this is bbc news. the headlines: officials in the eastern ukrainian city of kharkiv say air strikes have killed at least six civilians near a post office. the victims were receiving aid when the missiles hit. the city which is less than 25 miles from the russian border has faced relentless shelling and bombardment. western leaders meeting in brussels have promised to increase military aid to ukraine, and send more troops to neighbouring countries in eastern europe. president biden and the european commission president, ursula von der leyen, said they were united against what they called russia's unjustified and unprovoked war. the us and other western countries have condemned the taliban's decision to shut girls secondary schools in afghanistan just hours after they reopened for the first time in seven months.

they said the decision harms the group's prospects for legitimacy, and urged the hardline islamist movement to reconsider. now on bbc news, the travel show. this week on the travel show, centennial celebrations in a city of literature. the beauty ofjoyce�*s language, the way he relates to the common man, and woman, is incredible. as thousands of families are reunited and the tourism industry starts to recover, australia's big cities are coming back to life. and making meals in malaga. absolutely phenomenal.

this week i'm in dublin, a unesco city of literature that has produced a host of famous writers from samuel beckett to oscar wilde. but i'm here puzzling over one particular novel that's made the irish capital a must—visit destination for any book lover. a novel that this year celebrates its 100th birthday. and that book is ulysses byjamesjoyce. now, even though it's widely regarded as being one of the finest pieces of literature of the 20th century, it's also notoriously difficult to read.

now, i've tried, and i must admit, i've failed too, but i am told that if you invest in it, if you flow with its stream of consciousness, it's extremely rewarding. set over a single day, ulysses follows two characters, leopold and stephen, on theirjourneys across dublin. today, there are guided tours that follow their footsteps and help readers make sense of it all. this is davy byrne�*s pub, it's like one of the set pieces in ulysses. bloom goes in there and ends up getting a gorgonzola cheese sandwich, which even now, is hip to the groove. and a glass of burgundy, like, you know? you're not dealing with muck here. jack's an actor who has been running these tours

for five years. "men, men, men, perched on high stools by the bar, "hats shoved back at the tables, "calling for more bread, swirling, "half—masticated gristle, no teeth to chew, chomp, "chomp from the grill, bolting to get it over, "sad boozers�* eyes..." it is a famously hard to read book, but do you think as an actor, you are helping it to come alive? well, i hope so. it's like waves washing over you. the beauty ofjoyce�*s language, the way he relates to the common man and woman is incredible. many of you might note that these are examples of stream of consciousness, which is a techniquejoyce used and it is basically how you think yourself. i'll start off a thought in my head

and then i know where i am going with it, so he will have to finish sentences. so you have to keep up. withoutjoyce, you know, we'd be missing one of the main planks of attraction to dublin. his works are all about notjust dublin life, but about life. so, what is it about this city that inspired joyce and other great writers? to try and answer that, i've come to the old library at trinity college dublin, home to one of europe's most famous literary treasures, the book of kells, a ninth—century religious manuscript. so, here we are, early in the morning, about an hour or so before the public arrive, to see the famous long room, which is just beyond these doors. whoa! look at this. it's known as �*the front room of the nation', hosting foreign dignitaries, as well as around i million tourists each year. the ceiling is incredible.

and it goes on and on. this must be at least 60 metres or something. you're a librarian here, helen. tell me about this city, dublin — what it is that inspires so much great literature? i think it comes down to an aural tradition, and a nation of storytellers. dublin itself, you will see not just oscar wilde's statue or beckett bridge, but you look down and see that there's an inscription of ulysses in the pavement, in the sidewall. it's in the bones of the city. the old library has some 350,000 books and more than half of them line the shelves of the long room. the collection is a vital piece of dublin's literary heritage, but it's under threat. so, with so many books, i mean, hundreds of thousands, storage must be a huge problem? absolutely. these volumes in here

are our most valuable, our most valued, they're also our most vulnerable. this is this beautiful library, as you see, but in effect, we are an inner city ring road, and all that particulate pollution from all the traffic is coming through the windows and coming and landing on the books. so, there is a restoration project going on to deal with exactly that, right? absolutely. this year, the library has launched an ambitious 90 million euros restoration to improve the building's environmental controls and help protect the collection. during the project, every single one of these books will be cleaned, catalogued and moved off site. if you didn't do it, what would happen? well, the books would deteriorate more, the building already, we know there are structural issues with it, we've got to do it. actually, there isn't a choice.

we absolutely have to do this project! the more damaged or vulnerable items will be treated here at the conservation laboratory. so, this is an example from the manuscripts collection, it's a map, and here it is, being surface cleaned, and clodagh is using what we call a smoke sponge, you see the kind of muck that we get off, and then a very fine brush to make sure no debris is left. so, over here, this book had suffered from the boards separating, and it has been re—backed with this new piece of leather, and the next stage is to look at the pages of the book. oh, wow. and in this case, there is a running tear, so in situ tear repair will happen now just to prevent that from extending through use. yeah, so, researchers who are going to be reading this a lot, will be turning pages,

which leads to wear and tear? that's right. so, in our treatment, we have that in mind, and what we are looking to do is stabilise the item, we can't leave this collection just sitting on the shelf as some kind of backdrop, it's an incredibly valuable resource, you know, it's telling us about our past, it needs to be enjoyed, it needs to be used, it needs to be celebrated. the restoration will provide researchers and tourists with a refreshed experience when it opens in 2026 with new exhibits and a redesigned long room. and who knows — just maybe it'll inspire the next james joyce! the collection here at trinity college dublin is due to close some time next year, but even if you don't make it in time, there's plenty to do and see around this city. around 70 million people across the world trace their ancestry back to ireland,

and the emigration museum celebrates this small country's far—reaching impacts. it features the stories of more than 300 irishmen and women and even offers genealogy appointments to help tourists explore their own family history. for a refreshment, you could stop off at the country's most visited tourist attraction, the guinness storehouse, which produces 880 million pints of the black stuff every single year. i popped over a few months ago to check out their exhibits and sample their new alcohol—free stout. you genuinely wouldn't know. well, i genuinely wouldn't know. and if you're a budding joyce fan, you cannot miss the bloomsday celebrations on june 16, the annual festival taking place on the date depicted in ulysses, and there are events inspired by the novel all over dublin, including street performances and fancy dress. stay tuned, because later in the programme,

i'll pop into one of the festival's most famous landmarks. hello and welcome to this month's global guide. as travel restrictions ease worldwide, many cities are gearing up for a bumper season, reopening museums and galleries, showing off new and improved infrastructure, and, finally, after almost two years, running big events again! first up, australia has had some of the tightest border controls of any country in the world during the coronavirus pandemic. but finally, the country has reopened to fully vaccinated tourists, family visitors and business travellers. if you're double vaccinated, we look forward to welcoming you back to australia. as thousands of families are reunited

and the tourist industry starts to recover, australia's big cities are coming back to life. at the end of march, the 35th melbourne international comedy festival gets under way, a month—long celebration with more than 6,000 performances. next, some big news from a small himalayan country. in a few weeks, the king of bhutan is set to reopen the 400—kilometre tra ns—bhutan trail. the route was originally established by monks, armies and traders centuries ago, but in the past few decades, it's fallen into disrepair. now, after two years of restoration, it's set to open again with repairs made to ancient stone steps and bridges and parts of the path reclaimed from the jungle. in the florida keys, the iconic

seven mile bridge has reopened, but only to cyclists and walkers. this structure was built in 1912 as part of the overseas railroad connecting mainland florida with the town of key west. it's even served as a james bond location. the four—year refurbishment project cost $41; million. i'm at st pancras, the beautiful railway station that is london's international hub for continental europe, because i want to tell you about europe's three capitals of culture for 2022, starting with novi sad, which curves around a bend in the danube in northern serbia. in the 19th century, novi sad was believed to be the biggest serb city in the world, and was known as the �*serbian athens�*. today, there's a long river beach, which injuly and august,

will be the venue for a two—month long festival. kaunas is the second city in lithuania, and a joy, with a deep history, impressive architecture from gothic to 20th and what is said to be eastern europe's longest pedestrian street. liberty boulevard. 0ne certainty about luxembourg's representative is that getting around the city and the whole country won't cost you a cent because luxembourg became the first country in the world two years ago to bring in completely free public transport nationwide. stroll along and admire the art nouveau buildings and visit the cultural centre in a former slaughterhouse. and if one country isn't enough, then you can walk into france in about half an hour from the city centre,

esch is right on the border. still to come on the travel show: living all the day amongst herbs... it's story time in the city of literature. no idea how i read that, but thanks for listening. chuckles. thereasy stuff for me, the difficult stuff for you. 0k! and it's mealtime in malaga. so don't go away. ulysses byjamesjoyce is 100 years old this year. now, many people find it impenetrable, but there are a bunch of folk who meet every week here in dublin to discuss the book's merits and the genius so i'm here to find out what's the story. welcome, everyone.

this is sweny�*sjoyce pharmacy. sweeney's pharmacy is one of the landmarks featured in ulysses and today it's run by a group of volunteers as a tribute to jamesjoyce. "and they all looked — was it sheet lightning?" "it was darker now, _ and there were stones and bits of wood on the strand." "a fair, unsullied soul had called to him." "now is then... these readings moved online during the pandemic but even though the shop's open again, they continue to have people tune in from all over the world. "the chemist turned back, page after page, living "all the day amongst herbs, ointments, disinfectants, "all his alabaster lily pots." no idea how i read that, but thanks for listening! chuckles. that's what we do here — we read it out loud. we have people here from different nationalities, different parts of ireland and you hear

all sorts of music, if you like. joyce would have loved that. does it make it easy to understand and get into it? it's a book you grow up hearing about, and supposedly so difficult, it's a lovely feeling to sit here and it is accessible. and if you want tojoin in, you can find more information on the sweny�*s website. well, the weather has taken a turn for the worse here in dublin but fortunately, to end this programme, we're off to sunny spain tojoin kate hardie—buckley as she embarks on another culinary challenge. i'm in malaga, a sun—kissed port city in southern spain. now, every summer, i normally pass through here to another town further along the costa del sol, but this time, i'm sticking around. with its fertile soil, the sea air and over 300 days of sunshine a year, this region is perfect for finding the best produce. jose is one of malaga's finest ambassadors of gastronomy.

he suggested we meet to explore some local produce that inspire his michelin starred restaurants. what are we going to cook together? before i leave the market, i pick up the almonds for our soup.

first up, i visit the producers of one of the world's most premium extra virgin olive oils. these are 100—year—old trees? yeah, yeah. wow. even more. wow! vito perez tends to his 311,000 olive trees with such care, his olive oil receives the perfect score at competitions. we take, you know, one olive and another one, the olive oil is going to be totally different. but they look identical! i know. it will be a totally different taste and in a few weeks, they will become yellow and they will be more tender. the signal that the oil content is full. this estate dates back to roman times and today, we're pressing the olives the old—fashioned way. oh, my god, that crushing sound! and back? wow, look at that!

unlike wine, which often improves with age, olive oil is best fresh. mmm, it's delicious! i am going to go back to london now and start drinking olive oil in a wine glass! chuckles. i've also got to bring jose something from the sea, and i'm just in time for the fishermen coming in from their night crawl. i've seen sardines, anchovies. it doesn't get much fresher than this! this is absolutely amazing — the noise, the pace, all the chatter. literally, yourfish is off the boat, into auction and, in a matter of hours, on your plate. i pick up some sardines — a fish synonymous with this city. last on my list is the pitaya — dragon fruit.

beautiful colours. muy bonito. this cactus fruit often associated with south east asia originates from southern mexico. its production in spain has grown exponentially in the last few years. restaurant the marina. the easy stuff for me, the difficult stuff for you! 0k! we grind the almonds to create the base of the soup.

it has totally changed colour to magnificent, creamy white. jose carlos takes the freshest ingredients and turns them into something beautiful. wow! oh, my god, it's beautiful! so fresh! the crunch of the fruit, the sweet sliminess of the sardine. absolutely phenomenal!

kate hardie—buckley in malaga, and do you know what? i don't think i'll ever look at a humble tin of sardines in the same way again after watching that. come on! come on! go, go! coming up next week — carmine�*s in switzerland at the only horse race in the world to take place on a frozen lake. but is its future on thin ice? in the morning, the shadows, so it is really cold. the sun comes up, it can change very quickly. and if you see something is not as we wish, then we either to shorten the race or we cancel the races. so do try and join us for that. in the meantime, don't forget you can follow us on facebook and instagram and watch past episodes on the bbc iplayer. i am now going to go off and shelter from the rain

and possibly read another page or two of ulysses. in the meantime, from us all here in dublin, it's goodbye. hello there. there are some big changes in the weather pattern on the way, but notjust yet. on thursday, despite the haziness of the sunshine, temperatures reached 20 celsius in east yorkshire — the warmest place in the country. it's a few degrees cooler than that in northern ireland and across scotland, where we did see more cloud. and we've still got a weak weather front draped in the northern isles, bringing some damp weather here. otherwise, it's high pressure that's dominating the weather. with that stagnant air and no mixing, we've continued to see some poor air quality and we're

going to find some high levels of air pollution again across some eastern parts of england in particular on friday. underneath that high pressure with clear skies, though, we start the day on a chilly note, as we have done over the past few days. temperatures in rural areas won't be far away from freezing. there may be a few pockets of mist and fog to start the day across scotland and northern ireland but away from the northern isles, there'll be more sunshine on friday for scotland and northern ireland. plenty of sunshine for england and wales. the odd shower could pop up over the high ground in northern ireland, southern scotland, and northern england but essentially for most, it's a dry and largely sunny day and quite warm again for the time of year — 18, maybe 19 degrees for england and wales. the high pressure is still there across the uk for saturday. there is that weather front that's moving its way down into the north sea and that is bringing with it some cloud — that'll be important for the second half of the weekend. could be some mist and low cloud affecting some north—western parts of the uk but otherwise, it's another dry and mostly sunny picture and those temperatures showing

little change, really, on saturday. but on sunday, we are expecting some changes. still got the high pressure, but all that moisture, all that cloud that's in the north sea is going to be dragged into that area of high pressure for the second half of the weekend. a lot of uncertainty still about the extent of the cloud but it looks like for england and wales, there will be some cloud, at least for a while — quite low cloud, misty weather, too. where it sticks, it's going to be quite a bit cooler, but further north, across a good part of scotland and northern ireland, there's likely to be some more warm sunshine on the way. into next week, though, this is where we see significant changes — not least because we'll start to see a northerly wind moving down, and that will really drop the temperatures. as the high recedes early next week, we've got the chance of seeing some rain and then, that northerly wind arrives — it will be much colder by day, and also colder by night.

this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm lucy grey. our top stories: a city under constant russian bombardment. we report from the front line inside kharkiv. you can see what they're up against here. this is daily, but the steadfastness of these men has been felt notjust in kharkiv, but around the world. they've had four weeks of this and still they remain. the russians haven't been able to break their lines. as soldiers fight for peace in ukraine, they tell us about their hopes. translation: mainly, we discuss the time when all of it well- end, when we will come back to normal life, when everything will be good,

and it won't be dangerous to go outside and have a walk.