Of the remnants of this area of low pressure as it finishes its journey eastwards away from the uk into the continent through the day on sunday. Showers for northern and eastern reaches of england into the small hours, but for many its a dry story. Therell be some lingering cloud across the hills and around the coasts, a little bit murky, but clearer skies already making quite good ingress towards the west of the uk, Will Set us up well for seeing more sunshine certainly than we saw on saturday. For sunday, just the chance that sunshine could help to feed some isolated but persistent thundery showers across parts of Northern England, the midlands, maybe Eastern England through Sunday Afternoon. But more sunshine will equate to a little bit more warmth for sunday. And through the week ahead it looks like theres more fine weather to come. Hello, this is Bbc News. The headlines. Crowds continue to gather outside kabul airport, amid reports of chaotic scenes as the us advises its citizens not to travel there until theyre asked to, because of Security Threats outside the gates. Senior taliban figures including the groups co founder, Mullah Baradar are in kabulfor talks about establishing a new government. Greece has erected a 25 Mile Fence on its border with turkey amid warnings of many afghan civillians fleeing their country. There have been clashes between australian police and anti lockdown demonstrators in sydney and melbourne. Animal welfare campaigners have welcomed new Government Proposals to stop puppy smuggling. Now on Bbc News, another chance to enjoy rajan datar� s Epic Railjourney across the Southern United States in the travel show. This is the mighty mississippi, the economic backbone of early america, Running North to south for more than 2,000 miles, carrying the people and cargo that helped to turn this country from a fledgling upstart, into a powerhouse. For much of the 19th century, steamboats like this ruled The River. But in 1879, construction began on a transcontinental Train Line that would link the new found prosperity with the isolated far west, connecting the Gulf Of Mexico with the pacific ocean. On this journey, ill be following the railroad that pushed The American Dream along the mexican border, all the way to california. Every trip is unique. Its a moving city. And ill be meeting some of the people who helped define this unique, diverse and fascinating part of the country. New orleans, my first port of call. Right now, in the middle of one of its annual Street Parties the french quarter festival. The area gets its name from when the french founded the city in 1718, as a strategic port on the Mississippi And Gulf of mexico. The spanish also ran the city before it was bought by the us in 1803. And you can see all these influences in new 0rleans World famous architecture, food and music. That is New Orleans, exactly how i imagined it. A Brass Band going down the street and a whole crowd following them, getting into the vibe. Fantastic now the city might be best known for jazz, but you can also find a type of music here that ive never encountered before. Chubby is a Grammy Award Winner and a third generation of the legendary zydeco playing family. The music, zydeco, Tell Me about it. Zydeco music, a lot of people get it mixed up with cajun music. But if you hear zydeco music, you hear more of blues, r b, Soul And Rock and roll mixed in one. This, chubby says, is the expression of louisianas black creole community. Thats a bit of african, a bit of french and some caribbean all mixed up. And apart from the accordion, chubby says the essential instrument in a Zydeco Sound is the one that evolved from his grandmothers washboard. This is my grandmothers Washing Machine. Washing machine . This is her Washing Machine back in the day. And with these rivulets, the buttons on your shirt would make that little. Sound like this, and my grandmother would wash clothes at the time, and of course they were saying, hey, that thing sounds good it might fit with the accordion. Bring it over here. She said, you guys must be out of your mind. This is how i do my laundry. You should try, man. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Its our percussion and zydeco. Oh, youre doing that bit there. You had the rhythm going like this in the end. Thats it, thats it but when you hit the board, you lose it. Yeah, why . I dont know. The streets are packed and there is a jubilant atmosphere here. But its been hard won. Its taken more than a decade for Tourist Numbers to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Music has helped the city get its Mojo Back and festivals like this are busier than ever. I feel lucky to have a ringside view. When they point the camera to you, i want you to shake your booty like your mamma gave it to you. Cheering. Were going to send this back to london and show them how we do it in New Orleans. Lets get on. And then after my frankly disastrous ten minute lesson, this happens. Bbc travel, here. London, england, yall. And the party goes on long into the night but i have got an early start and a very long trip ahead of me. So, that was New Orleans in all its flamboyant glory. Its eight in the morning, and today, im heading west. Seat number 21. Thank you very much. And the service im taking is the Sunset Limited Train Line, the route dates back to 1894. And stretches some 2,000 miles, coast to coast, from New Orleans to los angeles, passing through five different us states. An odyssey, really. So this is a route steeped in history, but im hoping its also going to Tell Me something about contemporary america, too. Lovely, thank you so much. Right up the stairs. Thank you. Back in the day, several railroad franchises joined up to create this pan american rail network. And all along the route, significant landmarks, historical and natural, revealed themselves to passengers. So this is a view of the Mississippi River on the Huey P long bridge were right in the middle of two lanes of traffic, which is a weird feeling. God, it gets rocky, doesnt it . Sometimes. One of the tricks of moving throughout the train is to keep your Feet Shoulder Width apart. And just keep one hand free so you can touch things as youre going through, whether it is the backs of the seats. Between the cars, we have the Grab Irons which you can use. Have you ever fallen on the customers . Yes good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Our next Station Stop will be new iberia. Approximately 30 minutes. Train Supervisor Bruce is a veteran of the Sunset Limited line. The railroad was what created the united states, it opened up transportation from east to west. And so that was the big thing, transportation of both goods and people. The train might have been instrumental in the creation of modern day america, but Today Rail Use is way below that of Air And Road travel which are often cheaper and quicker. So why would anyone take the train . There are areas where you basically dont have planes flying into and you dont have Greyhound Buses go into it, so these isolated areas in texas, especially, and New Mexico, this is the lifeblood to get transportation through. Every trip is unique. Its a moving city, so you have people giving births, you have people. Thats happened 7 yeah. Sometimes we are an hour away from civilisation and babies dont wait. We have just crossed lines, guys were in texas. 0n we roll as we cross into texas and arejoined by a group of Train Buffs on a day trip. So are you mostly here because of them, because of these two . Yes. He saw thomas the train one time when he was about two years old and since then hes been all about trains. Join the club. I i actually have a couple of in Scalel Amtrak cars and since ive got them i thought they looked so good that i was waiting for a long time to ride an amtrak and i was thinking, it was like time to get the trip. And some people dont get into those smaller areas, the smaller towns, so by going through the back areas, you have an opportunity to expand the mind. Because once the mind expands, it can never return to its original dimension. My next stop is the city of San Antonio, but not before the Sunset Limited lives up to its name. San antonio is a modern, prosperous city, and now its americas seventh largest. Its very cosmopolitan and, in many ways, not stereotypically texan. But it has got one historical attraction which gets to the very heart of what it means to be american, and more especially, texan. This is the alamo, a legendary site in us history where in 1836, a small group of troops fighting for Texan Independence were laid siege by a much larger mexican army. The texan forces held out for 13 days before they were overwhelmed and killed. Doctor winders . How are you . But Historian Bruce says it would be simplistic to see it as baddie mexicans versus goodie americans. This is a story about people. This is a story about two nations. This is a story about the idea of what should government be like . Its really the convergence of mexican history and us history. The battle became a symbol of historic resistance and the struggle for independence which the texans won later that year. Company, prepare to load. Ready . Load. Today, the alamo is one of the states top Tourist Attractions and re enacters help visitors make sense of its complex past. So, i have been talked into having the full Alamo Experience here. But ryan, Tell Me, there is a point to this, isnt there . This is living history. So, as people come in here, they can see how we would have cooked coffee, how we would have cooked meat over the fire. The kinds of foods we would have had here. Parched Corn And Beef was what they had to eat during the battle and what we try to do isjust let people in on that side of history give them a taste, that same emotional experience. What do you think was the mood of the people who were in this situation, waiting, in a sense for the mexicans to come . This was home for them, this was a chance for a new life. So in that, they were willing to fight for something greater than themselves, which is kind of, that, in my view, kind of the amazing feeling you get in any battlefield site. This Epic Fight For Freedom from mexico might be part of the folklore of San Antonio but hispanic influence is also a huge part of the citys current identity. Were only two and a half hours drive from the border and Contemporary Mexicana is celebrated here, like loteria. When you win, what do we say . Loteria what dont we say . Bingo if you say bingo, i will not hear it. We do not use that b word. We say loteria. Does anybody else. You join a team, put the T Shirt on and realise this is about family, community and winning. El diablo. The devil. You got the devil . Next card. The deer. Excellent. What have we got . Youve got the melon . I havent got the melon. Someone has one already. Weve got a winner. Congratulations. New game. Its important to us, loteria, because my grandma did not know english, i did not know spanish growing up. I was not taught spanish all that much, i was taught tex mex. So playing with my grandma, it gave us quality time with each other because we were both learning. We had a connection during the game. Hello, everyone. I am from london, i am going to bring you luck. Im going to bring you all luck. How is my team doing . Very good the barrel. How are we doing out there, anyone close to winning . We have loteria are you sure . This is his first time playing. Very first time playing. Maybe lets let him win. What is it like being mexican american, what is that like . I love being tex mex. I am all about texas. I have a shirt that says. I just look illegal. Which is true. Just because were darker, its hot in texas. Our ancestors are from there but we were born here in the united states, so dont try to send us back to somewhere we are not even from. The next day and a few more stops down the Train Line, Deep Into Southern Texas and you find yourself even closer to the mexican border the last frontier, some call it. Alpine station is thejumping off point to one of americas most remote national parks. We drive through a vista that feels straight out of a western. They call it Big Bend, after a twist in the legendary river here that today separates the usa from mexico, the Rio Grande. This is the Rio Grande. Welcome to the border. Yeah. This year marks the centenary of the foundation of the national Park Service in the usa. And what a spectacular asset they are. Just to get our geography sorted, erin, where is mexico, where is usa . We have mexico over here. And texas over here. The actual border is the deepest current in The River. This would be the spot where some politicians in the us want to build a border wall. Not sure how they would manage that here. And its notjust the spectacular border with mexico that makes the park unique. The Chihuahuan Desert extends north into New Mexico but this park definitely contains the biggest chunk of the Chihuahuan Desert. And then theres the mountains, you go up into the high mountains and you get different species of animals, like black bears, Mountain Lion and trees, so youve got a big diversity in flora and fauna. 710, this is the ranger out on Foot Patrol in the pantherjunction area. And theres more to this wild corner of the earth than its incredible diversity of living species. Big bend has more dinosaurfossils than any other national park, over 90 different species have been discovered here dating back 80 Million years. This is called a coprolite, which is fossilised dinosaur faecal material. Dinosaur poo is what you mean . This is dinosaur poo, that would be correct. And that is fossilised . That stays. Hard as a rock. For millions of years. Wow thats the first time ive held dinosaur poo. A new exhibit dedicated to the dinosaurs is opening at the park in september. It will include these giant bronze casts of fossils. This one is a crocodilian. This is deinosuchus riograndensis. We call it the Big Bend super croc. You can see from its size, its a well named species. Ive seen Crocodiles Today and theyre pretty scary but this is massive, its huge. Right, with about a 6 foot long skull, it would have had somewhere around a 40 foot long length for the entire animal. Sometimes we find scarring in other Fossil Bones from deinosuchus� teeth. So he literally ate dinosaurs. He ate dinosaurs its incredible, isnt it . The landscape here may have remained unchanged for millennia, but the fact it contains 118 miles of Border Zone is more relevant today than ever. 100 years ago, the people in this region, the Border Wasnt a significant part of Daily Life The River was. So we had families that would live on the united States Side with cousins in mexico. There would be crossings, there would be flood plane farming, there would be multinational communities here because the boundary was not considered to be a significant part of Daily Life. Now weve made it a significant part of our politics. Jeanette and i head off to get a high Vantage Point of the Rio Grande river and a mexican town across the border. We have the community over here which has just a couple of hundred people. But beyond that, if we get into the hills over there, thats protected land of mexico. People can legally move between the two countries at an official Crossing Point in The River. There are also schemes where both sides work together to protect the environment. Sometimes they help us out with protecting our resources from wildfire and sometimes we partner together to remove invasive species, to help make the entire Rio Grande a better place. So, the first half of My Trek Across The Southern Stretch of the usa ends literally a stones throw from mexico. Its wonderfully tranquil here, so it seems kind of odd that this place has found itself at the Front Line of politics. Im going to relish my last moments of serenity because next week ill be continuing myjourney west, where things start getting strange. You and i have just started something that we cant stop. Theres no big Oops Button down here. Theres only one problem, right . What is that . Were on this thing but theres no one to turn off. It is like we are on here forever. Well, in theory that could happen hello. Saturday saw quite a large amount of cloud sitting across the uk. Bearing heavy rain for some. Quite a contrast, then, for sunday as we look to Sunnier Skies and a lot of dry weather as well. The reason for the change, we move an area of low pressure away to the east of the uk, it pushes into the continent and that will allow for High Pressure to build from the south west, and that High Pressure looks set to continue building through sunday into monday and then really establish across the uk for the week ahead. Some of the rain that we see through the remainder of the night could be some of the heaviest we see now for a good few days in some parts of the uk. There will be some heavy showers into the small hours across northern and Eastern England, but for the majority it becomes dry, a little misty and murky in places with lows of 13 15 c. Sunday, the low quite slow to make its way into the continent, will see some showers and a bit more cloud into Eastern England through the course of the day. Much more sunshine on offer across the board and, withjust light winds, we will feel a bit warmer but there will be isolated showers developing and we will see them a bit slow moving because that will not be much wind so some areas could go up quite big downpour through Sunday Afternoon but those will be in the minority. 0verall Sunday in much drier, brighter day. Take a little look into the midlands and Northern England through Sunday Afternoon where you can see some areas that are perhaps favoured, some of the more persistent showers and some on the far South East of england, too. But the High Pressure really does take over as we look to monday and that will suppress activity in the atmosphere perhaps a little bit more cloud drifting across the South East of england and a breeze off the North Sea from time to time, squeezing some rain out of that, but its most unlikely with monday a day of dry weather, light winds and some long spells of sunshine. Temperature is getting closer to average for the time of year, still a couple degrees down across southern england. Through the week ahead, though, that high very keen to sit in place, some fine whether any outlook, reasonable temperatures, just a chance of some northerly wind across eastern counties later in the week, cooling things a little. This is Bbc News with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. Crowds continue to gather outside kabul airport, amid reports of chaotic scenes as the us advises its citizens not to travel there until they are asked, because of Security Threats outside the gates. Senior taliban figures including the groups co founder, Mullah Baradar are in kabulfor talks about establishing a new government. Greece has erected a 25 Mile Fence on its border with turkey amid warnings of many afghan civillians fleeing their country. A State Of Emergency has been declared in parts of new York State ahead of the Forecast Arrival of hurricane henri. And Animal Welfare Campaigners have welcomed new Uk Government proposals to stop puppy smuggling