this is bbc news, the headlines: mikhail gorbachev, the last leader of the soviet union, who brought the cold war to a peaceful end, has died aged 91. world leaders have been paying tribute — a kremlin spokesman said president putin had expressed his deepest condolences, and borisjohnson said that he always admired mr gorbachev�*s "courage and integrity". pakistan is facing "a monsoon on steroids", the un's secretary general has warned, after floods submerged a third of the country. antonio guterres urged the world to come to pakistan's aid as he launched an emergency appeal to help the tens of millions affected in the disaster. a shipment of grain from ukraine has arrived in port in djibouti. it's the first such cargo to be sent to the horn of africa region since

the russian invasion. the vessel was chartered by the world food programme, to supply countries at risk from starvation. to ukraine now, where the army says it has destroyed command posts and ammunition depots on the second day of its counterattack against the russians in the south. the military says ukrainian forces are targeting bridges which provide russia's army with a lifeline to its troops around kherson. let's get more now from our correspondent in kyiv, james waterhouse. these counteract offensives by ukraine on and around the city of kherson are significant for ukraine, but there are some caveats. we are still talking about a sizeable chunk of territory, and ukraine aborts counterattacks in almost a daily basis. however, it is clear that after weeks of using

these long—range missile systems to take down important bridges, to strafe the russian supply lines, the target command centres as they claim it is clear the ukrainians have the confidence to push forward, which is why they are to have pushed through the first russian defensive line. not just that, there are reports of fighting in the city, we have heard gunfire, we have seen dark smoke billowing over the city's skyline and also moscow has acknowledged it is defending a tax. the difference is, russia claims those attacks have failed. but there is a bigger picture. ukraine is very keen, president zelensky specifically, to show to the west what it can do with the weapons it is being provided with. as a european union member countries start to grapple with the energy crisis caused by this war, as this

year pushes on and winter approaches, for ukraine, the time is now to show what it can do in the hope —— and hope in kyiv is that it will notjust stop at kherson: but we a summary of the city being retaken. the cremin has said everything is still going according to plan and what it still describes as a special military operation. 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 2ist—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 huemules 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 huemule 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 huemule 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 huemule 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.

hello there. i'm sure many people have been making the most of this generally dry weather with some sunshine. we had a lot of sunshine actually around on tuesday and we've got more of the same for today. we start, though, with temperatures on the whole in double figures early on wednesday morning, but it'll be a bit colder, i think, in the north—east of scotland — could be down to 3 or 4 degrees here. now, many places will start wednesday dry and sunny, but there's cloud coming in off the north sea to bring a few showers into the far north of england. and with the cloud bubbling up in eastern england, there could be the odd light shower here. but on the whole, it'll be dry for england and wales. quite windy in the south, especially through the english channel. not as windy for scotland and northern ireland. a sunnier a day than it was on tuesday, but temperatures not changing very much. so again, we're likely to make

2a in southern parts of england and south wales. now, high pressure extends all the way down from the arctic circle and that's keeping it generally fine and dry. the fly in the ointment on thursday is that area of low pressure and weather fronts that threatens to bring some heavier showers, notjust for the channel islands, but now perhaps into the far south—west of england. 0therwise, some lengthy spells of sunshine, some patchy cloud bubbling up here and there. probably not quite as windy for southern areas. it may be a bit warmer widely — temperatures into the low to mid 20s on thursday. so we've got a couple more days of this quiet, largely dry weather with some sunshine. but by the end of the week and into the weekend, things may look a little different. we've got some rain in the forecast and that's because pressure is going to be falling. we've got this low pressure heading up towards the english channel, weather front sliding in from the atlantic and the two sort of bumping into each other and combining. so we're going to find some patchy rain coming into the north—west of the uk. these showers, though, moving up from the south from the english channel, look a little more widespread. some of them could be heavy and possibly thundery.

there'll still be some sunshine away from those showers and those temperatures peaking again at the mid 20s. now, we started the week with high pressure. we're going to end the week with low pressure and that low pressure will be dominant into the weekend as well. centre of the low to the west of the uk. a couple of weather fronts on the scene. no doubt those will come to rest in a slightly different place. but you've got this idea of a couple of bands of wet weather that could be heavy and thundery. some sunshine either side of that and a bit of warmth still. but some stronger winds will keep most of the rain away from scotland. 20 degrees here, 2a in the south—east.

welcome to bbc news, i'm mark lobel. our top stories. tributes to mikhail gorbachev, the last leader of the soviet union, who's died aged 91 — remembered as a man of courage. he helped to end the cold war, he's being praised the world over, but wasn't as successful with radical reforms back home, where many blame him for the collapse of the soviet union. pakistan is facing a monsoon on steroids — so says the un as they launch an emergency appeal to help deal with the worst flooding in the country's history. had the floods not come, they would have something to take to market, a way of looking after themselves. and yet now, they have to sit on the side of the road and wait for food to be delivered. changes to abortion

legislation injapan —