this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour straight after this programme. thailand's landscapes are like something from a dream... ah! imean... i mean, look at this. this is absolutely stunning! ..from dazzling coastlines to lush countryside and wildlife that will take your breath away. visions of paradise that in normal times attract more than 30 million of us every year. but that weight of numbers

isn't necessarily good news for this country's fragile natural heritage. the boats are disturbing the sediment and that also harms a lot of the coral reef in this area. as far as caves go, this one is very impressive. oh, it's like paradise. there's so much to explore. we should preserve this. this week, i'm in thailand, one of asia's most visited destinations, to ask — might its staggering beauty be one of its biggest challenges? this is the andaman sea. it runs along thailand's west coast and i'm about an hour offshore, on the hunt for the perfect, perfect beach.

if you're looking for somewhere picture—postcard pretty, you'll be wanting this stretch of coastline. it's all the cliches — palm trees, emerald seas and lovely stretches of sand. this is the thailand i've been waiting for. this. click, click, click. i'm getting off at maya bay. it's famous for its attention—grabbing role in the hollywood movie, the beach, starring leonardo dicaprio. in it, the characters hear rumours of a totally secluded and unspoilt paradise. the movie's success brought sightseers in their thousands. so, i came here around 2015, so about eight years ago, and, honestly, all i can

remember is just seeing so many boats, just boats upon boats, that really... you couldn't really see the water, you couldn't appreciate the colours. there were people, so many people, on the beach. there was quite a lot of rubbish as well. and ijust remember leaving, feeling quite deflated. in 2018, it all got too much and the bay was finally shut. there were four years of intensive conservation work and this january, it was reopened with new rules. boats are banned in the bay and swimming in the sea is strictly forbidden. blows whistle there's lots of rules and restrictions in place here. how did you feel about them when you discovered them? i understand it. i understand why there's, like, rules and why there's, like, a fee that you need to pay to maintain how beautiful this bay is. i totally understand that. just, i didn't expect a beach where you're not allowed to swim. water is actually greenish—blue. we have never seen this colour of water anywhere. and it's a good thing that you are trying to save that.

you are not allowing swimming or any such thing over here and trying to save the marine life. at the peak of its popularity, around 4,000 people a day would come to this beach, but all that activity killed off 90% of the coral and saw off the blacktip reef sharks that mate here. may has spent the last six months monitoring the shark populations to see what happens now tourists are allowed back. they are using this area to hide from the bigger ones that are like in the deeper area. yeah. so, that's why ask people not to swim, because then, the baby sharks have a safety area. we have seen a lot of them coming back, so we have counted, like, the highest number is 161 sharks. wow! yeah, in november 2021. yeah, it's really nice. what was the problem with the tourists and the sharks?

the boats are disturbing the sediment here and that also harms a lot of the coral reef in this area, so after the ecosystem kind of deteriorate... yes. ..the shark is not coming in because the fish is not here. the tech may uses is pretty simple — a bag of mashed—up fish and a camera attached to a metalframe. and then, it's just a case of finding a good spot. we are about to put the camera down to film the shark for one hour. so, we do this four times a day, so that we can get, like, a behaviour data and also photo identification. 0k. yeah. we want to get a good photo of the dorsal fin and also, we want to see what they're

doing underwater. yeah. so, are theyjust cruising around, like, passing by, or are they attracted to the bait, or are they start nibbling on the bait? oh, there we go. none of them are going for the food yet, though. is that because this isn't... you said they feed more at night, right? yeah. if it's night—time, they are really crazy. yeah. so, some of them take a long time to come close. and some of them are really fast. we can see that each of them have personality and then, when we photo id them, different months, we can see if the same one comes back. are you hoping that the strict regulations, they stay in place and they're enforced

for the foreseeable future? yes. i really hope that. that would be for the greater good of the sharks and your research. and also for the harmony between people and nature. yeah. but despite what's happened here, thailand is hoping to double its visitor numbers in the next four years and i can't help but wonder how these beauty spots will cope. a good proportion of those new arrivals will pass, like me, through this place along the way. get out the road! yes! skipping traffic, that's what i like to see. it's no secret that the traffic here in bangkok has been awful for years and it's not that uncommon for drivers to be stuck in traffic or trapped for hours, as they crawl their way through the city and as a result, the pollution here can get quite bad.

to encourage more people off the roads, the city's about to expand its public transport system. work�*s beginning on new lines for the skytrain and on the edge of the city, a vast, newly—opened international railway station. i'm not actually surprised i'm lost because this is the biggest train station in southeast asia. as far as stations go, it's huge, sterile, loads of air—con. right, platform four. where are you? billions of dollars is being spent on new rail links, primarily into china. but wherever you're going, a journey on the trains here represents value for money. so, a first class ticket will set you back 222 bahts. that's just under £5. and it's so cheap, considering you're getting around seven hours' travel out of it. but there's no air—con

and the seats are pretty hard, so you have been warned. there are second class options, if you want a bit more comfort though. some of the more popular routes include chiang mai to bangkok and bangkok to the southern beach resorts. you can even go international. so, east to laos and cambodia, and even as far as malaysia and singapore. but i'm jumping off at a stop that will get me within easy reach of thailand's lush countryside. i've arrived in a province called surin, which, as you can probably tell, is pretty rural and remote, but it's also home to some pretty special residents. surin is the spiritual home of the mahouts, or elephant handlers. around a quarter of all the country's domesticated population are said to come from here.

saeb used to work in the northern city of chiang mai, charging people for rides. hi, saeb! i want the tour. you've got to show me around. so, what's this big fella's name, then? ekasit. and how old is he? 38. 38! is that quite old in elephant years? yeah, yeah. so, shall we get more food? he's running out. wow!

he's a big guy. eats a lot. during covid, when attractions shut, ekasit and saebjoined hundreds of others in making the long journey back to surin, where institutions have been set up to give mahouts a salary and free veterinary care. being very careful. so, what do you get from living here? in total, more than 3,000 elephants are put to work at tourist attractions

around the country. charities say many are routinely mistreated. here, there's more peace, space and support for saeb, but ekasit is still chained to the floor. saeb says that it's too dangerous to remove ekasit�*s chains, due to his sheer size. ekasit is happy? you know, he's in the same place for a long time, but is he a happy elephant? saeb seems like such a nice person, who clearly loves his elephant, but you know, so many people come here and pay to ride one through thejungle, or watch them paint, or even play football. now, many organisations warn against that, so the rule of thumb, they say, is to avoid

any situation that involves an elephant performing for a paying customer. saeb told me that one of the main reasons he came here was because he can get treatment for his elephant. it looks a bit like a garage for elephants! they exchange greetings so, which one of you is the vet? yeah. you're the vet. hi! nice to meet you. nice to meet you too. i'm lucy. i'm nat. great to meet you. i'm going to guess here. broken leg? yeah. yes. and how did he... how did that happen? and is it hard for him to walk now?

so, a lot of the elephants that came in during covid, you know, have come from quite busy tourist cities, you know, some of them in quite inhumane conditions. what were some of the problems that they had? just before i leave, i wanted to go and see saeb bathe his elephant, a daily ritualfor him in his retirement.

just before i leave, i wanted to go and see saeb bathe his elephant, a daily ritualfor him in his retirement. i can't help but feeljust a little conflicted. seeing them in chains really is quite hard to witness. some tour companies have stopped advertising trips involving interaction with elephants, saying the only ethical way to see them is in the wild. elephant rumbles i've never heard an elephant make that noise before! my final stop is almost as far north as you can go in thailand, just a couple of miles away from the border with myanmar.

this range of hills is known as the sleeping princess because, from distance, that's exactly what it looks like. i'm lucy. nice to meet you. really nice to meet you. so, where are you from? i'm from pyau. pyau. up until a few years ago, there was no tourist shuttle bus in operation here. and this remote part of the world wasn't even a part of backpackers�* trails. the industries here were all agricultural, so coffee, oranges, lychee, but things are changing. this summer, the tham luang cave system has been marking the fifth anniversary of a rescue that caught the world's attention. news report: 12 children and their football coach i who have been missing for ten days have been found alive in flooded caves. this is the biggest search and rescue operation in this country's history and i would imagine probably one of the biggest cave search and rescues there's ever been.

the thai authorities are throwing everything at this. in the end, it took 18 days to find the wild boars football team and bring them all successfully to the surface. pictures of the dramatic operation were beamed all over the world. and now, people are coming to see where it happened, not least to lay flowers at the poignant new statue to saman gunan, the thai navy seal who lost his life during the mission. there's also a new museum, a gift shop and, for local people, the opportunity to make a few baht. how are you? are you good? do you get lots of tourists here? yeah? quite a lot? busy?

you are allowed to explore the cave yourself, to a certain point, but i've asked two local caving guides to take me in a bit further. hi. hello. mario and taw worked here throughout the mission, installing the ropes and pulleys that winched the boys to safety. so, what's it like being back in the cave? feels good. it's nice to be back. i love this cave. yeah. it's a really...pretty cave. lots of nice formations and, yeah... yeah, it's gorgeous. it's very quiet at the moment. during the rescue, so many people in here. a lot of noise. you were hearing the pumps. and people shouting around. carrying stuff in.

yeah, i bet. oh, wow! this is where the medical team sat. medical team was over here, yes. the rescue was complex and dangerous. dive teams had to make their way through flooded tunnels, heavily sedate each boy one at a time to stop them panicking, and swim their unconscious bodies back through the system. so, tourists really aren't allowed through this part, if this gate is anything to go by. you only can pass this point with a guide and with special permission from the national park. so, is it normal for kids to use this as their playground? yeah, countryside. yeah. so, kids ride their bicycles, play football, come out, explore some caves. it's not the first time that they came in here. there were big pumps in here. yeah.

to try to get the water out. yeah. how deep did it go? 60, 70. ok, so up to your knees, maybe. wow, that really hammers it home, doesn't it? we're getting into chamber two right now. two. chamber two is where all the high lines are in. 0h, 0k, yes. taw�*s team built this high line, which helped rescuers winch the boys back through the cave. yeah, to build a high line, it's a little bit tricky to build the anchor system here because, er... ..the rock at some spots is not really good. and, yeah, the day that the... ..the kids here... ..i'm crying, actually. yeah, yeah. yeah. i'm getting the impression things are going to get a bit trickierfrom here on in. you got me, taw! thank you! all right! woo!

it is getting progressively tighter. and where i'm staring at right now, doesn't even look like people should go down there. but i think we're going to go down there! we call this one the keyhole. it looks like a keyhole over here. so, then, the (indistinct) team were over here, - to where you're sitting right now and then it had to be tilted a little bit to the side, to get... navigate through that. with the patient, with the kid, through the keyhole over here. and what was it like, you know, that moment when the first kid came through and you saw that and you got the thumbs up that they were alive? yeah. again, still, that silence, people didn't know what was going on. is the kid still alive or not? yeah, once we got the thumbs up, it was... yeah. ..feeling really good. as far as caves go, this one is very impressive.

oh, it's like paradise. there's so many caves around. there's so much to explore. and we should preserve this one. yeah, absolutely. so, for us, it's very important that we leave no trace. everything we bring in, we bring out. we only leave footprints. and be respectful. be respectful, yeah. you know, i am genuinely blown away byjust how much respect these guys have for the nature here. and, you know, i think it's fair to say that thailand has quite a complicated relationship when it comes to its diverse landscapes and natural heritage, and, as a result, it has had to learn a few tough lessons along the way.

and yet, there are efforts to persuade many more of us to come and see these wild spaces. the tricky part will be allowing that to happen, without destroying the very thing that makes thailand's environment so special. and i'd like to hope they'll find a way to get it right. hello there. for the start of this weekend, it's going to feel like we've stepped back into winter, rather than spring, and it's due to the strength and direction of the wind — a cold north—westerly which will feed in a rash of frequent, heavy showers as well. and it's all because we've got low pressure that's pushing its way north and east and spiralling around that low in an anti—clockwise direction is a cold northwesterly wind. frequently packed isobars. the strongest of the winds further north. clear skies, though, over the next few hours will allow those temperatures to fall away, so a chilly start

to our saturday morning. and then, as we start saturday, a frequent rash of showers to the north but we will see them pushing across wales, central and southern england as we go through the morning, too. and some of the showers heavy with rumbles of thunder. so, through the middle part of the afternoon, we're still likely to see some showers across england and wales, most frequent further north and west, across northern ireland and up into scotland. and, yes, with elevation above 500 metres, we could see some snow as well. now, the wind will play its part, too. it's going to be a strong north to northwesterly wind at times. gusts in excess of 110—55 mph in the north but even further south, we're looking at 30—110 mph, and that is really going to have an impact on the feel of the weather. so, your thermometers may suggest 9 or 10 degrees but it's unusual to be talking about it feels like this time of year but the wind chill will have an impact.

it'll feel much colder — and really cold, considering we saw temperatures peaking at 19 degrees a week ago. the showers will tend to fade as our low continues to pull away, and we actually see this little ridge of high pressure building. so, i've got some good news for you — sunday should be a quieter day before the next area of rain waits in the wings. so, there's a risk of a few showers running down through north sea coasts and here, a little bit more of a breeze with generally lighter winds, more sunshine coming through and it will be a drier day — 9—12 degrees the highs — feeling a little warmer. but cloud and rain gathers out to the west and look what's in store for the week ahead. it stays decidedly unsettled with a glimpse of something a little bit more promising as we head towards easter.

live from london, this is bbc news. at least 60 people have been killed and more than a hundred injured in a gun attack at a concert hall near moscow. the islamic state group says it carried out the attack — a claim that's been backed by the us, which had warned americans in russia about a threat from extremists. in an unprecedented video message, the princess of wales reveals she is in the early stages of treatment after a cancer diagnosis. and the first british field hospital in gaza is set to be up and running by early next week.

hello, i'm azadeh moshiri. we begin in russia where at least sixty people have been killed and more than a hundred injured, at a concert hall near moscow, in what the authorities have called a terrorist attack. at least four people dressed in camouflage clothing, opened fire as they entered the lobby of crocus city hall. they also detonated explosives which set the building on fire. the islamic state group has claimed responsibility for the attack, a claim that us officials say they have intelligence to corroborate. 0ur russia editor, steve rosenberg reports from moscow and there are some upsetting scenes in his report. a russian concert hall under attack. gunmen had stormed the venue near moscow, the crocus city hall.