at including those olympic races at london and rio.— including those olympic races at london and rio. what if you got to look forward _ london and rio. what if you got to look forward to _ london and rio. what if you got to look forward to for _ london and rio. what if you got to look forward to for the _ london and rio. what if you got to look forward to for the rest - london and rio. what if you got to look forward to for the rest of - london and rio. what if you got to look forward to for the rest of the l look forward to for the rest of the day? look forward to for the rest of the da ? , , ., , . , , look forward to for the rest of the da? , ., ., look forward to for the rest of the da? ., �* day? gymnastics is ongoing, we've not day? gymnastics is ongoing, we've got qualifying _ day? gymnastics is ongoing, we've got qualifying rounds _ day? gymnastics is ongoing, we've got qualifying rounds and - day? gymnastics is ongoing, we've got qualifying rounds and so - day? gymnastics is ongoing, we've got qualifying rounds and so far - day? gymnastics is ongoing, we've got qualifying rounds and so far so | got qualifying rounds and so far so good for the likes of matt whitlock in the gymnastics. 11 gold medals up for grabs today. i think five of them have now been won. but archery, thatis them have now been won. but archery, that is one to watch out for later on as well. and weightlifting to come. ., . come. ok, we will watch with interest _ come. ok, we will watch with interest. thank _ come. ok, we will watch with interest. thank you _ come. ok, we will watch with interest. thank you very - come. ok, we will watch with| interest. thank you very much come. ok, we will watch with - interest. thank you very much indeed for that round—up. hello, everyone. i hope you're doing all right. we're turning a page weather—wise at present. but it's also turning cooler, so if the hot weather isn't for you, we will get a relief as far as that is concerned. through this morning we have seen heavy downpours across south—western parts, cross towards the south—east as well. they are likely to continue

as well. they are likely to continue as well. they are likely to continue as we progress through this afternoon, generating a lot of rainfall within a short space of time and frequent lightning and hail in the mix as well, whereas further north, drier, brighterwith some centre and feeling one. top temperatures, 2a, 20 five celsius. debit call across parts of scotland. misty and murky across some eastern coast of the fringes and turning cool it was the south. further heavy, thundery downpours as we head through this evening. so no moving, again a lot of rainfall in a short space of time. another muggy one with the lows of 15 celsius. hello this is bbc news with me, ben boulos. the headlines: ecuador�*s richard carapaz wins the gold in the men's olympic cycling road race, making it the country's second ever gold at a summer olympics. a golden start for china — its team picks up two gold medals in shooting and weightlifting.

tackling britain's "pingdemic" — hundreds more covid testing sites are to be set up across england to ensure essential workers can avoid self—isolation and keep working. president biden warns that the us is facing a "pandemic of the unvaccinated", as the delta variant of coronavirus spreads. now on bbc news, the travel show�*s in tokyo, host city of the olympic and paralympic games, to find out how its hotels are dealing with the influx of athletes and trainers from all over the world. this week on the travel show: outrunning covid at the olympic games. the big names rocking central park this summer. siberia's mystery blast craters. you have an exploding crater on land. that is not something i imagined. and the fears for the

future of flamenco. hello and welcome to tokyo. the host city for this summer's olympic and paralympic games and thronging with tourists and sport fans from all over the world. ok, maybe not. the state of emergency declared earlier this month following a new wave of covid cases means that international and now local spectators are not allowed in to any event

in and around tokyo. nonetheless, trainers and medical staff have headed here from all around the world for a more subdued games. there were plenty of people here in tokyo who were delighted to see the olympic opening ceremony on friday. even if they had to resign themselves to only being able to watch it live on tv rather than in person at this vast stadium. however, they could be in the minority as recent survey showed thatjust over 50% of people here did not want to see the games go ahead. japan has declared a state of emergency for tokyo that will run throughout its hosting of the games. and public concern has grown over what impact the influx of thousands of athletes, support staff, officials and press from overseas could have on the infection rate. for me, like many people

here in tokyo, the olympics has been a rollercoaster. back in 2019, tickets for athletics and diving events were quickly allocated. and then last year we were not even sure if the olympics would go ahead and then we were told this year that our tickets would have to go back into another lottery because of limited capacity of the stadiums and then finally, two weeks ago we were told that there would be no spectators at all in any tokyo events. and here there was meant to be a fan zone with a big screen tv but that idea was quickly quashed. pre—covid, japan was originally expecting around 35 million visitors in 2020. but now only vaccinated athletes and officials can attend the tokyo games this year. that number has been massively reduced. and with a capacity at the olympic village limited, many of tokyo's hotels are playing host to athletes and sports support staff

from all over the world with strict sanitising protocols, regular testing and in some cases, curfews and other restrictions now in place. this hotel was not allowed to tell me which teams would be staying here but they were willing to show me some of the adjustments they had made to ensure that their sporting guests have a happy and healthy stay. in addition to ensuring the hotel is covid secure, the carpenters here have also been busy at work in readiness for some extra tall special guests. we had requests for larger beds so these are wooden bases for the extension and we will have 12 of them. so i can assume you will have some very tall athletes staying? you are correct. the normal size bed is two metres so we're extending it by 30 centimetres. here we are.

this is the room where we have put a larger bed for our guests. wow. this is a big bed. good, hey? and you cannot notice where our carpenters have made the extension. very neat. and it is notjust a good night sleep that the olympic competitors need. nutrition plays a vital role in their performance so the kitchens here have had to adjust their menus accordingly. they want at least eight different salad bars, from carrot, celery, cucumber and broccoli, you know? i have designed a menu, here i have three carbs, five different vegetables. the nutritionist and the chef look at it and they come back to us and see if it is ok or not. so it all has to go back to their nutritionist? yes. so i see we have salad, grains, is there a dessert?

a little dessert. they cannot have too much sugar because when you add sugar... the dessert is more like a bite. energy bowls. so what are we making today? apricot cashew bites. this is what olympic athletes will be eating. that is good. it is good and very healthy. not quite the dessert i was expecting. i think everybody is getting used to the new normal, getting to ease with the fact that these olympics are now without spectators so there is a drop in demand. however, everybody is still preparing for the groups that are coming, the people they have to look after and making sure the event is well executed. traditionally, every

olympic games always now has a small army of local volunteers who sign up to help ensure that visitors have the best experience possible. but with the ban on spectators and overseas tourists, many of the volunteers have either been stood down or seen their duties changed. where do we get the bus from? you are here now. mak san was looking forward to meeting travellers from all over the world, but now he is using his english to help out at the press centre instead. i wish the olympics would succeed without any problems. are you looking forward to seeing some athletes and some olympic events? yes. i love sports. i was a pe teacher. so this is your dream job? yes. my dream job. of course, a modern olympic games is not just about sport.

there is usually a whole host of marketing opportunities, corporate events and collectables associated with each games. daniel, tell me about these pins. every national olympic committee likes to have their own pin and athletes, it gives them an opportunity to give them a gift from their country to somebody from another country that they may not necessarily interact with. this rwanda versus godzilla... what is? we have the rwanda team mascot against godzilla. it is an epic pin. this is a mega mecha. moving parts pin. while, his head moves. that is great. there is an entire network of collectors from all over the world. it is known as the unofficial olympic sport, collecting pins and trading pins. so, unfortunately, there are many collectors

who would normally come to the games just to go pin trading and just to collect. it will be a little more difficult this time around to get their hands on some of these prized possessions. it is estimated that back in 2019, over a quarter of a million fans from overseas travelled to japan to see the rugby world cup championship. staying, on average, a16 nights and each spending around £11000, or5500 us dollars on their trip. so hopes were high that the postponed olympics would bring in even bigger numbers, more revenue and greater positive publicity for the country. i don't think there has ever been any event that had the demand that the tokyo 2020 had. they really wanted to come and experience japan. the japanese hospitality, the food, the culture. it is only the fourth time in history that there has been a summer games held in asia

so i think itjust provided a unique catalyst for the entire world to go, "i want to be there." and, i guess, that is what makes it incredibly disappointing. so no matter how you feel about the games, tokyo 2020 is happening at a unique and historic moment in time. and many people will want to capture that and reflect on it. the shops here are still full of memorabilia and souvenirs. how much will be sold, however, is unclear given the lack of overseas tourists. one thing is clear, though. you can expect souvenirs to maybe become items to collect in their own right. because they certainly represent a very different olympic games.

the edinburgh festival looks a bit different this year. they are going ahead. the international festival has moved many of its performances outside and kicks off with a three day event in the royal botanic gardens. the fringe, meanwhile, mixes its socially distance live in person shows with a live online offering that starts on august 6th. new york is planning what some people are calling a mega—concert on the great lawn of central park. bruce springsteen, paul simon and jennifer hudson will headline the event, which is part of week—long celebrations of the city's reopening. 60,000 people are expected to go, with different sections allocated to vaccinated and unvaccinated spectators.

berlin's museum island has a new landmark, the humbolt forum. this vast building brings together the ethnological museum and the museum of asian art in one enormous reconstructed baroque palace. its remit is to be a symbol of tolerance and diversity, but there has been controversy over its decision to house artefacts looted from parts of the world once colonised by europe. and barely a year goes by without dubai opening something enormous. this time it's the world's deepest pool. deep dive dubai goes downjust over 60 metres and holds enough water to fill six olympic—sized swimming pools. they have built an abandoned city at the bottom to explore, along with a library and an arcade. still to come on this week's travel show... the blast craters causing

confusion in siberia. and with one final click of the castanets, a flamenco venue saying goodbye for the last time. so don't go away. next this week, we are in russia on the remote siberian peninsula of yamal. scientists there have noticed enormous blast holes appearing on the landscape and it has had them scratching their heads. so we thought we would catch up with them to find out more. i first heard about these craters when i was contacted by a reporter in 2014, i came back to my e—mail and thought this is a crazy e—mail i got, this person is talking about these craters and i didn't have accessibility to the news, ijust didn't believe it. i got back to the us and i read a little more and wow, this is a thing that happened.

the fact that there could be a new geochemical process that we never imagined would happen, have an exploding crater on land is just not something that when i think about the processes that can happen on the earth, is not something that i imagined.

how important are these? so this idea that what is the cause of these, is this something that is new that is happening, is this related to climate, is this something that is a risk to people who are in the arctic, to the gas and oil infrastructure, which is quite close to the area where these craters have been occurring? and then is there some long—term impact on global climate, because there is methane that is coming out of these craters? it is an area where there is very thick layer of ice called tabular ice, and there is also an area where there is a lot of cryo—pegs, which is an area of ground that is within the frozen permafrost, so it is an unfrozen sandwich, it is surrounded by permafrost, it is unfrozen ground, and the idea of how these forms

is that these very deep deposits of gas are sort of finding their way to this unfrozen pocket, this cryo—peg or italic, and then as pressure builds up eventually it raises the ground up, and it explodes. how many more of them are out there? what we're trying to do is use satellite data to view these craters. what we have first done is create a change detection map which is an automated method of picking up pixels on the peninsula that have changed in some way. that algorithm was built based on sort of what we know about the craters. so once we have this change in texture map we have a team who are using high—resolution imagery to look through each one of these pixels and say, does this look like a crater,

does this look like something else, and classifying it. from there once we have something that we think looks like a crater or could have been a crater, we are getting a series of very high—resolution imagery to try and figure out where these forms. why are they happening now? it is really tricky to identify. i would not be surprised and i do think it is likely that warming temperatures are at least in part contributing to making the ground unstable, allowing these explosions to happen. to me they are more an indicator of what is happening, and a very shocking indicator of what is happening in the arctic. and there is nowhere else on the planet that i know

of where climate change is causing the physical structure of the ground to change. it is quite startling. the unfolding mystery of siberia's enormous blast craters. right, to spain next and an art form that so many of us see on our holidays. flamenco happens in venues called tablaos, which like so many venues have had to close the good. —— close sometimes for good. we have met some dancers in madrid who are now facing an uncertain future.

that's it for this week. coming up next time: christa is here with some of our favourite memories of new york city. from historical landmarks to hidden treasures.

and the time she was made to face her public speaking demons once and for all. and i was like, oh! don't forget you can catch up with our more recent adventures on the bbc iplayer and we are on social media two. on social media too. just search bbc travel and you won't be far off. but until next time, keep planning, stay safe and we will see you very soon. goodbye. hello, everyone. i hope you're doing all right. we're turning a corner weather—wise at present.

it weather—wise at present. has been very hot, but a and it has been very hot, but also dry and settled for most. we see a change that with some thunderstorms around. many of us have seen these already this morning and overnight. we will see heavy, slow moving downpours as well and where we see these, the risk of travel disruption. the areas of concern, southern england, parts of south wales with sudden showers wanting to drift further north. they have been here throughout this morning and will gradually want to tilt northwards as we head through this afternoon, but mid wales, north wales, the bin lids —— the midlands and further north. eastern coastal parts will remain quite misty and murky in places and a caller here as well, top temperatures across northern ireland, north of england, 25 celsius, but as you see here, cooler southern parts. through tonight, further thundery heavy downpours with some hail in the mix as well and it will be another

miles, muggy night. quite windy when we see those at showers as well, lows tonight of 1a, 15 celsius. first thing tomorrow morning, further heavy spells of rain at times, it is all because of this area of low pressure. these weather fronts are swelling around and that remains nearby as we head through the day tomorrow as well. the emphasis of the showers, does want to shift further east as well. i think parts of south—west wales, mid wales seeing something drier and brighter when compared to today. summit sunny spells across northern ireland, north of england, much of scotland as well. cool and cloudy cost eastern coastal parts and look at the temperatures here, starting to cool off. windy where we see low pressure, top temperature 2a, possibly 25 celsius in places. looking towards it tomorrow night and then into monday, there is the low, it is on its travels, everyone. moving towards the east. in doing so, it will introduce further

settled conditions as we head through the day on monday. a mixture of bright sunny spells and are scattered, often heavy and thundery showers, slow—moving, a lot of rainfall within a short space of time in a small area and at those temperatures on monday, 2a or 25 celsius. is removed through the rest of the week, we see things calling off but still pretty unsettled. we will keep you posted. that is the forecast, see you soon.

you're watching bbc news, broadcasting in the uk and around the world. i'm lucy hockings live from tokyo. ecuador�*s richard carapaz wins the gold in the men's olympic cycling road race, making it the country's second ever gold at a summer olympics. great britain's adam yates finished 9th, but it was bad news for geraint thomas, who retired from the race for a second successive games after a crash. a golden start for china — its team picks up two gold medals in shooting and weightlifting. there are still lots of medals up for grabs on the first full day of action, including in fencing and judo. i'll have all the latest. i'm ben boulos. in other news from the uk and around the world: tackling britain's "pingdemic", hundreds more covid testing sites are to be set up across england

to ensure essential workers can avoid self—isolation and keep working.