this is bbc news, the headlines: the government in pakistan says a third of the country is underwater. at least 1,000 people have been killed, homes abandoned, and 33 million affected, in extreme monsoon floods. parts of the north of the country have been cut off as infrastructure crumbled. street fighting is continuing in iraq between security forces and supporters of the shia cleric muqtada al—sadr. at least 15 people have been killed, and heavy weapons heard around the parliament in baghdad. on monday, al—sadr�*s supporters stormed the presidential palace after their leader announced he was withdrawing from politics. ukraine says it's broken through russian defences in several sectors of the frontline near the city

of kherson, which has been occupied by moscow since the early days of the invasion. it comes as ukrainian forces launch a long—awaited counter—offensive in the south of the country. now on bbc news, the travel show. each day, before the sun rises in northern chile's atacama desert, people venture up and up. across bumpy terrain to where the altitude is high enough to make you light—headed. the air is thin and even in summer, the temperatures are near freezing. so, these are one of the main draws for tourists coming here to the atacama desert. an incredible place, it is the largest geyser field

in the southern hemisphere. and here in the andes mountains, at over 4,000 metres, it's the highest in the world. but what i find especially incredible is that we're in the atacama desert — i'm sure you've heard of it — the driest place on earth. but i'm notjust in chile sightseeing. i've come because bubbling up in this country has been an appetite for change. sirens wail. 30 years on from the era shaped by dictator augusto pinochet, many here still want change and in 2019, millions took to the streets, angry at inequality and poor public services. but by 2020, there were celebrations. a once—in—a—generation rewrite of their constitution was voted for. i visited as the finishing touches were being put on the new draught, which, if voted in next week,

supporters say will bolster public services, give environmental protections and recognition to chile's indigenous communities for the first time. i wanted to see for myself some of the ways that the country is changing as it considers reshaping not only its constitution, but also its fundamental identity. which is why, 18 hours later, ifind myself in the middle of the desert as night presses in. so, it's half 11 at night. ifeel like i am in the middle of nowhere. i'm not quite sure what i'm

getting myself into. the new constitution would also enshrine individuals' rights to water — a precious resource in a country suffering droughts, and something crucial for the indigenous community of the atacama. this ceremony brings together members of the atacamenos indigenous people, who live around northern chile, and have a deep respect for nature, having adapted to life around the desert. they've given us special permission to come along.

mabel passes aguacoya around the group — a drink with hallucinogenic effects that's made from the cactus plant.

singing. it was quite a serene experience and it was amazing, just to see these local people and how they were so passionate and so emotional

about this ceremony. she sighs. i feel really privileged that we were able to be invited to something like this. you can still hear the drums in the background. it's after four in the morning. i might leave them to it. drums beat, singing. but a community rooted in tradition has been rubbing up against a world evolving at pace. like at the nearby town of san pedro de atacama, which has expanded significantly over the last two decades due to tourism. 0k, look at this. there's a restaurant here, there's a tour operator over there, cute little gift shop and a store selling hiking boots over there, buskers on the street, hotels

with all of their swimming pools. this is a town thatjust revolves around tourism. i can't imagine how much water that uses up. outside of the town, here in this hostile, barren desert, there isn't much that grows. but still, techniques passed down by the indigenous people allowed them to live here in harmony with nature. i wanted to catch up with rosa, the water—bearer from last night's ceremony, to find out a little more about how their position in the modern world here is changing. rosa, how is it so green here? this is crazy! it's like magic, thanks to the water. they chuckle. the idea is we respect the cycle. in winter, the mother earth rest. some of the techniques here use ancient atacamenos methods,

like irrigation channels, which allow these plants to be watered sparingly — just once a month. the idea of this project teach to the world how important is preserve and protect the mother earth. when you come to the desert, not only is landscape and picture, it's introduce and understand how live the local people, how important is the water. and we can live and we can protect the wildlife, too. there are other big changes afoot for the wider community here. can you talk me through what this will mean for your people? well, this is good opportunity for recognise the indigenous people in chile, in the constitution. we have other concepts for life and that is very important because they give more tools for protect the area, especially the water.

recognition is beginning to take shape. some tourist sites, like the geysers, are now co—managed by the indigenous community, allowing them to take an active role in their changing world. but the atacamenos weren't the first indigenous people to call chile home. i left rosa and headed further up the coast to arica. between 7000 and 1500 bc, the hunter gatherer chinchorro people lived here and developed complex mummification practices which have astounded 21st—century researchers. last year, chinchorro burial culture was officially recognised by unesco, who placed it on their world heritage list.

but despite this, the chinchorro still haven't entirely caught the public�*s imagination. the small fishing village of caleta camarones is the closest town to one of the world's top sites where the chinchorro mummies have been found. but here, chinchorro enthusiasts will find little more than a themed restaurant and some statues. so, before we came here, some people said you could see the mummies in the ground and some said you couldn't, so i wasn't really sure what we'd find. but while we were having lunch, we got talking to the guy who runs the place and he says he can show us some mummies in the ground, so — and it's two minutes down the road, so we're on our way. currently, the mummies buried in the ground are being left there by archaeologists for their protection.

0k. here? and as we approach, we take great care not to disturb any of the remains. wow. it's so close to the road. what was it like growing up here? did you see many mummies when you were a child?

there are thought to be thousands of mummies still in these hills and evidence of the chinchorro is scattered all around the area. behind the scenes of the san miguel de azapa museum, the careful study and preservation of the majority of the chinchorro mummies takes place. there's so many mummies here, vivien! how many? yes, we have about 70 mummies, chinchorro mummies, in this store. let me show you a chinchorro mummy. it's quite small. what can you tell me about this mummy?

because if it was me, i would be very scared to work here. what do you love about yourjob? oh, it's very interesting. but these fragile relics, which date back as much as 2000 years before the egyptian mummies, are deteriorating at an increasing rate,

in part due to climate change. there's no air conditioning here, and rising humidity levels are a big threat to the mummies. but it's hoped that a new $25 million museum will help protect them.

is the local people's relationship with these mummies starting to change? do you know, what i find really amazing, is that i'd never even heard of the chinchorro mummies until i came to chile. now, this is crazy because they're the old mummies in the world, and everyone of course has heard of the egyptian mummies, but not the chinchorro mummies. so i get the feeling that things here are slowly changing and maybe in the future they'll get the recognition that they deserve. and along with this renewed appreciation of ancient chilean culture, there's also a greater focus forming on the stunning and unique landscapes and wildlife that you'll find here. i headed south to patagonia's new route of parks. here, 17 old and new national

parks are joined together to create a huge network of wild areas to explore, an area the size of switzerland. it's been one outcome from the largest private land donation in history to create a conservation project on a vast scale. myjourney to its heart takes me six hours in a 4x4. so, we've blown a tire and, as you can see behind me, the road is pretty rough. we've hit one of these huge potholes and i guess that's part of the story of tourism here. you know, the infrastructure is still a work in progress. but, fortunately, all the locals have been super helpful. for two american philanthropists, doug and kris tompkins, the route of parks was just one part of a decades—long project in both chile and argentinian patagonia.

over the course of 30 years, doug, kris and the tompkins conversation 0rganisation bought 2 million acres of land across chile and argentina. i am very proud of what we do because every hectare we have ever purchased goes right back to the people of the country. if you want to conserve a territory and bring back species who've gone toward a point where their numbers are quite low, you have to, a, consult the geniuses of the place who are the people who've lived here for a very long time, because we're coming in and we don't really know that much about how these areas function, and they do. the chilean gaucho traditionally is a horseman skilled at protecting cattle and sometimes hunting predators. but gaucho don daniel now has a wider view of predators

which are an important part of the wildlife ecosystem. he now monitors and protects native deer. today, he uses modern techniques to track the huemuls nearby. so, the signal's quite strong when we point the antenna that way. it's like one of those tv

antennas from the �*70s or �*80s that you had on your roof. but it seems to be doing thejob. 0h, yep. i can hear it. 99% of the original huemul population are thought to have been lost, placing the breed on the endangered list. with don daniel's help, we soon spot something in the distance. gosh, look at don daniel go. so, we've actually found a huemul deer. can you see him in the distance? he's just sitting there in the grass and he's quite well camouflaged. we move for a closer look and quickly see that there are in fact three huemul together. so we're approaching the deer from a lower ground angle so we don't scare them.

it's unbelievable that now the numbers have grown

and we've been able to track them within the space of a quarter of an hour, and here we are, and we're able to get this close to them. doug tompkins sadly never saw his plan with kris finalised, as he passed away in 2015. a good friend of mine from new york city wrote to me just a few days after he died and she said, "look, you have a choice here. you can be the long—suffering widow or you can get out of bed and go do these things." and she was right. ihad... that was a conscious decision i was going to have to make,

and so, ijust thought, "ok, let's go for it." and that's when i started trying to tie up everything, and within two years, we had them all donated. wow. and that was a lot of work. and i think it saved my life, needing to do that. yeah. i think there's a tremendous amount of enthusiasm in chile right now, young and old. and, certainly, the environment is one of the big platforms of this new administration. ijust don't think i was expecting what an amazing place of contrast this country is. but at the same time, there's lots bringing it together at the moment, like a new focus on the environment and conservation, an ambition to set a new course to the future, treasuring their common heritage and their common land for generations to come.

well, it was a fine bank holiday monday in wales. we had plenty of sunshine and, in porthmadog in the northwest, we had temperatures up to 25 degrees. looking at the weather picture for the rest of the uk this week, there will be a lot of drier weather. it is quite breezy, though, at times in the south, perhaps a bit warmer over the next couple of days, but there's a big change in our weather patterns on the way as we head into the next weekend. high pressure stays to the north of the uk at the moment, and it's that that's driving in these north—to—northeasterly winds, bringing in quite a bit of cloud across scotland and down these eastern coastal areas of england. the cloud thick enough for an occasional light shower, a few mist patches as well over the next two hours, and temperatures similar to what they've been over recent nights.

so, this is how we start off tuesday morning. a bright start across much of england, wales, northern ireland with some sunshine. as we go through the morning, cloud will bubble up and develop and spread across the skies, so certainly towards the early part of the afternoon for quite a few of you, it will turn rather cloudy. and that cloud thick enough to squeeze out an odd light shower — east anglia, south—east england, maybe one or two across wales and northern ireland as well — but the emphasis is on a lot of dry weather. quite breezy around our coasts, and it's those onshore winds that will keep the temperatures a little bit fresher and lower across eastern scotland, eastern areas of england. again, the warmest spots are likely to be across wales and southwest england, where we'll see temperatures, again, pushing on towards the mid—20s.

now, for wednesday, again, there could be an odd isolated shower around. 2a, maybe 25, but still into the high teens across scotland and the far northeast of england. the weather stays quite quiet, really, through thursday and friday. no great changes in the weather forecast. temperatures in the warmest spots climbing into the mid—20s. however, it's as we head into the weekend that we see a big change in our weather as this area of low pressure moves in. now, it is forecast to become quite the heaviest rain is likely to be across probably southern and western areas, but they are some of the places that we've got those water and hosepipe restrictions and problems at the moment. so, of course, we do need this rain to fall, and it's on the way for the weekend.

this is bbc news. i'm rich preston. our top stories: a third of the country underwater, farmland and homes destroyed, pakistan braces itself for more flooding. calls for calm in iraq as clashes continue between security forces and supporters of the shia cleric muqtada al—sadr. ukraine pushes forward, a southern offensive to try to drive russian forces from kherson. and, awaiting judgement: the man on trial in australia for a murder in the 1980s made famous by a true—crime podcast.