Just how different a face the United States will present to the world underjoe biden has been underscored by his choices for top roles in the new administration. Long time ally antony blinken, raised in france and a fluent french speaker, is to be the new secretary of state. And john kerry who did thatjob under president obama is to be the new climate tsar. Their Global Outlook and intention to rebuild old alliances contrasts with the America First approach of donald trump. As our state Department CorrespondentBarbara Plett usher reports. Hi, im deputy secretary tony blinken, from the state department. Wow, you have a long name the us is presenting a new diplomatic face to the world someone with a lighter touch, ready to reframe americas relationship with the international community. The un stands for United Nations a place where nations or countries from all over the world come together. Its a great pleasure to welcome all of you here today. Forjoe biden, tony blinken is the safest possible pair of hands as top diplomat. Blinken has been advising biden for nearly 20 years. Hes so close to the president elect, hes been described as an alter ego, a virtual mind meld. This veteran Foreign Policy hand would be returning to familiarground. He began his career at the white house during the clinton administration, and he was a key figure on Barack ObamasNational Security and diplomatic team. The United States has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden. He was at the table for all of the important meetings. His appointment signals that the us is resuming its conventional international role, after four turbulent years of Donald TrumpsAmerica First. What can the United States do to try to help put our globe back on its axis . And i think for the Vice President , it really comes down to three big things leadership, cooperation, democracy. Which i think also sums up the profound differences between President Trump and Vice President biden. Blinkens priority will be to re establish the us as a trusted ally to rejoin International Agreements such as the paris climate accord, the iran nuclear deal, the world health organization. Blinken will be reunited with other seasoned members of the obama biden administration. Jake sullivan as National Security advisor. He helped open the back channel with iran that led to the nuclear agreement. And the former secretary of state, john kerry, as special envoy for climate. He brings stature and vast experience to the new role, but may not excite young climate activists who voted for biden. Theres also linda thomas greenfield as un ambassador a long serving career diplomat who was sidelined by the trump administration. Good afternoon, everyone, welcome. With this team, International Leaders know what they are getting stability and familiarity. But both america and the world have changed in the past four years, and blinken has a lot of catching up to do. Barbara plett usher, bbc news, washington. Now on bbc news, the travel show. Coming up on this weeks show ade pumps some iron. Rajan hits the floor. And iforget the rules. There you go, run, run. Let go of the bat laughs. Theme music plays. Hello and welcome to the travel show with me, lucy hedges, coming to you this week from the heart of a very low key locked down london. Now this year has seen a whole host of events cancelled or postponed all across the world from the Tokyo Olympics to the annual wimbledon championships, so we thought what better reason to take a look back at some of our favourite sporting adventures from the travel show archive, where, although we may not have championship potential, we certainly make up for it with enthusiasm. First up, back in 2017, ade headed to washington to take part in the working wounded games, which sees adaptive athletes compete against each other in a series of weightlifting and body building challenges. And being the only person on the travel show who has actually won an olympic medal, ade certainly had a reputation to keep up. So lets see how he got on. Most para sports categorise by ability, but the working wounded games are different. By modifying the rules for each individual athlete, they encourage people with a range of capabilities to compete together. It is called the working wounded games. Who is allowed to compete in these games . Anybody that has some sort of permanent adaptive need that effects them physically. So you are really inclusive and open to everybody . Yes, we actually really get excited when we have first time athletes, first time competitors. This is the calm before the storm. Everyone is all chilled out but then the madness begins when they start competing. Music playing. Come on come on, you are a beast music playing. You did some extra reps there. I did do extra reps. Are you just trying to show off . I am always trying to show off. Hes saying its too easy now. Since sports people of all abilities take part, wesley challenges me to a light workout. Ive got to use that skiing machines, burn up calories, then ive got to toe this sled and then i have a kettle bell ive got to lift up and down. Ive got to keep doing that for 12 minutes. It is going to be sheer hell. Wesley, you know what time it is, brother. I am going to give you the travel show whooping. Music playing. That is hard, really hard. I see that sweat, bro. Its what you need, right on. Have they unstrapped me . Right, its your turn. Do some work. I think youll agree that was a pretty impressive effort from ade and he did us proud at that truly amazing event which usually happens every year but what with 2020 definitely not being a year like any other, lets find out what happened by talking to sara olsen. Nice to meet you, even though its virtually. So youre not in the United States, you are in afghanistan why is that . So im a reservist in the us military, and i get called up to support the needs of special Operations Component command. With everything thats been going on, what happened this year . Its been like everybody else trying to juggle and figure out what it means to support our community and support people with disabilities virtually, as much as possible. All of our training seminars where in person, all of our competitions were in person, a lot of the support we provided to communities were in person and so really, it was a bit of a reset and rebuild year. This event must be a real focus for a lot of the athletes. When we were back there filming in 2017, we kept hearing about this real sense of Community Among athletes taking part in the championships. What stories have you heard from them about the event not going ahead this year . So obviously a lot of disappointment. With people with disabilities being really impacted by covid, to a higher degree, we werent going to risk the health and safety of our athletes by trying to do it in person, no matter what the demand was. So the fact that were starting to do seminars online and were starting to come up with our own platforms to do these competitions online has really been very positive. The other thing weve done is there is a fitness app, called burnalong, that enables people to, lets say you and i wanted to do a workout together, but obviously im in afghanistan and youre in the uk this app would allow us to pick the same workout, log on at the same time and be able to essentially facetime and do the workout together. So we have adaptive yoga, we have adaptive weightlifting, we have how to as well as more functional fitness, and so that has been sort of our stopgap, if you will, between actually developing our platform and not providing the face to face interactions. Lets talk next year, is it going to be back bigger and better than ever . So i think were still going to do virtual next year. I think were going to play it safe and just plan for a virtual competition and then come back in 2022 which would be year 10, from 2012, and make that the big event. Hopefully vaccines will allow us to do face to face. Right now the plan is virtual in 21 and bigger and better than ever in 22. Thanks, sara. Fingers crossed the event is back again in 2022. Following on from ades pretty impressive performance in washington, heres rajan who didnt covering himself in quite as much glory when he took on a traditional wrestler during a travel show trip to mongolia in 2015. I wonder if you can guess who won . And now down to the nitty gritty the art of combat, mongolian style, where there are no weight divisions so the biggest are often the best. Before that you have to faster. My translator helps me to get to grips with the strategy. Pushing that down. Get this one down and do this one second. Am i swinging him . Use you elbows. Like that . This goes down, this goes up and i go for which leg . This leg . After several hours of quite intensive training, it feels like i am suddenly getting it. But im still under no illusion its going to be easy. So after all that, how do you feel about tomorrow . My main worry is that i fall really awkwardly and injure myself, if im being absolutely honest, because im not going to get anywhere near average, even basic standard. So his last advice was very important relax your body today, have a really good relax, then your body will be loosened up. So here we go. Naadam is an annual festival which takes place every year right across mongolia. Participants compete in the three manly sports horse racing, archery and wrestling. The biggest and most popular with tourists is, of course, in the capital but this is the real deal and to begin the pomp of the opening ceremony. I spot my mentor. How are you . Good luck. He is one of the first to compete. The match is won when someone falls to the ground or anything but the soles of the feet or the hands touch the floor. That could be you. I am just about to go on. I was ok untiljust now but the guy before dislocated his arm which freaked me out a little bit. Minutes to go before my bout and this is my opponent. The one tactic i was taught does not really work. And from that moment on, i am in a bit of trouble. Good luck. Thank you. Rajan obviously itching for a rematch there in mongolia, back in 2015. Stay with us, because still to come on this weeks look back christa braves the waves as she goes wild swimming off the scottish coast. And i have trouble picking up the rules when i try my hand at a traditional street game over in new york. Let go of the bat laughs. Now, one of the best things about working on the travel show is that you sometimes get to do some of the craziest things in the most unexpected places. Thats one of the things i really, really miss at the moment, and this next one is definitely filed under that category. In 2018 mike travelled to kazakhstan to get cleansed by local shaman, as you do, before trying a spot of snowboarding on sand. I was so jealous he got to do that one. The dune stretches for 3km and reaches a height of 150 metres and, let me tell you, it might look placid from a distance, but it is an entirely other story once youre up there. Its a little bit windy today, but were on the singing sands. And i guess thats always how it is here. For myself, i have gone snowboarding before. What are some differences with sandboarding . 0k. Lean back, yes . That being said, it was comforting knowing that i would be going slower than on snow. And also the cool thing about a sand dune is theres no trees so i mean, i guess its safer, right . No doubt though this is definitely the definition of an extreme sport. There are i am strapped in. I think im ready. This way, yeah . Music playing. Like this . Ooh and then the board comes. Music playing. Whoo this is a lot of fun. Karla is about to come down, shes standing up. She looks excited but a little bit nervous. You got it karla, yeah but before long, were starting to get the hang of it. Music playing. This is a lot of work. Whats incredible, though, is when you come down, as the sand starts to avalanche, you can feel it shaking and reverberating underneath the board. Its very cool. It sings as you come down. Weve got our final round from the very, very top, if i can if i can make it. Lets stay here and take a break for a sec. And with that, my trip to kazakhstan is at an end. And what a ride it was. Yeah amazing, mike on kazakhstans singing sandunes back in 2018. Next up, wild swimming has become pretty fashionable over the last few years and last september we sent krista to dip her toes in the water off the scottish coast to give it a try. Right, are you ready for this . Whats the best way, straight in, or. A bit of acclimatisation, hands in first, a little bit of water on the back of the neck and then we can just do a wee bit of floating, get in the water in the wetsuit and then we cam get on with it. Youre the expert, lets go. Laughs. Oh, its lovely. Oh, lovely, you say do you know what, its actually not. I mean, no, im lying, its really cold. I was trying to be polite but its cold. But i think the longer youre in you just get used to it. Absolutely. 0k. I can do this. Youre doing it after a few minutes, thanks to my wetsuit, my body did start to warm up and, if you keep moving, its fine. It is not advisable to come wild swimming unless youre really familiar with the area, and norma is constantly checking in with me and guiding me to shallow areas where we can take a break. Because we are now coming up to a low tide now we have passed slack water so it is a bit of a stronger. It is the tide really, so we were at the stronger middle of the tide so were going to go with it, the deeper we getjust now you can feel it again. Were going that way so you really need to be familiar with the area. Due to the sea conditions we werent able to go to any of the iron age ruins on the islets, but we did manage to reach this place. We have just come into this absolutely beautiful little cave, and is so different, isnt it . We have just came around the head land which is quite choppy and a really strong current, quite dramatic, and here it is so peaceful and calm. I know it is really dark, but if i look down, i can see my feet really clearly because the water is so clean. This is a relatively unexplored corner of the uk and it certainly is a unique way to explore it. If it werent for the cold and the jellyfish, i feel like i could just float here all day. Christa enjoying the solitude of a wild swim in scotland. Me, im much more of a team sportswoman which is why i was slightly worried about letting my side down when i went to new york last year and got roped into playing a sport i had never even heard of. See how you think i got on. And cringe alert i kind of had a few problems remembering the rules. If you come to the bronx in the spring or summer there is a street called stickball boulevard, where most sundays the emperors Stickball League keep this tradition alive. Ok so as far as i can tell each player has three attempts to serve the ball, one attempt to hit it. If they miss the ball they are out. If they hit it, its about getting to first base, second base, et cetera. To keep the game going the street is closed off to traffic. Yourea bum you are there is a lot of smack talk as well, a lot of smack talk. In fact ive been told smack talk accounts for 90 of the game. But there is also a lot of camaraderie, everyone is just having fun. It is just about a bunch of friends getting together, hanging out. How did you get into it . We all are washed up baseball players. Laughter. That is part of it but the other thing is it is a tradition, stickball is a tradition that has always happened in new york city and a lot of our parents kind of put us into the game. My family has been playing, wow, over 50 years. I remember a young kid going to see my uncles play downtown. What about you, little man, what got you into it . Nope all of you have customised your bats, what are they made from . Wood, most of them. They are closet poles from the home depot. They are closet rods, poles, whatever you want. New york emperor Stickball League was established in the mid 19 80s. We have approximately 100 members playing stickball. One of the leagues founders was called steve mercado. He was a fireman in Engine Company a0 who died in the 9 11 attacks. It was his vision to just try to push this and advance this league he always wanted it to be an olympian event. So on memorial day weekend, we have teams from california come, we have teams from florida, orlando, miami, tampa. We constantly try and uphold the vision, for him. His two sons, as a matter of fact, play in the league now. It is just a legacy we just want to continue for him. The power of some of these swings, you can hear it. I dont know if im going to be able to hit it that hard but im going to give it my best shot. All right, lets go. Lets grab a stick right here for you there one right there. Ok, alright. Let it bounce once, step into the ball. 0k i feel like the ball clipped the bat. Im going for a clean hit this time. This time you got to run to first base. Alright. Now theyre going to talk trash though. Keep the eye on the ball. Laughs. Dont say it 0k. There you go, run it out let go of the bat laughs. I think im going to leave it to the professionals. I need a bit more practice. Laughs. I did warn you. I cannot believe ijust ran off with the bat like that. Honestly those guys gave me so much stick for doing that. But youve got to admit though, i kind of had them worried. Well, thats it for this week, but do join us next week if you can, when. One year on from their devastating summer bushfires, we visit australias Kangaroo Island to see how life is beginning to bounce back. Catch that if you can, but in the meantime remember to follow us on social media using the hashtag bbc travel, where hopefully we will give you even more inspiration there for the time when we can all start travelling again. Until next week though, from me, lucy hedges, and everyone else here on the travel show team, its goodbye. Hello there. Monday was really quite a chilly day, particularly so across central and eastern england, where temperatures quite widely only got to around 7 8 celsius just six there in north yorkshire. But one of the things that brings us the biggest temperature rises this time of year are warm fronts. And weve had one of those across the country, south westerly winds have been following, and hour by hour weve seen those temperatures rise recently such that by the time we get to tuesday, 6am, those temperatures will be far higher than the highest temperatures we had all day yesterday, at around 10 11 celsius quite widely. So milder air is on the way, south westerly winds to thank for that. But well also have this weather front which will be one of these slow moving weather fronts its bringing rain at the moment in Northern Ireland and scotland, and it will continue to rain for these areas through much of the day on tuesday, as well. Now further southwards and eastward across england and wales, itll be a mild start to the day, with temperatures 10 12 celsius in places. Quite a brisk south westerly wind, some low cloud over the high grounds, some mist and fog patches higher up, a bit of drizzle around as well. But as we go through tuesday morning, i think the cloud may well break up at times across england. The best chance of that probably in the morning, really, across east anglia and south east england. Otherwise, probably keeping the cloud through most of the day for most areas. And the rain continues to come down for Northern Ireland and scotland. Whether you see sun or cloud, temperatures around 11 13 celsius a little bit cooler in the far northwest of the uk. That colder air is behind this cold front sinking southwards over the next few days. As it pulls away, we will get that colder air lingering around the uk for much of the rest of the week. So heres the chart for wednesday heres our cold front, bringing clouds, still a bit of rain moving southwards and eastwards into east anglia, southeast england, a few showers for scotland and Northern Ireland, it may be 1 2 sneaking down the irish sea, as well. You notice those temperatures cooling off highs more typically around 8 9 celsius for northern areas, still around 11 12 celsius in the far southeast. The pressure then rises, giving us clear skies through wednesday night. Therell be a frost with High Pressure around towards the end of the week. Lots of dry weather with mist and fog patches in the morning, a few patches of frost, but its a mostly dry picture, perhaps generally turning a bit more cloudy as we head into the weekend. 00 29 11,654 4294966103 13 29,430 thats your weather