from february and have announced tough restrictions on the unvaccinated — people who have not been innoculated against coronavirus. they are set to be banned from many public facilities and non—essential shops. south africa says the omicron variant is driving a sharp increase in covid infections. over the last week, the daily number of new covid infections has increased fourfold, from less than 3,000 to more than 11,500 — three quarters of which are 0micron. officials say vaccinations are now more vital than ever. the governing conservative party has retained the parliamentary seat of old bexley and sidcup, but the uk by—election victory for louie french has been secured with a greatly reduced majority. the poll was caused by the death from cancer of the former cabinet minister, james brokenshire.

thousands of people are facing a seventh night without electricity after storm arwen brought down power lines across the north of england and scotland. more than 100 soldiers were deployed to help out in aberdeenshire, and late this afternoon, durham declared a serious emergency and called on the government to send troops there, too. fiona trott reports. getting urgent help to the most vulnerable in the community, this fire station in ulverston has turned into an emergency hub. pylo ns pylons in cumbria still lying on the ground six days on. preparing them as a massive task. h. preparing them as a massive task. m, ., preparing them as a massive task. ., ., , ., ., task. the scale of devastation is something _ task. the scale of devastation is something we _ task. the scale of devastation is something we never- is something we never experience, definitely not in the 15 years that i've worked in the organisation. you would have to get back to the great storm of 87. we've had over 900 instances. this is one incident where you have eighteenths master of paris.—

master of paris. this family can't wait — master of paris. this family can't wait for _ master of paris. this family can't wait for repairs. - master of paris. this family can't wait for repairs. they | can't wait for repairs. they have five children, three are disabled, and five—year—old 0liver. .. disabled, and five—year—old 0liver... they are all crimes into hotel rooms. we might it's been a living nightmare, 20c! been a living nightmare, 200 miles an hour— been a living nightmare, 200 miles an hour wind, - been a living nightmare, 200 miles an hour wind, and the aftermath... a miles an hour wind, and the aftermath. . ._ miles an hour wind, and the aftermath... a ma'or incident has been * aftermath... a major incident has been declared. _ aftermath... a major incident has been declared. we've - aftermath... a major incident i has been declared. we've been out of power — has been declared. we've been out of power since _ has been declared. we've been out of power since last - has been declared. we've been out of power since last friday. | out of power since last friday. they— out of power since last friday. they hope _ out of power since last friday. they we more _ out of power since last friday. they hope more money- out of power since last friday. they hope more money will. out of power since last friday. . they hope more money will come from central government and the army will follow. that's already happening here in scotland.

at the end of these phones, people like the red cross have been responding to over 600 calls for the community. it's villages like this for the responders are coming to somehow fowler, some down. the question they are asking is how do you do find a major incident to get more support as the days and the nights go on. they are becoming more angry and anxious. this week on the travel show: i am in dubai, with visions of the future at the delayed expo 2020. if i scan this image here, i get augmented reality view of what south korea deems to be the future of mobility. and that includes flying cars.

woo! i take a dip and tumble... laughs. and i discover an artificial rainforest in what was once a desert. 0h hello! 0h here we go! but first, in a difficult couple of years in the global travel calendar, there has been one giant mega event looming. and of course, fitting for a giant mega event, that was happen in this city of superlatives, dubai. nobody knew for sure it would happen, but here it is.

hello, expo 2020, orshould that be expo 2021. it was delayed by a year, and for a place that relies so heavily on tourism, dubai needed this to happen. in fact, it is probably not too much of a stretch to say the entire international tourism industry needed this to happen. well, i'm armed with my expo passport — let's do this. it's taken place over six months, and had nearly 2.5 million visits in the first month alone. 192 countries have created pavilions showcasing innovations for the future. here in a site twice the size of monaco, you have a world in miniature. looking around this place, one thing to remember is that pavilions are like shop windows for countries. you know, in amongst all the tech and innovation, it's a real chance for them

to show the rest of the world their big ideas, and the idealised vision of their culture and values. but for some seasoned travellers, their experiences of these countries might be a little bit different. the first expo, then called the world's fair, started back in 1851, when it was opened by the uk's queen victoria in london. back then, when only a fraction of people ever went abroad, and information about the world was harder to come by, the multicultural innovations on show, fuelled by the new industrial revolution, would have seemed extraordinary. but now, it is a technological revolution at expo's heart. as you can probably tell, still a work in progress... last year, i came to see it in the making, so now i have come back to see how it's all come together. now, the last time i was here, this place did not look like this, it was basically one big construction site. and i can see they have

completely transformed it. the uk's contribution presents a huge wall of poetry, which doesn't always make total sense. it's generated by artificial intelligence using words donated by the public, and was inspired by professor stephen hawking's theories about how the world might come together to communicate a message in the event of meeting intelligent life from another planet. so, i'll type my word in here, i am going for "beautiful". and now, i believe it's going to appear on the big screen. so, talk me through the arrangement of the words. because looking at right now, it doesn't look like it makes a lot of sense. so, how do we make a story out of this? it's really simple. poetry is very personal. every word is given a single couplet, those couplets will speak to the individual

who donated the word, but what's really exciting about this is the algorithm has been trained over many, many months. it has digested 15,000 poems, including shakespeare, including blake and so on and so forth. the poetry societies across the uk have fed the algorithm words and poems, so that it can learn how to create poetry. and the more words we give it, the better the sense of the poetry becomes. and right now, it's been up for a few weeks, and you can see sentences, you can see sense within this building. what we're trying to do with this building is show that we are innovators as a nation. the pavilions each sit in one of the expo's three main themes — mobility, opportunity and sustainability. and each theme has its own building. the sustainability pavilion is net zero energy and net zero water, diverting people's waste

water through a natural outdoor filtration system of reedbeds and then reused on the site's vegetation. so, all around us, you'll find buildings that are net zero energy, you'll find buildings that have employed sustainable wood technologies and methodologies — shading, outdoor passive cooling areas. and it's actually a real honour to stand alongside all of these country pavilions from all around the world that have chosen to highlight solutions that are applicable to those regions. and trialling them out to see what works here. and walking around, one of the sustainability pavilions stand out among the others. so, there's around 80,000 different kind of plans the tropical garden, and over 190 different species. and it really is so peaceful and tranquil, just wandering through here. and i also think it's kind of crazy that i'm in a giant garden that's slap bang in the middle of a desert.

in singapore, we have more than 250 hectares of vertical green. so, what we do here is reflected in what we do in singapore, in a much, much bigger way. five decades ago, singapore is known as the garden city. and until recently, the last decade, we have evolved into a city in a garden. now, we are aspiring to be a city in nature. and we ill be rewilding all our gardens, we will bring and we will be rewilding all our gardens, we will bring nature closer to the people. once you bring this down to the city, we are bringing the biodiversity closer to them. i think that is what we want to see. and what better proof of that than with their first visitor, a bird that has nested in the pavilion. but for dubai, while all this might seem like a huge boon

might seem like a huge boom for the time being, what happens when all the visitors go home and the pavilions pack up and shut their doors? how sustainable is this expo site then? dubai has expanded at an extraordinary pace in recent years, but still, plans are in place to repurpose expo to create a new living and working environment to support nearly 150,000 people as part of a vision for a human—centric future city. this site is huge. twice the size of monaco, i believe. it is. for the built environment, it's twice the size of monaco. it is massive, so how will you make use of the space, how will you utilise it? 80% of everything we have built gets repurposed. and it's taking this space, this incredible environment that you see from on top of here, and repurposing it into this innovation hub. and it's a blank canvas, really, for us, for architects, for smart infrastructure

solutions, for start—ups that want to come into this vibrant environment. dubai is moving towards becoming a very smart city, we're taking the lead in that. it's about creating this industry that is another focal point for dubai. and finally, it's night time, when this place transforms into something else altogether. like at south korea's pavilion, bursting with lights and technology. so, if i scan this image here... i get an augmented reality view of what south korea deems to be the future of mobility. and that includes flying cars. but there's one last emerging global superpower

i wanted to see. so, this is the china pavilion, and one of the biggest pavilions here, you might have guessed it might be — they definitely don't do things by halves, which explains why every night, they do a drones and lights performance outside. here it goes! a brilliantly synchronised, stunning display. i expected nothing less. stay with us, because still to come on the show: i take on one of the world's biggest floating inflatable assault courses. . . boo! ..and find out how the residents of a very special

home here in dubai coped during lockdown last year. the speed with which those things devoured that chicken was unbelievable. the beaches here are one of the many reasons to visit dubai, and as you can see, it's a glorious day, people are enjoying the sun. and i've been told there's a really fun way to cool off here. i'm about to give it a try. this is dubai aqua fun, the brainchild of a young emirati entrepreneur called ahmed ben chaibah. he claims it's the biggest inflatable water park in the world. against the backdrop of hotels and skyscrapers, and a short 25—metre swim from the beach,

you'll find a course made up of over 70 floating blow—up slippery slides, swings and other obstacles, all designed to test your stamina, balance and bravery. and after a bit of undignified clamber on board, i'm ready to accept the challenge. it's a lot slipperier than you think! come on, lucy! almost! i think i've... 0h! i was just about to say, i think i've been in the water enough. went five seconds and i didn't even touch the obstacle. here we go! boo!

laughs. that is what you got to look out for. you might complete the obstacle but the slipping at the end, every time. every time! something tells me i may have spoken too soon. i challenge anyone to get over this thing and stay dry. i'm fit, yeah? i'm trying my hardest! but most importantly, this is so much fun. three, two, one! all right, here we go! woo! how can you not love the slide? i think i'm ready to get off now. well, now that i'm thoroughly soaked through, it's time to dry off.

but i'm not heading back to the beach — instead, perhaps it's time to feel the wind in my very wet hair. how's this for a socially distanced experience? these are the dubai hero boats — your own personal speedboat that lets you cut through the warm waters of the gulf at speeds of up to 50km/h. after a short instructional and safety tutorial, you'll stick to a vast but designated course, accompanied by a guide who's on hand to ensure that you stick to the rules while getting a high—speed and unique view of the dubai beaches and skyline. as far as rides go, this one is awesome. it's super easy to drive and brandon's nearby for safety, just in case. you know, yeah, you could go pretty slow but the real fun begins when you crank up the engine and, more importantly, you do it with no mask!

well, to finish off this week, we're heading to a place here in dubai where, despite the heat outside, it rains as regularly as clockwork inside and it's home to some rather special residents, and i've been to meet some of them. this is green planet dubai — a purpose—built biodome where, no matter what the temperature is outside, inside, it's a different story and that's because of the thousands of animals, birds, fish and insects that live here. this is just amazing. i mean, you've got a rainforest in the middle of the city. how, how, how? tell me about the building. so, the building itself, it's temperature and humidity controlled all year long. yeah, yeah. perfect tropical environment right in the middle of downtown dubai.

chuckles. dubai is not a place that's kind of synonymous with nature. but dubai is known for doing things unique, so the only rainforest in the middle of dubai shouldn't come to a shock as anyone. cackles. so, this tree here is artificial and then everything growing off of it is natural. i can't get over this soundtrack — it's so beautiful. relaxing, isn't it? it's very tranquil, isn't it? it is, and it's funny when you start really seeing the animals and their personalities, so the toco toucan over, he is the boss of the birds. yep. he's in charge. so, everyone has their kind of place and their homes and their personality and it's just a lot of fun to watch. yeah. and how many different species of animal are in here? there's hundreds of different species, thousands of different animals. you have the bestjob. thank you so much. i know, we're very lucky. we're — every day is a little bit different, though. it's like working with kids — you can't predict what's going to happen by

the end of the day. yeah, yeah. every time you think you have them figured out, someone'll surprise you and get themselves in a situation where you go, "i didn't even know that was possible". yeah, yeah! how did you decide what animals actually go in here, you know, because they all have to play nice together, i presume? it's a very particular process to look before we bring any new animal. educationally, what would they bring to the facility? how they would work together with the other animals. do they have the space and all the requirements that they need? our last new animals where our three ring—tailed lemurs that you'll see today and the first day that they came, right after lockdown, they were introduced, they kind of came out and i swear to you, there was about 100 birds all around them gathering like... who's the new kid? exactly! so, there was a whole introduction process that they have to get used to and pass the test. yeah, yeah! but now, they're settled in like pros. but in the building, we try to be sustainable as possible, whether it has

to do with the grey water recycling programme, with eliminating as much as possible single—use plastics. we also have many different critically endangered conservation breeding programmes for animals here in the building for the survival of these species as unfortunately, there's a lot of species becoming extinct in their natural habitat every year. yeah, yeah. we're trying to do all we can to just help them stay alive. yeah. we hope every one of our guests comes, experiences, has a great time, but leaves with a little bit more of a passion to take care of the environment. come here! 0h, they're both back! 0h, hello. 0h, here we go! i love that there's just no fear. i don't think i have ever seen animals be this brazen before — collectively as well, you know? honestly, that's because it's their home first, right? so, these guys are confident, knowing they can be wherever they want to be and guests can come nice and close, but won't be touching any of the animals and therefore, they can be

wherever they want and explore. 0h, hejust did a little twirl for the camera. you just want to have some more nuts? so, when guests, when visitors come, they are told no touching the animals, you know — got to be strict about that, obviously. yes. we do have particular programmes where you can, in a small group, get to know the animals more close—up if that's something you would like to do, but in general, with our larger quantities of guests coming through, we'll observe them on a little distance so that they can be comfortable coming to see you. and that's why we can have the sloths, the monkeys, the birds, the lizards all kind of doing their own thing. it's so fascinating just watching the way he eats. in the claw, using the beak to scrape the nut. when the pandemic hit last year, it must�*ve been so tough for you. it's not what you guys can flip the switch off, go home and come back in a few months. no, definitely not. so, considering there are thousands of animals and plants around here that are relying on us for their survival no matter what, but we knew that's what needed to happen, and so it's what we were happy — more than happy to do,

and that's how we got through it. in addition to being able to see wildlife from the aerial walkways, there are also programmes here that give you the chance to get up close to some of the more intimidating residents, like a shoal of deadly flesh—eating hungry piranhas. matt, are you sure this is safe? absolutely, it's safe. i've noticed you've got a cut on your hand. is that cool? yeah, not a problem. it's alright to roll with you? yep. chicken — just doing their chickens, we're gonna watch from about 1.5m away. yep, yep. it'll be absolutely fine. and how many piranhas are in here? around 500. 500, nice. yeah. 0k. i'll see you on other side. chuckles. sounds good! let's go. thankfully, iam not on the menu today, which is a blessing considering how hungry these fish look. the murder from psycho plays.

god, the speed in which those things devoured that chicken — chuckles — was unbelievable. i had to keep telling myself, "they're not gonna eat my feet. "they're not gonna eat my feet." but interestingly, it was not the piranhas it wasn't the piranhas that was the most terrifying things. the pacu — the size of them! they're like this! some of them at the bottom are even bigger, so i think that was the more disconcerting thing for me, but that was brilliant. i learned a lot about piranhas today. they don't want to eat me, and that's good. towards the end of every day here at green planet, the artificial heavens open and the whole biodome is soaked in a warm tropical downpour as some of the more nocturnal animals wake up and others start thinking about heading for bed — which is exactly what i'm going to do, thanks to an overnight camping programme they also run here. so, the last thing i thought i would be doing when i was

told i'd be coming to dubai would be camping overnight with nothing but lemurs, parrots and a tarantula to keep me company. i have a feeling the morning is going to be very early and very, very loud. the lights go out at midnight. wish me luck. owl hoots. sleeping in a tent inside a building that's pretending to be outside. only in dubai! well, that's all we've got time for this week, but do join us next week if you can, when... buongiorno! ..christa is in sardinia, one of only a handful of designated uber—healthy blue zones around the world where your chances of living to 100 and beyond are pretty high. 0h! all this, and you live a long life.

it's a pretty good way of life, i think. do catch that if you can and don't forget, you can watch more of our adventures on bbc iplayer. and from me, lucy hedges and the rest of the travel show team here in dubai, it's goodbye. good morning. this week, it's been quite a fickle weather story to tell, undulating from cold and crisp back to milder and sometimes wet. and that's the story we've got first thing this friday morning. milderfor all of us, but by the time head towards the weekend, once again, we turn back into that cold bright story with some showers

turning increasingly wintry on the hills. but for the here and now, we have got these weather fronts pushing in from the atlantic. they bump into colder air, so for a time, we will see a wintry mix. however, behind it, you can see this pizza—shaped triangle of yellow colour — that's the milder air tucking in behind those weather fronts. so, an early wintry mix of rain, sleet and snow to clear from the southeast corner, but then a legacy of cloud behind much of england, wales and northern ireland for the perhaps northeast england and much of scotland perhaps northeast england and much of scotland are bright with some sunshine before scattered showers arrive during the afternoon. generally, a milder story. widely, we'll see temperatures into double figures, but by the end of the afternoon, for something a little heavier into south wales running along the channel coast will continue to drift its way eastwards during the early parts of friday evening. then into saturday, the wind direction changes to a northwesterly, driving in a rash of showers behind which have the risk of turning increasingly wintry once again

into the far north of scotland. so, it's going to be a chilly start to saturday. and we see this area of low pressure dominating with the wind direction swinging around to a northwesterly once again. the wind direction will make a difference with the feel of the weather. we're going to lose that milder air and the blue colours are set to return as we head into the weekend. once again, noticeably colder for all. so, we start off on saturday with some early showery rain once again easing from the southeast, and then a case of sunny spells and scattered showers. some showers will be of sleet and snow, perhaps even for some at lower levels as temperatures sit around 11—5 degrees. further south of that with a little more sunshine, perhaps not quite as cold — 7—9 celsius the high. quiet today on sunday better chance of seeing more quieter day on sunday better chance of seeing more on the way of sunshine with a few scattered sharp showers perhaps just drifting in and out the north sea coast,

in off north sea coasts, noticeably cooler once again for all of us. that's it, take care.

tonight welcome to bbc news — i'm ben boulos — our top stories. german leaders say covid jabs could become mandatory from february and have announced tough restrictions on the unvaccinated. south africa says the omicron variant is driving a sharp increase in covid infections there. officials say vaccinations are vital. the real problem here is not a lack of vaccines, it is the fact that younger people seem very reluctant to get a jab. the governing conservative party, retains the parliamentary seat of old bexley and sidcup — but the uk by—election victory, is with a greatly reduced majority. tech and taxis — as kidnappings in cabs continue to rise

in the democratic republic of congo — we investigate