electricity. 0k. thank you for sharing your story. we are going to cfoss sharing your story. we are going to cross the newsroom, get across to the balcony for the weather forecast. have we seen the end of this awful fog? the frog is quite dense across parts of england. —— the fog. somerset, wiltshire, the south midlands, up to 200 metres visibility. that sort of thing, the patchy and dense fog looks like it will linger in these areas, the midlands, maybe south—east wales, going into the morning as well, so problematic for another night, into the morning, maybe affecting traffic. a lot of dry weather. a fuse box close to freezing. some fog in the areas i've mentioned —— a view spots. some

brighter spells coming behind, a weakening weather system in scotland and northern ireland, some outbreaks of rain. 5—9 celsius. apart from the fog it is reasonably quiet, but all change from midweek as low pressure ta kes change from midweek as low pressure takes over, wetter and windy weather and it looks like it will stay that way into the christmas weekend as well. more in half an hour. this is bbc news. the headlines. the evacuation of civilians from eastern aleppo is hit with another setback, as buses which were due to help people leave two pro—government villages north of the city were set ablaze. the trade secretary liam fox says britain could remain a member of the eu customs union after brexit. the leader of the rmt has denied that the union is using the dispute with southern rail to take on the government. thousands of commuters have been affected by the strike action over who should control train doors.

personalities across the sporting world are celebrating this year's sports personality of the year tonight, with a record 16 contenders being shortlisted for the final award. now on bbc news, it's time for the travel show. this week, the american guidebook that may have helped save lives. it took a lot of courage for a black family to get in their car and hit the open road. lighting up jordan's most treasured monument. and dressing up in a polish castle. if you have misplaced your ties, i'm sure mr derbyshire can be of assistance. we're starting this week

in the united states of america. nowadays, a largely safe place to visit, no matter who you are or what you look like. 80 years ago, though, travelling around some parts of the country could be a dangerous prospect if you were african—american. but help was on hand from one very special guidebook. travelling on the road if you were black during this time,

you were taking your life in your hands. we estimate that there were over 10,000 sundown towns. sundown towns were all—white towns, they could have a sign at the border saying they would run out all the black people. it took a lot of courage for a black family to get in their car and just hit the open road, which is something that in america we take for granted. they called them jim crow laws, and those laws made it illegal for people of colour to stay, to eat in restaurants, to stay in hotels, to use bathrooms, they had separate bathrooms. some places, you couldn't walk on the sidewalk with a white person,

you had to get off the sidewalk and walk in the street. the green book was an historic travel guide published for black people during thejim crow era. it was more than just gas, food and lodging, there was everything for anything you might need on the road, whether it was a doctor, or churches or department stores. haberdashers, tailors, drugstores. there were golf courses. disneyland was listed in the green book. it was a pretty major guide. by the 1960s, we estimate it had been sold to over 2 million people. my mother is from kansas, my father is from north carolina, so we travelled mainly back and fourth to those places. my parents would use the green book to plan places

where we might stop, without it, it would have been far more difficult, if not practically impossible. because people used to pack food, for us to get to kansas, we had to pack food that's going to last us for two or three days! where are you going to stay?! my grandmother owned the only hotel in charlottesville, virginia that black people could stay in in the 19405, 19505 and 19605. the green book listing was very important to the business because people travelling through the south, and even places in the north, really relied on that book to figure out where they were going to stop. the inn was just this fantastic vibrant place filled with relatives and people that i'd never met.

because the university of virginia is located in charlottesville, many entertainers, famous entertainers and figures would come to the university. if they were african—american, they had to stay at my grandmother's place. one of the things that i am very proud of is this picture of louis armstrong, that he autographed for my grandmother. it's an artefact in my family that i hope will be passed down from generation to generation. it was a great moment, but in the early '605, when desegregation began, the business started to fail. my grandmother was getting older and was not as well. she had some health problems. most people, when they had a choice of staying in the holiday inn down the street, or the motel 6, or whatever, they decided

they'd rather stay there. it was modern. it was different. and for many black people, it was a point of pride to be able to go where they had been denied access before. it closed in 1967 or so, when my grandmother got ill. it doesn't exist any more. it's sad. i don't think it would have been able to have been sustained. we've made progress, but we lose something when we make progress. i stumbled on the green book by accident, i was writing a book on route 66 and found that it was at a route 66 exhibit,

and there was a green book, under glass, tucked away in the corner. when i first put my hands on a green book, it was magical. it's this feeling of, like, you, too, can enjoy america. it was a very hopeful, positive guide. i'm in new york because i'm a scholar in residence at the schoenberg center for black research. and it's amazing because they have the largest collection of green books in the world. i've scouted about 1,600 green books sites so far, and of those, less than a quarter are still standing.

but i'm also working with city planners to have them recognise these sites as culturally significant and historic sites. the green book was an innovative and resourceful solution to an horrific problem. for me it's a source of pride, that african—america ns, that black people were resilient, they were resourceful. i think our ancestors would be proud of the green book, that we survived and we came up with these tools. they had a lot of courage, a lot of drive, and were not going to be denied. i think those lessons should be a comfort to people facing today's america. next up, we're in petra, injordan, meeting a man who guides tourists in the ancient city after dark. petra by night... i'm a guide.

petra by night, we started to do this programme 17 years ago. in order to give a chance for our visitors to see petra during the night. to enjoy the atmosphere. and we start from the main gate here. about two kilometres through the city. and we light more than 1,500 candles. soon, we arrive here. we start the show. we have twojordanian instruments, ancient instruments, the first one we call it shababa. sha ba ba, the flute. the other one we call it rebaba.

last night, you hear, we sang about the bedouin. the bedouin live in the tents. in the caves. they breed horses. goats. raise camels. in the desert. applause. before the arab spring, before the problems, many tourists, i remember, 1,000 in a christmas time. but after, since five years, six years, slow down. sometimes 30, 70, not many tourists. the best thing for me, when the tourists sit together, friendly, i tell them to keep their camera ready to take photo together. one, two, three...!

it means we are one heart, one eye, one tongue. when i come, every night, it is like a dream. i like it. it's honour for me to guide from all the countries, different nationality, to make them happy, to see petra. still to come... i'm role—playing in poland, trying to get some answers out of this. where were you last night? i've had reports that they saw you quite late in the evening, with a mysterious young lady.

mysterious?! the travel show, your essential guide wherever you're headed. next this week, my travels take me to a part of poland that is well off the beaten track. this is lower silesia, about an hour and a half's drive from the regional capital wroclaw, not far from the czech border. what a beautiful place. it's been here for a long time. absolutely stunning. really sets the scene for what i'm going to be in for for the next couple of days. i've come to this gothic palace to take part in a live action role—play, or larp. for the next three days, this is not the castle, but fairweather manor, an english country house, and the year is 1917. right in the middle of the first world war. this is the costume room.

this man is the brains behind it all. what is larp? have you ever played house, as a kid, henry? yes. you played the father who is angry and scolding his children because they did not do their homework, or maybe you played one of the kids, not wanting to do homework and wanting to play soccer instead. this is that, just with more complex stories, better costumes and hopefully a little bit more interesting locations. it's pretend play for adults. larping grew out of the dungeons & dragons scene in the 1980s. as some of its players got older, their ambition grew, and these days, some events can attract huge crowds. in germany, for instance, 7,500 people play this, the most recent game of conquest. its organisers claim it's the world's biggest larp. klaus creates elaborate games mainly in poland and denmark, people have travelled from as far

afield as the us and canada for this, tickets start at £330, or $1120, including food and accommodation. i need some tips because i am going to be diving headfirst into this. i'd say some of it is character portrayal — you want to be believable as what you are, first off. but secondly, you also want it to be interesting. it is pretty easy is to be a believable old grumpy man sitting in the corner not talking to anybody but it is also boring, it's boring for you and boring for everybody else. the night before the action begins, we are all given the rules of the house. a few ballroom dancing lessons. europe is burning. and then, the sombre opening speech is delivered, |n character, or "in game," as the larpers put it. all over europe, brother fight brother.

the stage is set. welcome to fairweather manor. applause this is the morning of the larp and i have my outfit for the character, i have my character details — my name is robert abbam, i am a former war correspondent, a journalist, and i've seen all the atrocities that have been happening on the front line. "you are short tempered. you weren't always this way but war has changed you and not entirely for the better. your sense of being lost in a world that no longer makes sense and a job which seems insufficient to the task given to you leads you to easily become frustrated and lash out at the people around you." "you have met too many people who simply do not want to see the truth that is in front of them. their wilful ignorance infuriates you." first challenge is to actually find the other guests.

i think we're a bit late for breakfast. am i the only person in the castle?! huh! nobody. i don't think i've kind of got into it yet. how is the easing into it? do youjump in? that's a good question. is it safe to say that it's all in game right now? yeah. you must believe that everything is in game. if it's not, then you would know in some way. people would do something. i hope so! because these ladies here... the one on the right is crying. i want to ask her if she's 0k. but i shouldn't? nope. unless you are in character.

if you want to do something about it, in game, of course it is all right. but it is a trap. i do want to feel that. but i'm quite conscious, because i've got these guys following me... all of a sudden, i'm handed a lifeline, a mission in the form of a little scandal. so it seems like one of the young maids was spotted alone in the forest with one of the german nobles. ruffled hair and everything. and in a state of undress? i wouldn't quite say so... but... laughter i'm sure it wasn't far away! not all the characters are welcoming me with open arms. robert, from the sunday times. nice to have you with us. thank you very much. if you have misplaced your ties, i'm sure that mr derbyshire

can be of assistance, so that you can look proper, for the rest of the day. thank you. from my impressions, this could be perceived as very geeky and a little weird. somebody that sits there and knows every single football stat of every single player ever, yeah, would also be considered a little bit geeky. it is no different. for this particular type of larp, a lot of research has gone into the time period, the costumes, everything. if you've a hobby where there is a passion involved, doesn't matter whether it is a sport, something more indoors, something more intellectual, or something like this. the people involved have an aspect of geekiness to them, because that passion drives them to be very focused. i feel like it's down to me to expose the shady

baron for what he is, and slowly but surely, i actually begin to have fun. i heard something about a maid... i don't know which maid. probably for the best. do you know which baron...? everyone seems to be getting a different name. a german baron. where were you last night...? i've had reports that they saw you quite late in the evening... you were there with a mysterious young lady... mysterious?! that's what they say. it's nothing mysterious, it's the lady and me talking about family relations. we talk about the war. right. i can't get anything out of the baron himself, so my only other route is to head down to the servants' quarters to find his mistress. but i find my way barred.

for us it's just getting down to the bottom of... larps are still usually high fantasy, with wizards and elves and the like, but fairweather manor is billed as an emotional larp. players here want to be moved. when i design larps, i aim to give people an emotionaljourney. i hate when you are like, you see talking heads, "some more tea for you." i want them to feel something. so that's what i try to decipher. and then of course having a war, death! that's like, love may have been sucked out of things but there is a big passion that you can make people feel. love and war, basically, it's about.

and changes in society. still pondering my next move, i get dressed for dinner. she was heard shouting, "no, alexander, i am not your man..." the nuggets of gossip i have been given delight my dinner mates. i would not lie! but little do i know, there is a plan in store for me. ok, so what we have here is a telegram which will be sent in the game to be delivered to robert abbott, at 7:30pm. what this telegram says is: "to robert abbott, robert, your correspondence accreditation has been revoked by the war office. we did everything we could but they wouldn't budge." "i'm sorry, you won't be going back to the front, come back to london, we will sort out what comes next." this is preposterous! i came here with integrity of journalism and you throw it in my face!

all of you! it's not my fault that the baron can't keep his hands off women, a servant, nonetheless. so away with your press pass, away with your nobility! and i still don't know if the baron was telling me the truth. but anyway... next time, there's a chance to catch up with some of our best trips from the past year. we went to more than 70 countries in 2016, did everything from ninja training injapan to penguin spotting in australia, to attempting one of india's most traditional dances. don't forget, you canjoin us on all of our travels wherever we are in the world by signing on to our social media feeds. if you want to see what it was like behind—the—scenes on this week's larping adventure, you can look at our website.

but from me, henry golding, and the rest of the travel show team here in lower silesia, in poland, it's goodbye. travel in the uk hasn't been made easy by fog this weekend and there may be some around on monday morning. there is some at the moment, this is walton—on—the—naze in essex this afternoon. further up the east coast into geeks yorkshire, this rspb reserve looked better —— east yorkshire. we are concerned

about dense fog patches overnight, it's looking pretty thick in the west cou ntry it's looking pretty thick in the west country and the moment, south—east wales, southern england, seeing some of the fog. a bit of rain in north—eastern scotland, most places will be dry. fog may cause a travel problem in the morning in england and wales. not guaranteed it will be where you are but it may be on the journey you are going to commence on, so on the journey you are going to commence on, so check the information from your bbc local radio station. here is the morning, where we have been through the weekend in england and wales, 5—7, a lot of low cloud and patchy fog, maybe grisly but mostly dry. scotla nd maybe grisly but mostly dry. scotland and northern ireland, a weather front, not a scotland and northern ireland, a weatherfront, not a lot scotland and northern ireland, a weather front, not a lot of rain but it is in the north—west of scotland and it will spread south—east during the day. fab for a time in parts of

scotla nd the day. fab for a time in parts of scotland and northern ireland. behind it, brighter for some scotland and northern ireland. behind it, brighterfor some of us before the sun goes down. not a lot of sunshine. many places will stay dry despite the cloud. parts of eastern and south—eastern england getting some patchy rain. and overnight on monday that will drift west. monday night in scotland and northern ireland, a cold at night, a touch of frost and maybe some fog. tuesday, the further west you are in wales and england, you may see rain, brighter skies elsewhere in england and in scotland and northern ireland, heavy rain stronger win. the first of a number of weather systems coming this way. more powerful areas of low pressure coming in as the week goes on, leading to christmas, so the change in the weather is from high pressure to low pressure, from quiet weather

to low pressure, from quiet weather to something more unsettled, potentially stormy on christmas day. that isn't set in stone but we are flanking it up. you can see more on the bbc website. this is bbc world news today, broadcasting in the uk and around the world. i'm alpa patel. the headlines; hopes are dashed for the thousands waiting to be evacuated in syria. it's another freezing night as a deal to send buses to fetch rebels and civilians is again put on hold. but there are now hopes of a deal at the united nations to send observers to aleppo. gunmen in jordan carry out a series of attacks in the historic town of karak, killing at least ten people. poland's political crisis shows no sign of ending — after another day of protests. and real madrid come out on top,

winning football's club world cup for the second time in three yea rs.