state on a cathedral in islamic state on a cathedral in saint petersburg was foiled thanks to intelligence gained by the cia. president putin called donald trump to thank him. and voting hasjust opened for the sports personality of the year awards in liverpool, where 12 the year awards in liverpool, where i2 nominees are waiting to find out who will be crowned the 2017 winner. and guest editor of radio four‘s the today programme prince harry has interviewed the former us president barack obama. now on bbc news, 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 ofjoseph 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 hometown 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 originalfurniture 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 ii, 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 0ssetia 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 seem 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. so rajan has been back to ask him about his travels and where he gets his inspiration from. calligraffiti is like the art of beautifying script and it is an art that has been mastered by a master calligrapher. as an artist, 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 identity crisis. 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, calligraphy, vibra nt colours and street—style graffiti dubbed calligraffiti. and he believes his work is the most powerful on the street, with quotes of tolerance to streets around the world from new york to south africa, to the favelas in brazil. i always try to bring a message of peace and tolerance and bring people together. we are all connected, 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 around the world, we have seen people reacting

and create relationships and links with people. to date, this is his biggest project. an immense piece of art painted on 50 walls in an area of cairo where a marginalised and poor community of coptic christians make their living collecting and sorting the city's rubbish. it took over one month to complete and gives a different perspective to an area many locals feared or ignored. when you go to a place to create art, then you realise that art is a pretext to create a human experience. we went to a place people from cairo are scared to go and the people welcomed us like we were family. i saw those people living in the garbage. but they live from the garbage.

they taught us how to be tolerant and to be human, because it is not 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 r, 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 rajan 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 reads 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 would 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 play with the letters like i did 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't 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 can 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 easy tips? just be careful. move slowly, not quickly. the reindeer are scared about that.

how do we start? take a seat. who is your number one reindeer? this guy is 11 years old. he knows the place. he knows where he is going? 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, it is just a postcard.

it is getting close... 0h, he shook me off. he doesn't like me. he's staying away. there are more reindeer in lapland than people. there are 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. these reindeer are so 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 will teach me to use one of the sleighs. i have had a taste of the power of the reindeer, so i'm a little worried. do you get more people coming around christmas time? yes, it is one of the seasons. it is the 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 snowmobiles. 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. the lazy one. what is going on?! you'll be left behind! you'll be billy—no—mates! eric! he's 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'll take the next one. before i set off, eric gives me some 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 really 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're 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, sign up 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... good evening. sunday was a misty, murky sort of day for many of us, and this was taken in cumbria, where we did see some grey skies, drizzle around too, some places and dense fog too. through the course of sunday night, as a weather front clears from the south, that will clears from the south, that will clear a ny clears from the south, that will clearany rain clears from the south, that will clear any rain away, dry conditions into the early hours of monday, clearing skies with light winds, so a fairly chilly night, temperatures just about holding above freezing in towns and cities, but in rural spots we will see quite a sharp frost. a ridge of high pressure in charge of oui’ ridge of high pressure in charge of our weather as we ridge of high pressure in charge of oui’ weather as we move ridge of high pressure in charge of our weather as we move through the day on monday, keeping the weather

pretty quiet, so a lot of dry weather first thing monday morning. we have got mist and fog patches that could linger in a few places. slightly milderfor that could linger in a few places. slightly milder for wales and the south—west of england, eight in the morning, four orfive south—west of england, eight in the morning, four or five celsius, colder as we look across the east of england, where we could see icy patches. a charlie studd for northern england, sunshine burning away mist and fog, dry for scotland and northern ireland through that course of the morning. a few showers in the north—west, cloud increasing through the day, but many places having quite a good deal of sunshine, brighter than sunday. mainly light winds, temperatures milder towards the west, 7—9 degrees here, still quite chilly in the east, 4—6. monday into tuesday, as the milder air works in from the west, we will see some really dens park patches forming, so moving

through into tuesday morning, that could be quite problematic, especially across central and eastern parts of the country, where it will be freezing, temperatures around about freezing with that dens park, so the potential on tuesday morning to cause some disruption to travel, especially across central parts of england. less in the way of fog or the north—west, more of a breeze here, things turning milder in the west, where we will see temperatures back into double figures. chilly weather and fog lingers towards the east. bye for 110w. this is bbc world news today. i'm karin giannone. our top stories... president putin says russia has foiled a terror attack planned on saint petersburg — and has thanked donald trump for cia information which helped track down the suspects. tu rkey‘s turkey's president erdogan says he

wa nts to turkey's president erdogan says he wants to open a turkish embassy for palestinians in eastjerusalem. south africa's ruling party gets closer to choosing its next leader. the two main contenders have been formally nominated and voting is under way. and the pentagon admits to running a top—secret investigation into the existence of alien life