bit efit (if eit (if (r huuf overload on a bit of mans planing. you can always rely on monkeys of one kind or another. that is the sort of, "how much? " expression. lovely. now follow that, you can only follow that with the weather. have plenty to keep you busy. thank you for being with us. by by the end of this weekend we can say goodbye to the cold, frosty mornings for a while as it is said to be milder into next week. today, it is looking cold once again. plenty of sunshine around across the north and eastern areas. further south, clyde mike brown, some splashes of rain, and temperatures around 8 degrees. the temperatures fall away rapidly this evening and overnight. a widespread frost

developing once again. the west will start to see changes as a weather system start to see changes as a weather syste m m oves start to see changes as a weather system moves in, bringing increasing cloud, wind and outbreaks of rain. i'll start here, but cold further east. we start the morning with the cold start, drier in the east. the weather will eventually reach in the south—east in the afternoon but the mild airwill south—east in the afternoon but the mild air will move in behind it. and it will brighten up. hello. this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines: a leading supporter of brexit has said the uk cannot become a "colony" of the eu during the expected two—year transition period after britain's withdrawal in march 2019. the canadian pharmaceutical billionaire barry sherman and his wife, honey, have been found dead at their home in toronto. police have described the deaths as suspicious. wildfires in california are continuing to burn out

of control, scorching an area larger than new york city and paris combined. one firefighter died tackling the flames north of los angeles. and after a bitter campaign, south africa's governing anc is preparing to vote for a new leader to replace president jacob zuma. now on bbc news, it's time for the travel show. coming up on this week's show... we travel to georgia to pay a visit to a town that's the birthplace of one of the 20th century's most controversial figures. rajan meets an artist in dubai creating a unique fusion of traditional arabic calligraphy and street style graffiti. i always try to bring a message of peace and tolerance and try to bring people together.

we are all connected and this is what i'm trying to do with arabic calligraphy, to connect people. yeah, baby! and i discover that santa makes it look easy when i hop on a sleigh for an early slice of christmas in finnish lapland. let's go, son, let's go! but first, this week, we're going to georgia. with its black sea coastline, forested landscape and world—famous wine, it's not hard to see why tourism is booming in

the once soviet state. but one city there is attracting tourists for a very different reason. in many ways, gori is an unremarkable post—soviet town. if it wasn't for a former resident, it might not be so firmly on the tourist trail. but tourists do come and in their tens of thousands every year, and today that includes me. in 1939, my great—grandfather, a polish official, was arrested as the soviets invaded under the leadership ofjosef stalin. like so many other poles, my great—grandfather was sent to a forced labour camp and died, leaving my family to flee, eventually reaching the uk. today, in gori, a flower bed lies

in the place where a statue to the city's most famous son once towered in front of the government building. but i'd heard some locals want it put back up. so i came here, to the former home town of stalin, where he remains such an important but controversial figure. for many in the former soviet union, stalin was a great leader. over his 30 year rule, he established an industrial and military superpower, brought victory against the nazis and respect on the international stage. but he also oversaw the starvation, imprisonment, execution and ethnic persecution of millions of people across the ussr. for lia zautashvili's guest house,

stalin is good for business. but for many here, stalin represents far more than potential profit. he's still an icon. 100,000 visitors came to gori's stalin museum last year. you can see here original furniture from stalin's first office in the kremlin. given my family history, i have mixed feelings when i walk around the museum. for me, its interpretation of stalin's life feels far too positive.

apparently the guides in this museum do tell their tour groups about stalin's victims, but i'm sat right now in a room dedicated to his victory in world war two and there's no similar room in this museum talking about his political oppression or mass famines. but museum officials maintain that they're fair in their representation of how many suffered under stalin. this is supposed to be a museum, but particularly in this death mask room, it feels more like a shrine. it's actually quite

reminiscent of the lenin mausoleum in the red square. in 2008, a long—running dispute with neighbouring russia over south ossetia spilled into war. gori suffered russian bombardment. following the war, the pro—western georgian government began removing soviet symbols from public spaces. in 2010, the statue of stalin was removed from outside gori's government building, but many of the locals are proud of stalin and nostalgic for the old days and they want the statue put back up. for some of the younger generation, however, stalin should be consigned to history, not lauded. i'd heard that a local taxi driver knew where the stalin statue had been dumped, facing the elements in a scrapyard next to a military base. he agreed to take me. in many ways, georgia has yet to decide for itself how to remember stalin. although his statue remains hidden away, the museum which seemingly venerates him is actively promoted as a tourist destination.

but while the nature of stalin's future in the city remains unclear, what does seems certain is that for better or worse he will continue to bring travellers to gori for some time to come. stay with us, because coming up... rajan meets the man making his artistic mark on dubai. and i take a magical reindeer safari through finnish lapland. now, if you were watching our special show from dubai a few weeks ago, you might remember we featured an artist called el seed, who's based there.

he's displayed his unique form of art all over the world. so rajan has been back to ask him about his travels and where he gets his inspiration from. caligraphy is the art of beautifying script and it is an art that has been mastered by a master calligrapher. and i am not a calligrapher because i did not learn from a master. i was born and raised in france and i had this kind of idea. this is how i started to learn to write arabic. i was looking for a teacher who could teach me arabic calligraphy but i could not find anyone.

so i started twisting the letters or extending them and creating my own style. and that style is el seed's mix of arabic graffiti, bright colours and street style lettering, dubbed calligraffiti. and he believes his work is the most powerful on the street, bringing his message of tolerance to streets around the world from new york to south africa, to the favelas in brazil. is are is peace and tolerance are and bring people together. we all connect and this is what i am trying to do with arabic calligraphy, to connect people. i was lucky enough to experience this — in all the projects my team and i have done around the world we have seen people and created

relationship and links with people. to date, this is his biggest project. an immense peace of work painted on 56 walls in an area of cairo where a marginalised and poor community of coptic christians collect and sort the city's rubbish. it took over one month to complete and gives a different perspective to an area many locals feared or ignored. the easiest way to live.

could we go through how you approach your calligraffiti? the only rule i have is from right to left. and then i play with the words and the letters. so let's write your name. this is the letter ra, this is the alif, jim, and nun. in arabic there is no capital. but what i do is i consider every letter as a capital so i separate everything. so in this one in calligraphy you can do it like this. this is the ra. and now the alif like that.

and then this letter, the jim, takes the same shape here and then this is the letter nun. this is typography, this is calligraphy. and someone who is arabic can read that? yes. they can decipher it. arabic calligraphy is what made me realise that identity is not unique. iam french, tunisian and ironically, arabic calligraphy made me accept my french identity. i could not do what i do today if i were not french. if i had learnt arabic from a young age i would not have this freedom to do what i do with it today. finnish lapland is as close as it gets to a winter wonderland.

over half a million people come here each year in search of father christmas and his reindeer. you can not say you have truly experienced the delights of lapland until you have been on a reindeer safari. and that is what i'm about to do. i have been told that if i am good, i may be able to ride my own sleigh with my own reindeer. before i do that, i need to learn how to use one of these. eric is my instructor today. is there anything specific i should know? do you have a tip? just be careful.

move slowly, not quickly. how do we start? take a seat. who is your number one reindeer? this guy is 11 years old. he knows his place. he knows where he is going? yeah. that's what i need. how are you? before my lesson, eric takes me on a ride. oh, my days! like many herdsmen here in lapland, eric supplements his income with tourism. he takes small groups of tourists into the forest on a reindeer safari. this is a proper winter wonderland. it is so beautiful out here. everywhere you look at is just a postcard. it is getting close... oh, he shook me off.

a touched him and he shook himself. he does not like me. he is staying away. there are more reindeer in lapland than people. around 200,000 of these animals and most of them roam free. some of them, like these ones, are tamed and specially trained for the reindeer safaris. reindeer are powerful and that is why i am not allowed to use them on my own yet. they would run off and i would be unable to control them. eric is guiding us at the front and controlling the sleigh. it shows you how hardy these people are. eric tells me that if i am lucky, i may see some wolves or brown bears roaming around. so far, it isjust me

and the reindeer. we have travelled around 20 minutes into the woods and come to a clearing. eric will start a fire. we will drink something nice, chill out and he would teach me to use one of the sleighs. i have had a taste of the power of the reindeer and i'm a little worried. do you get more people coming around christmas time? yes. it is one of the seasons. it is a high week, christmas week. they want to spend their christmas holiday in a winter world. today, reindeer sleigh safaris give tourists like me a taste of what life used to be like here before cars and snowmobile. finally it is my turn to have a go. if you want to go you just say go.

as simple as that? go! reindeer, go! he is not listening to me. go, reindeer! go! he is not obedient, this reindeer. eric said he has given me the safe one because he does not want me to have any problems. i think he has given me the slow reindeer. what is going on?! you will be left behind! you will be billy—no—mates! eric! he is not going anywhere! at the next roundabout, take a right. in 200 yards, make a left. i can't say i didn't try but this reindeer is just not interested. maybe we will try the next one.

0k. we would try the next one. before i set off, eric gives me a last few tips. pull it, and he will stop in an emergency. so this is my emergency brake? we're going! look at this. controlling this powerful beast. oh my god, he is picking up speed. go, go! this is so spectacular. my first—ever sleigh ride. i don't know how much this sleigh weighs. it is probably around half a ton, maybe a little less, but that reindeer is pulling it as well as myself so easily. such a powerful beast.

let's go, son, let's go! it still may not be the fastest of rides but it seems to be the smoothest and most magical way to enjoy this landscape. it feels quite christmassy. very christmassy. that is it for this week. join us next week when i take a look back at some of my personal highlights from this year's travel show including my trip to ghana where i met some of the country's cheekiest residents. they are not shy. look at him here. so that's next week.

if you want to see what we're doing on the road between now and then, signup to our social media feed. the details should be on your screen right now. but for now from me, ade adepitan, and the travel show team here in finnish lapland, farewell. hello there. it's been cold for the last few weeks. now, though, we're starting to see a change. we're expecting that change to take place during this weekend. there's a big plume of milder air pushing in off the atlantic. this milder air potentially going to be with us for much of next week too. but back to today. it's another cold one. it's been a cold, frosty start. plenty of sunshine across eastern areas.

always more in the way of cloud and a few splashes of rain further south and west. it's going to be quite dampfor and west. it's going to be quite damp for parts of the west country into wales. some of that cloud getting into the west midlands, central, southern england. but to the east, it should stay dry, plenty of sunshine after that cold and frosty start. it really will be cold across northern england into scotland. particularly where we have lying snow. a bit of sunshine in belfast. one or two showers. wintry showers continue across the north of scotland. so for the football matches: it will be damp for the leicester match. gloriously sunny for the scottish premiership matches. but it really will be quite cold, temperatures two or three celsius at best. those temperatures really fall away again across scotland, central and eastern parts of england. bit of mist and fog developing. this is where we see the change, a weather front pushing into the west,

interdewinging strong winds, more —— introducing strong winds, more cloud. a cold one across eastern areas again, subzero values. we're going to wake up to another frost again on sunday morning here. this is the weather system moving in slowly from the west. fairly tightly packed isobars. it will be a windy day across the northern half of the uk. some of that rain will be heavy and persistent across scotland. then into north west england and it becomes lighter as it sinks south eastwa rds. after becomes lighter as it sinks south eastwards. after that dry, cold start, it turns wetter and cloudier through the day. the skies brighten up through the day. the skies brighten up across through the day. the skies brighten up across scotland and northern ireland behind that weather front. double figure values now pushing into the west. then into next week, we have a run of south—westerly winds, down from the azores. it's set to stay very mild. u nfortu nately, set to stay very mild. unfortunately, with this very mild air comes unfortunately, with this very mild aircomesa unfortunately, with this very mild air comes a lot of cloud. sunshine will be quite limited. although for most of us, it should stay on the dry side. this is bbc news. the headlines at eleven:

a leading brexit supporting mp says he's unhappy about the idea of britain staying in the single market and customs union during any transition period. we cannot be a colony of the european for two use, excepting laws being made without any say—so from the british people, parliament or government. police in canada say they're treating the deaths of the billionaire businessman barry sherman and his wife wifea ' wildfires continued raging