levels of of research looking at the levels of problem gambling and the level of at risk gambling and what we found is that the last few years, they have remained relative to stable i don't think we should see that as a success think we should see that as a success in any think we should see that as a success in any sense. think we should see that as a success in any sense. what we want to see. i was going to say, your own figures suggest for mcadam 30,000 problem gamblers in britain and 2 million at risk so although you say it may not have got worse, that is still quite an alarming level? that is right. for the majority of people, a gamble safely without expressing any harm but there are in excess of 2 million people in britain who are either problem gamblers or at risk of experiencing a problem. 0n gamblers or at risk of experiencing a problem. on top of that, there are a problem. on top of that, there are a range of people who will also experience the homes that can come from gambling so it is important that we take this issue seriously which is why we continue to develop oui’ which is why we continue to develop our regulars and continually to take clear action when gambling and please don't take the responsibility seriously. swarms of ladybirds have been

reported in homes and buildings across england and wales. experts suggest the hot summer has boosted numbers of the invasive harlequin species, which first arrived in the uk in 2004. as the temperature cools, the harlequin hibernates for the winter, in buildings including homes. scientists say the ladybirds are mostly homes. scientists say the ladybirds a re mostly harmless homes. scientists say the ladybirds are mostly harmless and should be left alone if they are found in your house. i think they look rather lovely. but one of my colleagues was saying they are not so keen, especially when they spread their wings. hopefully if they are hibernating, they won't to too much of that. now, time for a look at the weather with helen willetts. hello, a foggy start for some this morning, and we had a wet start elsewhere. the best of today's weather will be across the north and the west of the uk, where there will

be an abundance of sunshine. but across england and wales, we have got a slow—moving weather front sinking south, and the process will continue this afternoon, so we replace the fog with wet and windy weather, so it will feel significantly colder than yesterday. colder further north, significantly colder than yesterday. colderfurther north, but significantly colder than yesterday. colder further north, but we have got the sunshine to enjoy. very gusty winds up to 50 master our surrounding that area of low pressure, which clears the way through the night and we do have more rain creeping back into the north—west, but for most of us the overall theme tonight is how cold it will be with a ground frost quite widely. then we flip the table to murder, a much brighter day across england and wales, a colder start, tempered as will recover to the mid—teens, with wet and windy weather into scotland and northern ireland. goodbye for now. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: president trump's supreme court

nominee is excited to be approved later, despite allegations of sexual assault. there is freshman meant in brexit talks, according to the president of the commission, jean—claude juncker. he says a deal could be reached by next month. 0ne next month. one week after the indonesian earthquake and tsunami, officials say more than 1000 people could still be missing beneath the rubble. the opera singer has died at the age of 85. her song with freddie mercury which became the signature song at the barcelona olympics. now, it's time for the travel show. this week we are in kazakhstan. the view from the top! a vast country in the middle of central asia. full of stunning landscapes and nomadic traditions. you can feel the fish

tugging on the net. nature and the great outdoors have always been central to that kazakh people's way of life. birds chirping, fish jumping, sun setting... i get it. and i am here to explore how they are now combining both ancient and modern ways to stay in touch with their wild side. he grunts. it feels good to make the sound, but i don't know what they are saying. woo! this is a lot of fun! i've arrived in kazakhstan‘s biggest city of almaty. once, back when the country was part of the ussr, and long before that, it was the capital city. now, things have changed. back in 1991, it was the last soviet republic to declare independence, ten days before the collapse of the union. since then it has been under

the president nazarbayev who moved the capital north, to the purpose—built city of astana. one thing is clear, this country has undergone a tumultuous period. but, through it all, nature has continued to play a vital role for the once nomadic people here, and for travellers who visit. you start to get a sense of that at the green bazaar. there has been a market here since before soviet times. this is fermented horse milk, which has been around since the nomadic times and they say it is a cure for tuberculosis. it is a strong taste. the aftertaste is almost like you are smoking a cigar. i don't know why, but that is exactly what it tastes like. very sharp, though, very intense taste. some russian influences have remained, but some of the old kazakh

traditions that had been suppressed under the soviets have once again been bubbling to the surface. like faith in tengriism, calling on nature through shamans, known as baksys. arman, my friend! i wanted to find a baksy, so i'm meeting up with someone who says he can get me an introduction. can you tell me a bit about what exactly a baksy is? baksy are spiritual servants who are create by nature to help people. these days in modern culture, do people still go see a baksy? yes, of course, it is part of our life. if official medicine, european medicine doesn't help, people go to baksy. well, arman, i can't say i know what to expect, but i feel ready. arman takes me to a far corner of the city, and an old,

unmarked apartment block. we are on our way up to the baksy‘s apartment, she will be waiting for us outside the door. not exactly what i expected. we have just arrived here in the baksy‘s apartment, we are in the middle of some kind of ceremony. there are two ladies who are getting their souls cleaned, i guess — it's hard to know what's going on. chanting and grunting this is extremely intense. can you explain a little bit of what is happening?

like an exorcism? each baksy is different, and this one incorporates elements of islam, kazakhstan‘s most followed religion. there is a power in this room i can't describe right now. i have never experienced anything like this. so now it is my turn, having witnessed the devotion

vera had to the process, i felt it wouldn't be right to go through it without the same belief. so we agree on just a blessing for myjourney. but then unexpectedly, i seem to be getting the full treatment. growling and grunting it feels good to make the sound, but i don't know what to say. he is coaxing...as an experience alone it is very powerful. as the process continues, the baksy calls on the totem animals as they did many years ago here. i may not believe in everything that is happening here, but i do like to open myself to the experience as a traveller. all i can say is, i know i feel something. although many muslims here frown on these ancient ceremonies,

for some kazakhs, they are a direct link to their nomadic past. it's the world's ninth largest country, but kazakhstan is also one of the most sparsely populated. its people were traditionally nomadic, with their lives tied to their environment. today, travellers come to explore its relatively untouched landscapes. i want to find out more of the kazakhstani people's relationship with nature today. so i am heading east to the aral sea, the world's fourth—largest lake, or at least that's what it was. welcome to the dusty streets of zhalanash. if you can believe it, this used to be a bustling fishing village, but if you come over here and look down to the ground, you can see what used to be

the bottom of the aral sea. there is not much fishing going on now. it has been called one of the world's biggest environmental disasters. the sea which stretches the border between kazakhstan and uzbekistan was once about the size of ireland. back in the 1960s the immense stretch of water began to dry up. around 90% of it was wiped off the map, and with it the livelihoods of many of the people who lived on the sea's produce. i had heard that here in kazakhstan the sea was actually coming back, and bringing travellers too. so off i go, in search of the aral sea, across miles of the old seabed. i have arranged to meet

a guide in this region. he wanted me to see the full extent of what the sea, which was actually a large lake, once was, thousands of years before it dried up in the 20th century. the view from the top! what caused it to recede so far? the flow of water was diverted to feed the soviet cotton industry.

uzbekistan still remains one of the world's top producers of cotton, but while uzbek side of the sea remains mostly lost, interventions have meant the north aral sea in kazakhstan is returning. approaching the shore, one of the biggest draws for travellers has been the eerie sight of shipwrecks scattered across the old sea bed. spiderwebs everywhere. here we are.

the aral sea. at one stage this was the fourth largest inland lake in the world, and soon it will reclaim that title. i made it. birds chirping, fish jumping, sun setting, i get it. i get it now. it's a beautiful place. good morning. this is where we spent the night last night. it might look like we're in the desert, but actually it's very cold this morning. the bedding was just a simple roll out pillow mat on the ground with some blankets. but this is the fishermen‘s house. we're up early this morning because they are going to take us out to catch some fish. they are chipper. myself, i'm working on it. but it should be a good day.

my hosts tell me i am not the first traveller to stay with them following the sea's return. but not all of them choose the early—morning fishing run. the sun has not yet crested over the horizon of the kazakh steppe. today we are fishing, and on the fishing team, we have one sleepy, inexperienced travel show presenter, we have our hosts, one of whom you know already, our fishermen and his father in the back. these are our boats. 0ut there, there's a lot of fish, and our plan is to catch them and bring them back to shore. 0k. we're maybe 100 metres offshore. we've encountered the first net. so from what i understand, the net was put out last night right before sunset.

and it stays out until sunrise, and they come out and pull it back in, and every day is quite a surprise. but it seems that, over the years, there are more and more in the nets almost every single day. ok, so it's my turn to give this a shot, pulling on the net. it's not too hard, actually. it's interesting, because it is like when you are fishing with a reel, you can feel the fish taking on the net. you must love it out here. so we've been pulling the net

for about 30 minutes, now. the basket‘s almost full. so i think we're probably getting near the end. we have caught a lot of fish. and besides the amount, they are big fish. myself, being a traveller, being out with people is always special. here you can tell that there's a lot ofjoy in the job this morning. it's not my normal life being out here covered in fish scales, but for them, you can tell that they absolutely love it, especially when they can bring in a haul like this. i wanted to see how

kazakhstan‘s relationship with nature is changing. so i'm meeting up with the mountain guide back in almaty. she's agreed to take me out to some of the places she likes to explore. we begin at the location of one of the country's most impressive cultural sites. wow, they look almost like paintings. they're petroglyphs. and these cliffs are covered with petroglyphs, right? this isn't the only site, there are many sites. there are many sites. there are about 5000 carvings here. wow. it was discovered in 1957 by an archaeologist. maximova. and there's more than 5000 carvings on the rocks in this area. and this is the central part, which is very significant and very important at that date, because people were speaking

from here, and it was served as a pantheon. so you could clearly hear what they were talking about down in the valley, where the people and crowds were standing and listening. so here we see the 12 dancing men, which is doing the ritual dance. and here it's a women who is giving birth to a child. as you walk around the site, it's amazing how many carvings you see, here. karla tells me it's thought they believed the more animals they carved into the rocks, the more animals they would successfully hunt. it adds so much to the experience today, being able to in touching distance of things that are so old. i'm used to multiple layers of security, men making sure that you don't breath on art like this. but being able to see every little chip out of the stone really makes it special.

but what karla really wanted to show me was how some people are mixing old kazakhstan with the new, sandboarding on kazakhstan‘s most famous singing sand dune. famous because under the right conditions, the dune makes a humming sound, almost like an organ. wow. it's huge. you can see the little dust devils twisting up the sides. it almost looks alive. the skin of the dune, sweeping back and forth like a snake. and it almost is. over the past 150 years it has moved three metres. slowly, but it is moving. it's incredible.

i don't know how we are going to snowboard down it. along for the ride was karla's friend and olympic snowboard trainer leanna. the dune reaches a height of 150 metres and let me tell you, while it might look placid from a distance, it is a different story when you're up there. it's a little windy today, but we're on the singing sands. i guess that's 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 there are are no trees! so it's safer, right? there is no doubt this is the definition of an extreme sport. there we are, i am strapped in. i think i'm ready. this way, yeah? like this? 0oh, and then the board comes... whoa!

this is a lot of fun, although i promise you that you get sand in a lot of places you do not want sand. one of those places is your mouth. i've got... i've got a bit of a crunch in my teeth right now. but it is a rush! karla's about to come down. she's standing up. she looks excited but little bit nervous. you've got it, karla, yeah! but before long, we're starting to get the hang of it. this is a lot of work. what's incredible, though, is when you come down, as the sand starts to avalanche, you can feel it shaking and reverberating underneath the board.

it's very cool. it sings as you come down. we've got our final round from the very, very top, if i can make it. let's stay here and take a break for a sec. yeah! and with that, my trip to kazakhstan is at an end. and what a ride it was. hello, we have had a rainbow with showers across the north, we have had thick fog in the south to start the day, and then we have had the rain. the rain is on this weather front, as it moves away it takes the mild air with it. we have a snap of cold air for the next 12—24 hours, before the atlantic air turns to the north—west.

a brighter afternoon in the south, lots of sunshine in the north. it started on a frosty note this morning but, bar the odd shower, mostly across the hills and around the coasts, one or two for aberdeenshire, a lot of sunshine here. a lot of sunshine for northern ireland, and this afternoon for much of northern england and wales. the cloud drags its heels across the midlands, and it is a rather wet afternoon across southern and eastern areas. wet, windy and cold, with temperatures 10 degrees down on those from friday. cold elsewhere, but given the sunshine there is at least some compensation. this evening and overnight, the low—pressure tends to move out of the way, perhaps clinging to the far south—east of england. with a ridge of high pressure between our two weather systems, we are in for a chilly night. certainly in the countryside, as we wake up sunday morning. for sunday, we have turned the tables. scotland and northern ireland have the better day.

today, england and wales have the best of the sunshine, as that cloud clears away. there maybe cloud later in cumbria, but the difference is scotland and northern ireland, having had the fine weather today, more rain and cloud tomorrow. temperatures just a little bit higher, and notably it will feel nicer in the south with lighter winds. the high pressure stays with us in southern areas and into monday morning, whilst our weather front brings the rain. it hangs around sunday night and into monday and even tuesday, so we will continue to seek the rain piling up across parts of northern ireland and scotland. over the hills of scotland we could have up to 150 millimetres of rain. milder air does return, so there will be some sunshine in the south, but also some rain with that milder air. we will keep you posted, and there is more on our website. this is bbc news. the headlines at 11am:

division and protests across america, but senators are expected to approve president trump's supreme court nomination later, despite sexual assault allegations. there's fresh momentum in brexit talks, according to president of the european commission, who says a deal could be reached by november. hope among the devastation. as hundreds remain missing in indonesia, we hear how one boy's story of survival led him to receive a personal message from his football hero. i have that he was a big city fan. i just want to wish you a good recovery. also this hour — the spanish opera singer montserrat caballe has died at the age of 85.