tv The Travel Show BBC News October 9, 2018 3:30am-4:01am BST
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sworn in as the latest member of the us supreme court at a special white house ceremony. president trump apologised on behalf of the american people for what he called the campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception the judge had to endure. the second suspect in britain's nerve agent attack has been named as alexander mishkin, a military doctor working for russian intelligence. last month the first suspect was named as colonel anatoliy chepiga. russian ex—spy sergei skripal and his daughter yulia were poisoned in march. hurricane michael is lashing cuba with strong winds and heavy rains and is set to strengthen as it heads towards the united states. officials are warning residents along florida's gulf coast to prepare for life—threatening storm surges. the storm's set to make landfall in the us on wednesday, then move up the east coast. now, it is hard to get on the
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housing ladder. figures suggest 40% of young adults can't afford to purchase a home in the area even with a 10% deposit. careful with it. that's perfect. well done, darling. these two colleagues have been friends for years. they are the same age, and even have the same name. but, for becky and rebecca, things have panned out differently when it comes to buying a house. i've been a homeowner for two years now. i've been renting for eight years. i've been saving up since i was 15. it feels like, because we both have lived here for a long time, and we love it here. and i feel i know that i can't stay living here. when i move house next, i will not be moving within the same area that i'm in now. i'm going to have to move at least five miles, maybe even ten miles outside of the city, to get an affordable home that suits my needs. and i'm not asking for, like, a mansion. i'm just asking for a suitable family home. our parents probably bought houses for a few thousand pounds. significantly lower
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percentages of their income. yes, whereas now it's hundreds of thousands of pounds. the money we save for the deposit is what they probably paid for their first homes. lots of people under 35 will understand that feeling. peter runs an estate agents over the road. i can't remember the last time that i saw somebody in their 20s who was out there looking to go and buy a house through me. it's couples, and they're older, people buying together a lot more, sometimes even friends buying together to try and make the mortgage more affordable. but it's a rarity. affording a home is a problem for young people across the country, notjust here in york. but the government say the situation is improving. they say that, last year, more first—time buyers were able to get hold of a home than at any point over the last decade. but the organisation behind today's report said there is more the government can do. there are no easy solutions,
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but for a government that really cares about increasing our home ownership, the key is to increase the supply of homes, and the responsiveness of construction to demand. the government needs to facilitate more housebuilding in places and areas where people want to live. although the pictures are looking different for becky and rebecca's futures, they are both sick of being made to feel that their generation is to blame. we're not being lazy, and we're not expecting, you know, something for nothing. now on bbc news, 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
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tugging on the net. nature and the great outdoors have always been central to the kazakh people's way of life. birds chirping, fish jumping, sun setting... i get it. and i'm here to explore how they are now combining both ancient and modern ways to stay in touch with their wild side. 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.
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once, back when the country was still part of the ussr, and long before that, it was the capital city. now things have changed here. 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 control of 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.
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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's 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 are once again 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
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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 entirely what i expected. chanting. we have just arrived
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here in the baksy‘s apartment, and 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.
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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,
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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.
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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's not much fishing going on now. it's 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
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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?
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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 manmade 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.
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this is where we spent the night last night. it might look like we're in the desert, but actually it was very cold this morning. the bedding was just a simple roll—out pillow mat on the ground with some blankets. but this is a fisherman‘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. though 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,
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our fisherman and his father in the back. these are our boats. out 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 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 in the net. it's not too hard, actually. it's interesting, because it is like when you are fishing with a reel,
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so i think we're probably getting near the end. we've caught a lot of fish. and besides the amount, they're big fish. myself, being a traveller, connecting with people is always very special. here you can tell that there's a lot ofjoy in the job this morning. it's not my 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 a 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 historical sites. wow, they look almost like paintings. they're petroglyphs.
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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 archaeologist maximova. and it'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 was speaking from here, and it 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 woman who is giving birth to a child. as you walk around the site, it's amazing how many carvings you see here. this here is the club?
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yeah. karla tells me it's thought they believed the more animals they carved into the rocks, be more animals they would successfully hunt. it adds so much to the experience today, being able to come just 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.
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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. i heard that it almost is. it actually moves. 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 stretches for 3km and 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,
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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 i am strapped in. i think i'm ready. this way, yeah?
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like this? ooh — and then the board comes... woah! this is a lot of fun! though 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 a bit of a crunch in my teeth right now. but woo, it is a rush. karla's about to come down. she's standing up. she looks excited but a 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.
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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!
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and with that, my trip to kazakhstan is at an end. and what a ride it was. hello. there's some warmth and some sunshine in this forecast and one more day of rain for scotland and northern ireland. by the time it pulls away later on tuesday, through the early hours on wednesday, parts of the western highlands could well have seen around 200 millimetres — close to eight inches — from this one front that's been hanging around for a few days. still with us on tuesday and still bringing strong winds and outbreaks of rain into northern ireland and scotland, always heaviest the further north and west you are. slowly through the day, it will push northwards. there is something dry arriving arriving into northern ireland, southern and eastern scotland and increasing amounts of sunshine
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across england and wales as the cloud through the morning thins and breaks. maybe a bit more cloud across the far north of england. anywhere northwards of wales will see the strongest of the winds on tuesday. this is an idea of the average speeds but the gusts, once again, will be touching a0 or 45 mph. lighter winds in the south and in the sunshine temperatures between 17 and 20. 15 and 16 for northern ireland and scotland. 11 for the far north of scotland. through tuesday evening and overnight, our band of cloud and rain continues to work its way northwards so for much of the uk, as we start wednesday morning, it will be dry with clear skies, the odd patch of mist and fog and a mild start to wednesday. temperatures between 7 and 12 as the overnight low. the warmer air continues to push its way up across the uk through wednesday and you will see temperatures rising. the warmest day of the week. our front finally clears away from the far north—west of scotland, just some cloud and patchy rain first thing in the morning before it finally moves away and for much of the uk, it is a fine day. plenty of sunshine.
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a fairly noticeable south—easterly breeze later in the day. some hazy skies across southern england, perhaps some showers through the evening. to give you an idea of the temperature, you can see warmer area extending right across the uk and we will see temperatures widely in the low 20s celsius on wednesday, even up into scotland. parts of east anglia and south—east england could see temperatures up around 2a celsius. by thursday, it is more unsettled. bands of showers, longer spells of rain, working their way up, particularly in the west. further east, at this stage, dry and still holding some warmth. 20 or 21 celsius. a cooler feel further west. as we go through friday, keep an eye on this because we could see some very wet and windy weather, gales are likely across much the uk, very unsettled by the end of the week. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is duncan golestani. our top stories:
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after weeks of division, justice brett kavanaugh is sworn in as the latest member of the us supreme court at a special white house ceremony. the senate confirmation process was contentious and emotional. that process is over. my focus now is to be the bestjustice i can be. the second suspect in britain's nerve agent attack is named as alexander mishkin, a military doctor working for russian intelligence. faces of hope on syria's front line. we meet the families trying to reclaim their lives after seven years of war.
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