this actually being representation of the brides of the guy who drive them. why do you think a city like karachi need something like this? there has been a disconnect between educated persons in karachi and the general population. and you do this because you think that karachi is misrepresented, and has a reputation that needs to be preserved? let's just say that there is so much more to karachi than we know.

there is something special about this mosque that i have to show you guys. the tour takes visitors around the city in an attempt to show its diversity. you visit mosques, hindu temples, churches, karachi's version of the big ben and and is time for food. sorry. i am going to ruin your tea party. what is this? the guy said it's traditional pakistani breakfast. traditional pakistani breakfast is you get chai, and what is essentially an omelette. most things in pakistan are made spicy, same thing with omelettes. my stomach noticed that a few days ago. you dip some of that in chai. i am just ruining the tea. just soggy pieces of omelette in my tea. our next stop... this is widely regarded as the

most dangerous area of karachi. here there is only really one sport people care about and that is football. there is over 175 registered clubs, and that is because these guys, like everyone else, absolutely love it. everywhere you look you see manchester united tops, real madrid and hopefully liverpool tops. i am here to find out why that is the case. there is a centre of excellence where we have approximately 100 kids who come across to train four or five times a week. we give them free football coaching, we give them life skills, sessions on top of it. i have been asked to have a game with these kids, who look pretty good. i am wearing a liverpool top. so everyone thinks i play for liverpool.

a huge crowd had gathered. so yeah, look forward to me embarrassing myself in front of everyone. here we go. after eyeing up the opposition, we began. the sand and heat is not a good combination. soon, though, we were losing by two goals. liverpool one, karachi united three! me and my new friend realised it was our moment, and after generously being awarded a free kick i curled it the corner. then two penalties later, we had won the game. after celebrating with my team, adequately named benjamin's liverpool warriors, we spoke about football. you are nervous about playing, because you are the only girl here, is this the first time you play here? if you are to look around, and there is a game going on there, an academy here, i think i am the only female in the stadium right now. sometimes we go into an area where the culture is extremely male dominant and they don't want females to play,

we are eager to play, we are keen to play, which is something very difficult in pakistan, to get — girls excited about sports. there are 100 boys who come to the academy here, there is maybe 35 girls who come, so that is about the ratio. to me that is fantastic, because two years ago there was zero. and football has kicked off in areas that have been otherwise neglected. these guys have come up with their own recreation, solving their own problems, and football is kind of inherent to the game, solving the problems. ben there on—board what must be one of the world's most colourful tour buses back in 2017. if you cast your mind back to when travel wasn't quite as difficult as it is now, there was still the eternal dilemma — what to do with a lengthy airport layover?

well, we set ade the challenge back in 2017, how much could he fit into a six—hour stopover in rome? ade: so you find yourself stuck here at leonardo da vinci fiumicino airport, and this is one of the largest in italy and it is a central hub for its national airline. unfortunately, rome is ranked as one of the most delayed airports in world, so you're probably going to find yourself with a bit of time on your hands. so i am going to make it more interesting and set myself a challenge to see rome in under six hours. hello! how are you, nice to meet you. buon giorno! i want to see the coliseum, the circus maximus, the palatine hill, the mouth of truth, and of course the trevi fountain. the first proper stop here is to go and see

the circus maximus. older than the coliseum and with a capacity of hundreds of thousands of people, it was at the heart of rome's brutal public entertainment, the gladiators, to you and me. this was the place for the spectators, the excavations over there. and spectators sat all around. and resting just above the site is the palatine hill which is one of the most ancient parts of the city. next stop is a little hidden gem. it is the mouth of truth. if you are a liar and you put

the hand inside the mouth, your hand will be cut. laughs every time i see the trevi fountain it always takes my breath away because it is so beautiful. and i would say this is definitely one of the most must—see monuments in rome. one of the downsides of a tour like this is that there is no real time to stop and really enjoy the sights, because of the tight schedule. but they give you a great taste of what is on offer. and who knows, maybe one day i'll back to explore rome at a more leisurely pace. ade there cramming in the ancient roman sites back in 2017. to finish off this week we are in my adopted home town of london, famous of course for its bright red buses and until

relatively recently, its red phone boxes. but since the arrival of these things, fewer and fewer people have been using the public phones. so back in 2019, i reported on a programme to remove those iconic red boxes from london's streets. after all, it is only tourists that would miss them, right? the red phone box is synonymous with london. when they were first introduced in the 1920s, they gave many poorer londoners access to the phone for the very first time, and after countless appearances in films, tv shows and music videos, they became something of an icon both here and around the world. you say london, it is the red telephone box. the first thing that comes into my mind when i think of britain, was either the queen or the red phone booth.

although as more people got access to their own phone at home, the numbers of actual calls being made from them dropped. now, i can remember when i first came here 20 years ago. using a phone box was a really big event. it was like, "i have arrived in london." and i probably took several dozen selfies in one. these days it is just clear it isn't being used much. and frankly it isn't the nicest place to be. the smell is not ideal, either. i might get out of here. even though a lot of these phone boxes aren't in the best shape now, there is a group of londoners who still take pride in them, and the postcard image they portray. i thinkjust because phone boxes are british icons, for them to look scruffy in the photos that are going back around the world with tourists after their holidays, i didn't like that idea. so i thought, why not clean them up? it's only polite. seeing one in a completely sorry state was almost

like seeing an elderly relative in distress or something. we like to help emily. we think it is a worthy cause and we are loyal fans. it looks nice when they are all scrubbed up. emily and her band of volunteers regularly spend their spare time sprucing up phone boxes like these for sightseers. but it looks like even their valiant efforts might not be enough to save them. they are difficult to keep clean, and they're not i very easy for people i with disabilities to use, and we are obliged to - have a quite high percentage of payphones which can be used by people with disabilities. - so the question is, what's going to happen to the old red phone boxes we've all come to know and love? some have been put up for sale, and some are being offered to local communities to turn into things like public libraries. others are already being rented out to businesses who see

the beauty in keeping things small — like fouad, who now repairs phones inside a phone box. i am not claustrophobic at all. if you work in an iconic place you are iconic too. other businesses that have cropped up include cafes, coffee bars, and souvenir shops, all crammed inside a square metre of floor space. if you think of all the conversations these four walls must have overheard, declarations of love, cries of emergency or whispers of espionage. these walls have heard it all, every type of conversation. and i think it is sad to see they are now empty. sadly that is all we have got time for on this week's programme but i hope we have given you enough inspiration to keep going until we

can all travel again. coming up next week: it is the turn of technology in the final part of our series in which ade looks at some of the issues to shape travel as we get back out on the road. so dojoin us then if you can. in the meantime you can catch up with more of our recent programmes on bbc iplayer and we are on social media in all the usual places. hello there. there are probably too many of you that this go to the pit the

dying day, but the showers have been widespread. yes, although skies look like these at times, at other times we had the heavens opened. this one, quite an impressive shower bring a couple of hail to the roads and pavements of leek in staffordshire. you can seejust how extensive the day's showers have been nationwide. although they are beginning to fade, there are still a few left over. the reason we have had so many showers during the day is because over the last few days we have had a lump of cold air move across the uk. that gets heated strongly by the may sunshine, causing the air to rise and causes the showers to break out. we have the same kind of mechanism with us for the forecast going into sunday. right now most of the showers are cleared out of the way. just one or two left over for scotland to take us into the first part of the night. another cold night with clearing skies, light winds and a widespread frost with temperatures getting down to —3 in the coldest areas. i cold

start to the day on sunday, but clear blue skies for many. through the day, showers will break out across the north—west initially then become extensive for most areas as we head into the afternoon. probably some of the afternoon. probably some of the heavy showers across central and eastern england, eastern scotland and those temperatures, a bit disappointing for the time of year, highs of 11—14 celsius for most. talking about disappointing weather, here comes your bank holiday. an area of low pressure coming off the atlantic, bringing wet, windy weather and chilly weather as well. it may well start off right across eastern areas of the uk but outbreaks of rain will spread from the rest. it will be cold enough even to have a little bit of snow mixed in the highest ground in scotland and northern england and it be pretty windy, pretty windy and chilly for the time of year. temperatures doing well to get into double figures across england and wales. further north, scotland and northern ireland, 7—9

celsius, with the far north of scotland are pleased to be for the best of the weather. after that, showers foremost area with further low pressure coming in from the south—west. that is your week's weather.

it's a welcome to bbc news, i'm maryam moshiri. our top stories. israelis hold a vigil for the 45 people who lost their lives in a stampede. sunday has been declared a national day of mourning. amid record levels of covid—19 infections, india s vaccine drive stalls with some states forced to close centres as they run out ofjabs. as foreign troops begin their delayed withdrawal from afghanistan, a warning to the taliban against renewed attacks. the american actress and oscar winner 0lympia dukakis, has died at the age of 89. and an icon of manhattan — the empire state building turns 90.