Older. There is a real game, always, its a demotic game for the bbc to make sure its audiences are where they want to be. Thank you very much, fascinating stuff. You will be getting ready for the bbc centenary, thats not too far off. Well talk again before then, i hope. Time for a look at the weather. First of all, barack obama joined prince harry to spring a surprise on the dawn of the invicta s games. Obama arrived courtside to cheer on the us will chair basketball team, they were mobbed by a crowd when they were mobbed by a crowd when they arrived and happily posed for photos with friends. Some pretty autumnal and unsettled weather on the cards through the second half of the weekend. Today its a contrasting picture across the country, some rain across parts of wales in south west england. Later on that will creep east. Further north, not a bad day. Sunny spells for more than england. Scattered showers across scotland. Temperatures around 13 to 17. The evening hours, rain and strengthening winds pushes further eastwards. Cloud and murk. Further north, clear skies for a time, then more rain. Windy conditions moving into the north west to start on sunday. Most of us, but in mild. Through the day, this band of rain will push east with it strengthening southerly winds. Far east likely to stay dry for good part of the day, but patchy rain working in later. A return to sunshine and blustery showers from the northwest, highs of 18 degrees. This is bbc news. The headlines at 10. 30am teachers and nurses in england and wales could have the 1 cap on their pay rises lifted next year. The treasury admits it needs to be more flexible where there are skill shortages but unions want to know wholl pay for it. People in their 20s and 30s cant afford as many meals out or expensive coffees but the older generation are still enjoying themselves. A day ahead of the conservative Party Conference, borisjohnson has called for any brexit transition period to be limited to two years. The chief inspector of hospitals in england says the nhs is not fit for the 21st century. He warns the system has not adapted to deal with the growth of the population the most serious animal cruelty offences could soon be punished with up to five years in jail instead of 6 months. Now on bbc news, its time for the travel show. This is the mighty river sava, flowing for nearly 1,000 kilometres from the alps in slovenia, right across to belgrade, in serbia. Its the longest river within the balkans. A vital artery thats borne witness to so much history, stretching all the way back to ancient and mediaeval times and of course the turmoil of recent decades. Today, the sava connects four countries that just a generation ago were at war. 0n myjourney ill be exploring how today this river is healing wounds by boosting trade and tourism and creating a new identity in the region. And finding out why locals call this the vital heart of the balkans. A nation ofjust 2 million people, slovenia prides itself on its close relationship with nature. Its one of the most densely forested countries in europe and nearly two thirds of its landscape is green space. This river, the sava, has been the crucial trading route for centuries, dating back to 400 bc, when the celts named it after their river god savus, protector of merchants and travellers. And this is the rivers source, the magnificent savica waterfall, bursting from two separate points on the cliff face there. And my intention is to follow the river from here, at its very beginning, until it meets the danube, in belgrade. Its a near 1,000 kilometre course, flowing through four countries that just over 25 years ago were joined as part of yugoslavia. The emerald waters snake through the cliffs and then widen into one of the savas main tributaries, which has now become famous for watersports. And im getting a face first perspective. This is bellyaking. And, yep, theres a hint in the name. It looks like a kayak, but you lay on top of it and use your hands to peddle. Like many slovenian kids, luka grew up in the countryside and the sava was a huge part of his childhood. I spent my whole life in the same house about 50 metres away from the river, so when i wake up, if i had my window open, i can already hear it. Here in slovenia, the river isnt just used for watersports, its an important source of hydropower and luka thinks the river also has an Important Role to play in uniting the communities who live throughout its course. We were formerly part of yugoslavia, so we are sort of still connected. While our languages may not be that similar, they still have the same origin, so we are still sort of one nation and its sort of nice to have the sava river connect us all. The river isnt always this placid. It can rise a metre higher in the autumn and winter and turn a lot more aggressive. Frankly, the relative calm of these rapids is more than enough for me to deal with. Ah oh my god 0k. Not sure if bellyaking is the sport for me. Further down the valley, two tributaries merge and the sava starts its journey proper. And at the fork of the rivers lies this majestic castle, lake bled, and its historic castle of the same name. This is slovenias oldest castle, first built in mediaeval times. Its got a kind of fairytale ambience to it and, because of its location, its been a strategic lookout for 1,000 years. And standing here, i can kind of get why. You can see for miles this place is legendary in slovenian history. 0n the banks of the lake still sits the former holiday home of the father of post world war ii slovenia, president josip broz tito. Tito took the helm of the newly formed federal republic and more or less kept the country together until his death, in 1980, when yugoslavia began to fall apart. Slovenia became the first to break away, with a short lived war that lasted just ten days. Its been a sovereign nation state since 1991 and my next stop down the river sava is slovenias capital, ljubljana. The city centre is made up of vast squares, lined with baroque buildings and the streets are packed with tourists ambling around. But it wasnt always like this. Just over a decade ago ljubljana was clogged with traffic and the citys main piazza was a car park. But in 2006, the citys mayor made the decision to ban cars from the centre. Now the only vehicles allowed are these so called cavaliers, electric cabs that give free lifts to those with luggage or who need can you tell me the difference . And the children are still following you. And its notjust the kids that are using the car free streets as a playground. Filip and blaz are ambassadors for the city. They met when one was a juggler and the other a gymnast and together they became a social media sensation with their urban acrobatic antics. We tried to put ljubljana on the map in our videos. So you can imagine running in a circle or something, we would run off a building. And youve done that . Yeah. Filip and blaz have good reason to keep the city centre, which doubles as their performance space, spick and span and theyve been part of the efforts to keep it that way. Cheering wow thank you once a year we have action. The whole of slovenia is cleaned up and the river, they have divers and clean up all the bicycles out. And youve played a big part in those campaigns . Yeah. We try to help. We are strong, so we lift all of the heavy stuff, help them to keep it clean and keep it on the next level. Citywide cleanups and specialist Waste Disposal points helped the capital with the accolade of being europes greenest city in 2016 and filip and blaz are keen to encourage other locals and tourists to see the potential in ljubljanas spruced up streets. Wow and the gymnasts are Firm Believers that anyone can be taught to do this. Just change the arms. Oh, sorry. Yeah, like this. And three, two, one, go see . I told you its simple. You can move one arm as well. Push ups three, two three. I dont know how i managed that. Its kind of superhuman strength. Time to leave this urban oasis and head downstream again to radece. This region, like most of slovenia, is densely forested and has a thriving timber industry. Hi. Nice to meet you. Welcome. Hundreds of years ago, the sava was the only way to get the huge logs to major cities across the balkans. Is this like a tradition . And im here tojoin other tourist to get a taste of those centuries old rafting journeys. We managed to revive this tradition, because otherwise we would forget all that and it was important because it was alive more than 500 years ago. And duska sees the sava playing a much larger role in the region in the future. Now there is a perception of sava as a connector. Connecting with who . With other communities along the river and, most important, connecting also across border regions. Croatia, bosnia, serbia. And we already started to connect. Baby steps, they are still, but, yes, we are connecting 110w along the sava river. But before i head across to my next country on the sava, duska tells me i need to be fully initiated into life on the river with this time honoured tradition. Are you going to behead me . No, we dont do that any more but if you want to be a member, you have to show us if you are able to sharpen that wooden stick. Ah, you show me. And just when i thought the wood chopping was bad enough. Here you go on your knees. Baptized with the water of the river sava. Next up on my voyage down the longest river within the balkans, croatias capital, zagreb. Croatia was part of the austro hungarian empire until the end of the first world war. And you can see much of that architectural influence around zagreb. The city has been fought over by competing armies for centuries. In the 15th century, so the story goes, the ottoman army was camped on the other side of the sava river, just over there, preparing to attack the city. To deter them, a cannonball was fired with such pinpoint accuracy, it landed on a chicken intended for the commanders dinner. So freaked out were the turks by this that they scarpered and never returned to the city again so the legend goes. But ever since 1877, as a nod to this alleged act of defiance, a cannon has been fired every day at noon from this tower. Wow incredible. Alem is a trained engineer who used work on the zagreb trams before he saw an advert for the position of cannon man in 2008, and landed the job. Why come what does it do . Laughs. The cannon firing has become a big tourist attraction in zagreb. Alem needs at least 15 minutes a day to prepare and in his nine years doing thejob, hes never had a misfire. Maybe we should pray. No, no, no. No, no praying. 0k. Um, we can. Lets wait. 0k. Please stay here. Yep. You stay here. Thank you. Its 11 58. 0k. Speaks croatian. One minute to shot, please im feeling a bit nervous. Bit tense. Hes very, uh, focused. Waiting for that clock to change. Ooh whoa even though i knew it was coming, that was still a bit of a shock its still, oof, surprised me. Wow look at this hes milking the applause another day, job done. Well done. Have a nice day. Thank you. Croatias struggle for independence from yugoslavia was more prolonged, complex and bloody and the slovenians. Today, though, its a country of five million and a very popular travel destination, especially zagreb, dubrovnik, and the rest of its spectacular adriatic coastline. But venture away from the capital down the sava and you come across a lesser known city. Sisak lies on the confluence of three rivers and its home to croatias biggest river port. The town of sisak is where the river sava actually becomes wide enough for cargo ships like these to sail downstream to belgrade and serbia, and thats what has made the town such an industrial centre. Now, sisak actually has a rich and colourful history but in recent times, its been characterised as dull and dreary. In fact, most guidebooks dont even mention it. But that is now changing. I am actually the fourth generation born here. And i lived with this town, i grew up with this town, and ijust, you know, when youre reading something about your town, youre reading the bad news and youre thinking what are you talking about . This is not how it is here. So, last year, dahna and her team set about creating rezthink sisak an art festival that uses the towns buildings as a canvas for murals. This one, by croatian artist lonac, was one of the first to be created. Its the biggest mural in croatia and took 23 days and 400 cans of spray paint to complete. And how do the locals feel about this . Um, well, at first, when we had to have the permission, they were first a little bit what are you going to do with this . But then, when it all started, they came every day here, they brought him the lemonade and cookies, and they were very, very proud of it. They got really emotionally involved as in people from this building call is, this is our mural which is what we tried to accomplish, you know, for people to accept them as their own. The murals are scattered around the city, each with a different theme or message. Dahna shows me one that highlights a particularly painful part of sisaks history. During world war two, this was the place where the children were gathered to be put in the only concentration camp for children in europe. Really . Just here . Yes in this general area. In this general area . Yes, yes. The camp was set up by the nazi affiliated ustase regime during world war two. The victims were serbian, jewish and roma children. This mural by austrian artist robin abramovic is dedicated to their memory. I believe that the artist gave them a tribute that they deserved and maybe a sort of place of remembrance of all those children who didnt make it. We called him to be a part of our festival because we, as a team, decided that his work does have that certain dark undertone that maybe we kind of lacked in the festival. And needed to portray. And needed, of course, yes, because the art has to provoke thinking, so, notjust be pretty. There are now 17 murals in sisak and the festival has been such a success, theyve decided to keep on painting. Mind you, people dont come to this part of croatia just for the art. They come to see the countrys largest wetland, which im heading through to my next stop on the sava river the marshlands of brodski varos, where i encounter a man on an unusual fishing exploration. Because stjepan goes out every day to collect food for this family of storks. Stjepan found the mother, malena, 2a years ago after she had been shot and critically disabled by hunters. She still cant fly. Because malena cant hunt, stjepan has to help feed the chicks. The fact that i can get so close, incredible and theyre beautiful wow. Congratulations over the years, a male stork, klepetan, became malenas mate but each winter, malena has to say goodbye to klepetan and their brood of baby storks as he migrates to africa for the winter. This bond between stjepan and malena has become internationally famous and is even the subject of a brand new documentary, the old man and the stork. And so, the first half of myjourney down the sava is complete and im beginning to grasp how important the river is to the people who live along its banks. Next week, i will head to bosnia and herzegovina and then east, all the way to serbias capital, belgrade. Ill find out how a generation who were born by the sava after the war in the 905 have new priorities and why the river has become so important to the future of serbias capital. And i hope you willjoin me. We are in for a pretty mixed Weather Forecast through the course of the weekend. Some sunshine to start us off, heres the view in county antrim. Beautiful blue skies there. Thick cloud further south across the country. This is the scene in burnley, where we have some big showers, beautiful rainbow there. The showers are fading away though, from parts of the northwest. The u nsettled from parts of the northwest. The unsettled weather we have on the cards is all down to the fact we have low pressure approaching from the atlantic, particularly during sunday and monday as well. That will bring pretty windy weather. Lets look at saturday. Outbreaks of rain across parts of wales, the south west of england, pushing eastwards. Further north, its a story of sunny spells and a few scattered showers. Not too many showers across scotland but there could be the odd heavy one in central and northern parts. For northern ireland, you are in for quite a good day, dry weather, and a similar picture across much of southern scotland and northern england. Showers easing away towards the east. Further south, england. Showers easing away towards the east. Furthersouth, cloudier skies and some brightness for the likes of east anglia. Still showers for the south coast. More persistent rain across wales and the south west of england, that area quite breezy. Moving eastwards through tonight, for a time we will see clearer skies. And northern ireland, and temperatures dipping. Do the early hours of sunday, more cloud arrives from the west, bringing outbreaks of rain and the strengthening breeze. For most of us, a mild start on sunday but you will certainly notice the strength of the breeze, particularly as this area of rain, the frontal system, pushes gradually further eastwards, quite a bit of dry and perhaps bright weather for eastern parts but the heaviest of the rain will be for the hills of wales, north west england and scotla nd wales, north west england and scotland as well, without weather front moving eastwards. That will be followed by sunshine and showers later in the day from the north westwa rd later in the day from the north westward temperatures later in the day from the north westwa rd temperatures germany in the mid teens. The windy spell of weather continues into monday as low pressure weather continues into monday as low pressure sits to the north of the uk with some really tight isobars around that area of low pressure. Particularly when the in scotla nd pressure. Particularly when the in scotland on monday. Pretty windy further south with mystics of sunny spells and heavy blustery showers. It is feeling pretty autumnal. This is bbc news. The headlines at 11am. Teachers and nurses in england and wales could have the 1 cap on their pay rises lifted next year. The treasury admits it needs to be more flexible where there are skill shortages. Teachers need a pay rise in order to stop the teacher recruitment and retention crisis growing. Ahead of the conservative Party Conference tomorrow, borisjohnson again intervenes in the brexit debate. The most serious animal cruelty offences could soon be punished with up to five years in jail instead of six months. Also in the next hour, the world of competitive medieval fighting is growing in popularity. Viking enthusiasts from around the world will be visiting london this weekend for a huge historical re enactment. And at 11. 30 well bring you dateline, where foreign correspondents currently posted to london look at events in the uk through outsiders eyes