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tv   The Travel Show  BBC News  October 25, 2022 3:30am-4:00am BST

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this is bbc news, the headlines: rishi sunak will be appointed britain's new prime minister by king charles on tuesday morning, after liz truss submits her formal resignation. mr sunak was declared leader of the conservative party, when his last rival pulled out just before the deadline. he'll be the first british—asian in the post. russia is to take its accusation that ukraine is planning a dirty bomb attack to the un security council. in a letter to the un secretary general and the security council — russia said the use of any such device would be seen as "an act of nuclear terrorism."
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the us attorney general merrick garland has accused china of trying to undermine the american justice system, as he announced indictments against thirteen of its nationals. in one case, the department ofjustice accused two chinese intelligence agents of attempted bribery and espionage in america. now on bbc news, the travel show. this week on the show: pulling down the past... i believe that the monuments would not give a tribute to the regime but they should preserve the history and the memory. ..feeling the heat. . .. we're getting major fires every year now, and multiple ones. oh, my god! ..and up to our knees in an estonian bog. there's a lot there. there's a lot.
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for 300 years, on and off, estonia was part of russia. ruled first by the czarist empire, then the soviet union. links between the two are many and deep — in fact, around a third of the people here have russian as theirfirst language. but since the invasion of ukraine in february, the government has steered a course very firmly away from its powerful neighbour. there have been travel bans for russian tourists, and something even more dramatic. historic russian and soviet monuments are being removed from public view.
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and notjust here. the other baltic states, latvia and lithuania, are making similar symbolic gestures. explosion. this was among the first — a replica tank commemorating soviet soldiers killed during world war ii. it's been moved to estonia's war museum from the town of narva, which sits right on the russian border. the government says it's to avert what it calls "increasing social tension". oh, wow! look at this. very welcome! the t—sii was produced from may �*aos to �*60s, more than 80,000. so, it's extremely ordinary
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tank, nothing special. wow — i mean, you say nothing special but, i mean, there's — that is like a rock. that's why it is tank. laughs. why do you think a museum is a better place for these sorts of objects? that's why the museums are created for — to keep the history. it's a question of symbols. and for our people, that is a symbol of occupation, that's a symbol of soviet troops and we wanted to turn a new page. as you can see, we're not destroying it, we keep it. but the links are impossible to sever. so many of the big public spaces around the capital are russian built. they're are bold, architecturally distinctive and pretty popular, too. these days, the peter the great seaplane harbour is a maritime museum, painstakingly restored. the foreboding patarei sea fortress now hosts gigs and club nights. and noblessner port, imperial russia's submarine factory, is fast becoming
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tallinn�*s new leisure district. as well as cafes, bars and new luxury apartments on the way, there is this - proto. its owners call it an invention factory. it's sort of an interactive museum. so, as we cycle, the little cyclists on the track go round, so it's a race now. yes! it's a competition, yes! so, tell me more about this incredible building — i assume it hasn't always hosted parlour games. exactly. this building, it was the foundry... wow. ..of the shipyard. next to it was the coopersmith, then there were some storages, local power plant, the engine generator workshop and assembly workshop, so huge area where submarines were produced, yes. among all of the family attractions, there are still glimpses of the building's former life.
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this is a control panel to open the gate, which is here. 0h, here we go! here, these are — exactly, these giant gates. that is a giant gate. yes. that was used to take the ships out of the foundry. 0h, right, so they'd bring them in and out here? yep. you'd press the button and they'd rumble on out? so, how do you feel about the russian and soviet monuments being taken down? well, i believe — i believe that the monuments would not kind of like give a tribute to the regime but they should preserve the history and the memory. in this case, the best place for the monument is in a museum. we have this place. this is a wonderful way of people to learn the history and to remember the history. so it's preserving the history, not celebrating the ideology. absolutely right. these spaces are being lovingly restored.
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money and hard work have been spent to make them attractive. some haven't had that treatment but have become popular nonetheless. this is rummu. it was one of a string of soviet—run prisons that used to stretch across estonia. it's has quite a grim backstory. that's all history now, right? from their arrival in 1940, the soviets used prisoners here to mine and process limestone from the quarry. when estonia regained its independence in 1991, the site was abandoned and reclaimed by rising groundwater. today, it's become popular with swimmers, divers and snorkellers. so, what can you tell me about this building and what it would have been when it was a functioning prison? prisoners were working
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in all positions. they were working in this building, they working in the mine, where they were — they were digging out the material. they were also working as the ones who were making the explosions to get the material off. so most probably, they are the reason why this quarry was floated. the limestone makes the water such a striking colour that some call it �*the blue lagoon�*. i think the most precious places here is the visibility. as you see today, we can see almost, like, five, six metres — four, for sure — and every time i go diving here, i see something new. there's a complicated legacy of this place, given its history?
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i think the persons that were staying in this prison, for sure, they don't want to come back here. but for the rest of us, it's mainly the place we can spend summertime or enjoy the water because it's really warm and it's really good visibility here and we can see everything inside. i really love being here in the water. sigrid has genuine affection for rummu. she wants to preserve it and stop it falling into the hands of developers. this could be considered as having a very strong association with the soviet period. do you think that these sorts of places should be preserved or taken down? that depends on the place and it depends on the monument maybe, because most of them have been taken down already. maybe the ones that we can use for the future to have the place to go, to see some pieces — some pieces of history, they
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should stay where they are. estonia is at a crossroads. many people are happy to see this country distanced from the russian regime but there's a shared history here — one that's not going to be disappearing anytime soon. and if you're thinking of heading to estonia, here are some travel show tips to help with your planning. tallinn is a classic christmas market sort of town and it looks lovely lit up in the town hall square from late november. pay attention to the tree. estonians reckon their capital was home to europe's first christmas tree in 14111. that claim is disputed by latvia but tallinn still makes a big deal of it nonetheless. a couple of highlights from the old town.
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0lde hansa at a super—touristy but fun mediaeval—themed restaurant, just around the corner from the gothic town hall. it claims its food is still made to 17th—century recipes. also nearby is niguliste museum, in the 12th century st nicholas church. the big show piece there is bernt notke�*s danse macabre, which invites you to think about the futility of life. and sauna culture is everywhere in estonia. there's a good chance they'll will be one wherever you're staying, but look out for smoke saunas, where you'll sweat in the aroma of stripped alder and birch logs. still to come on the travel show — reflections on the summer of intense heat across the northern hemisphere... are they sweet? 0h! ..and the sweet, sweet
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taste of estonia's bogs. they're very sour! so don't go away. this week, we're exploring estonia and just while we're in the capital of tallinn, i wanted to you this. this is a remote working pod. it's in the middle of a shopping centre, right in the cool part of town. places like this have been popping up since the pandemic throughout tallinn. the authorities have been keen to encourage people to come and work in estonia for an extended length of time and as a result have introduced special 30—day digital nomad visas. and it's notjust the visas — in tallinn, they've installed wi—fi across the city, all key services are online and cool co—working spaces like this are popping up all over. these office huts overlook the baltic.
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hiya! how are you doing? hi, miguel. nice to meet you. good to meet you — ooh, isn't it toasty warm in here? you need to experience the estonian winter because it's something different — it's dark and it's cold but it's also very cosy and warm. what is it about tallinn that makes this such a great place for digital nomads? the very cool co—working spaces are around, there's a very good tech scene, also a very good start—up scene. it is very open and friendly. everything invites you to, you know, relax, to focus on yourjob. and in case you were in any doubt about how they like to finish the working day here, this place has four offices and five saunas. hi. my name is miriam nielsen and i'm working towards my phd at colombia university studying hydroclimate extremes. i also make youtube videos about climate change and climate activism.
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this summer and, frankly, the last several years, the northern hemisphere especially has been seeing these intense dramatic heatwaves that are predominantly caused by increasing global temperature like climate change and we're seeing that in places like the uk and california. you know, what you're seeing in yosemite, in the sierra is more fires and this year, boy, it's — you know, when i first moved up here about 25 years ago, we'd get, you know, maybe one major fire every five or ten years. we're getting major fires every year now, and multiple ones. the problems are the melting snow on the glaciers. - we have a lot more crevasse incidents because the snow. coverage on the glaciers is totally thinned out. and then, many places, i the glaciers are receding. we had to basically stop
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guiding certain trips - on certain glaciers because it just became too dangerous l for a while because the snow bridges on the glaciers - was too thin. this has increased the number of accidents with crevasses. i what basically happened is the jet stream, which is this meandering current of air, got stuck in one place. and so, all of this hot air from northern africa ended up piling up and that led to really, really high temperatures, which impacts everyone from sitting at home to, you know, snowpack on mountaintops. i mean, i'm not a climate expert, but obviously there is climate change in place and if it continues like this, i think we just need to maybe adapt our scheduling, programming, and all these ice fields are literally gone. there's absolutely some things you can do. - we don't know the cause of the washburn fire - but it was human, you know? there was no - lightning that day. so, somebody dropped i a cigarette, somebody did something.
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sojust be aware. if you're from areas - where it's maybe not as dry, even parking your car- off pavement, you know, on dry grass, that has sparked fires up here that people have| lost homes over. campfires are banned at most elevations during the summer but still, don't even try it. we have had fires that had started — and again, - people have lost homes by illegal campfires. - so i think it'sjust be aware of the environment around | you during the summer in california, even - in a non—drought year. it's dry, we don't have rain for months, it is ready- to spark at the slightest human error. _ so be aware of all your actions when you're visiting the park. i so, the thing that i try to cling to is that with all these disasters from heatwaves to flooding is that none of them are really new. humans have experienced all these events for a very, very long time and we've built structures and communities to cope with them. and we can keep doing that
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and we can respond to how the world is changing around us. well, obviously, travelling can be a huge source of emissions. spending time outside is one of the least emitting things you can do and if you go looking for it, you can find these beautiful natural spaces basically anywhere. i've left the capital tallinn now and i'm making for estonia's countryside... this looks almost like savannah. itjust goes on forever. ..and for a landscape whose reputation has done something of an about—face in recent years. around 7% of estonia is made up of this bogland. and it's fair to say in the past, not everyone was a huge fan — in fact, people would regard a landscape like this with horror
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because folklore said that this is exactly the kind of place where you might be waylaid by evil spirits. times have changed, though, and it's now becoming apparent just how useful these bogs are. the world's peatlands store twice as much carbon as forest, according to the un, and that makes them enormously valuable in the fight against climate change. it's odd to see a digger at work in a forest and to know that it's doing good. marcus! hello! i'm christa. good to meet you. nice to meet you. as a result, estonia is making efforts to restore and re—bog some of the land that was drained decades ago. what is this big — i mean, it looks like mud, but is this peat? yeah, that is peat. actually, if you look, it is almost decayed but not
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totally decomposed, the plant material. ah, you can still see the fibres. here it was maybe the depth of the peat layer is two metres, which means that so approximately, the lowest layers are 2,000 years old. we are trying to restore the forest habitats because in 1960s, back then, this type of landscape was considered a total wasteland. why is it important to restore these peatlands? it is important for carbon emissions. we want to stop carbon emissions here. we want that this peatland would store carbon, not emitting it. but people here are also finding out what a stunning playground this environment is. glad to meet you. good to meet you too. i have my gumboots ready! very good! ready to hit the bogs. let's go. aivar is a guide who, lives, works and plays here in soomaa national park. he floats through the bogs
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in his canoe, skates and sledges on them in the winter, and stomps through them in these. any tips? it's not that difficult, actually. you just walk. and one important thing when you want to turn back, you always come with a u—turn. you don't step like this because of this, but the u—turn, it works well. 0k, these are one—way bog shoes. yes, only forward. 0k! whoop! bog shoes are a bit like snowshoes, and our crew soon discovers the importance of wearing them. don't fall over, george. there is a lot there. there's a lot. jordan has just emptied about a litre of water out
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of his boot. and that is why you wear bog shoes. chuckles. so, yeah, what is all this made up of? because it feels like we're walking on a big sponge. yeah, it is mostly made of the moss. more specifically, sphagnum moss. so, this is the plant here. ah, 0k! and if you take some of it, yeah, so you can... oh, it's really like a sponge, isn't it? so it's like a... it is rotting down there, becoming peat. but in the top bit, it is growing, it is green, yeah, like... yes, it is living. it's sort of a... and it is full of water. so it doesn't look like water but if you squeeze it... oh, wow! look at that! it may look like a barren landscape but there is plenty
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here to forage. it looks like someone has just spilled some berries on the ground. do you want to taste? ido! i have had cranberryjuice before but i have never had a cranberry. are they sweet? 0h... laughs. 0h, they're very sour! not that sour. coughs. and there is just one final chilly treat that aivar is keen to show me. all right. are you sure about this? is this a good idea? not really. oh, oh god! i can already feel how cold it is! actually quite cold! laughs. this water makes you feel like your skin is softer, makes you, like, a little bit younger. i mean, it would want to, because it is really cold. screams. it is really cold! oh, it is really, really cold.
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i can see how after a bit of a — working up a sweat, bog—shoeing, this would be a nice sort of shock to the system. so, how far does this go down? a few metres. so, if you... there is no bottom there. so, i think the verdict for the bog swimming is absolutely freezing cold when you don't come in the summer. wow, but i mean, what a setting. i definitely needed to warm up after that. shivers. but that's all we have for this week's programme. don't forget, you can catch up on our recent adventures by going to bbc iplayer, and there's plenty of other great travel content from around the bbc — just follow the handles on the screen now. until next time, stay warm and bye—bye.
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hello. the start of the new week has been fine and settle. the wind and rain will come across western areas but some warm sunshine as well. this is the feature running into southern areas late on thursday, head of that wind will be lighter with dry weather about, good spells of sunshine, the odd shower dotted around here and there, we and windy across the
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south—west quadrant, very pleasant in the sunshine around 18 or 19 degrees across the south—east, in the teens further north. tuesday night area of wet and windy weather pushes northward, rain quite heavy picking up to reach gail followed by blustery showers, drawing up very mild here, we start wednesday of extremely mild for england and wales, even double because further north. this is the pressure chart for wednesday, lots of isobars on the charts, it is very windy, drawing very mild here from south—west, the air source coming from the subtropics. noticeably mild on wednesday when the sunshine comes out, wet, windy weather pushes northward is followed by blustery showers, a better chance of staying dry her towards the east, the wind is a feature whether —— where you
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are, temperatures mid to high teens for the north, up to 20 and 21 degrees across the south—east. through wednesday night, blustery showers continue across northern and western areas, another cost of showers and spells of rains pushing into england and wales, some could be thundery, into thursday day, showers could spread upwards with dry weather pushing into england and wales late on. stay tuned as details thus far are are a bit sketchy. very mild on thursday, 21 or 22 across the south, well above the seasonal norm, ending working we, another low pressure system could bring the wet and moody with across northern and western parts of the country, scanty on detail but it could be quite wet green across the northern half of the country followed by sunshine, blustery showers and quite a
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bit of sunshine around, very mild ems pushing into the 20s across southern and eastern areas. the outlook for next weekend in the following week, further unsettled weather at times, with high pressure parked across the near constant it will keep this with the systems at bay, low pressure will move off the atlantic and affect more western parts of the country, the further east and south more likely you are to stay dry, on the milder side of the weather system, call it but pushing into the far late in the period. but it stays relatively unsettled, showery and mild for next weekend, and into the following week, especially across southern and eastern areas most rain showers will be held to the west.
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we're getting major fires every year now, and multiple ones.
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welcome to bbc news. i'm lucy grey. our top stories: cheering and applause making history — rishi sunak will be the uk's next prime minister, the first ever british—asian to hold the post. we now need stability and unity, and i will make it my upmost priority to bring our party and our country together. russia's foreign spy—chief denies moscow is engaging in nuclear sabre—rattling and accuses ukraine of planning to use a so—called �*dirty bomb�*. the us issues criminal charges against 13 chinese citizens as part of an investigation into beijing's activities in america. and, disgraced former hollywood mogul, harvey weinstein, faces charges of rape and sexual assault in los angeles.

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