dropping well below freezing. and then, into tomorrow, again, for most we will see some sunny spells, but some showers, which will be wintry. more cloud the further south and east you are, and some quite persistent rain across parts of essex, kent and sussex, and also down into the channel islands. temperatures in single digits, a keen wind as well. that will make it feel cold, and it stays chilly through to the middle of the week. there will be a bit of rain, sleet and snow at times.

hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: parents in england should send their children to primary school tomorrow, the prime minister says — but warns tougher measures may be needed in the weeks ahead, and refuses to rule out further school closures. it may be that we need to do things in the next few weeks that will be tougher in many parts of the country. i don't...| mean, i'm fully, fully reconciled to that and i bet

the people of this country are reconciled to that. india's medicines regulator gives the go ahead for two coronavirus vaccines — as it starts one of the world's biggest vaccination programmes. the oxford jab will be used alongside a locally developed vaccine. and israel leads the world with the highest rate of vaccinations — one in eight israelis gets a covid jab. shaun ley is here at 2 o'clock. now on bbc news, it's time for the travel show. this week, we're 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 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, i don't know what to say. woo! this is a lot of fun!

i've arrived in kazakhstan‘s biggest city of almaty. 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 rule of president nazarbayev, who moved the capital north to the purpose—built city of astana. one thing is clear, however — 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's 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're smoking a cigar. i don't know why, but that's exactly what it tastes like. very sharp, though. very intense taste. ah! 0h! 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 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, don't helps, 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. let's go. so we're on our way up to the baksy‘s apartment, should be waiting for us outside the door. not entirely what i expected. are we here? this. come in. welcome. bells ring. chanting. we have just arrived here in the baksy‘s apartment and we've arrived 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. bells ring. this is extremely intense. can you explain to me a bit of what is happening right now? like an exorcism? yes, yes. each baksy is different, and this one incorporates elements of islam, kazakhstan‘s most followed religion. drums beat. there is a power in this room i can't describe right now.

i have never experienced anything like this. so now, it's my turn. having witnessed the devotion vera had to the process, i feel it wouldn't be right to go through it all 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. bell rings. it feels good to make the sound, i don't know what to say. he is coaxing.

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. growls. hisses. i might 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'm 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 you look down at 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 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'd heard that here in kazakhstan, the sea was actually coming back, and it was bringing travellers too, so off i go in search of the aral sea, across

miles of the old seabed. i've 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 the uzbek side of the sea remains mostly lost, recent 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 time, it 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 it's 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 a fisherman‘s house and we're up so early this morning

because they're going to take us this morning to catch some fish. they are quite chipper. myself, i'm working on it. but it should be a good day. chuckles. my hosts tell me that 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 edige... hello. ..who you know already. we have omirserik, ourfisherman, and his father in the back. these are our boats. out there, there's a lot of fish and the plan is today to catch ‘em and bring them back to shore. engine roars. ok, 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 they pull it back in and every day is quite a surprise, but it seems that over the years, there's been 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 — it's not too hard, actually. it's interesting because it's like when you are fishing with a reel, you can feel the fish tugging 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 to the end. we've caught a lot of fish. and besides the amount, they're — they're big fish. myself, being a traveller, connecting with people is always very special and 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 in a boat but for them, it is, and 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. oh, wow! they look almost like paintings! actually, it's a petroglyphs of the bronze age, which is 3,500 years old. and these cliffs are covered with petroglyphs, right? this isn't the only site? yeah, exactly. there are many sites. it's many sites. it's about 5000 carvings here. wow. it was discovered in 1957 by archaeologist maksimova and it's more than 5,000 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 a — served as a pantheon. so you can clearly hear what they were talking about, like, 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 which 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? yeah. 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 here today, being able to come just in touching distance of things that are so old. i'm used to multiple layers of security — men standing there, making sure that

you don't breathe 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. humming. wow! it's huge! i 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 i heard that it almost is — it actually moves. in the past 150 years, it has moved three metres. slowly, but it is moving. it really is incredible. chuckles. i don't know how we're going to snowboard down it! laughs. along for the ride was karla's friend and olympic kazakhstan snowboard trainer yelena. the dune stretches for 3km and reaches a height of 150 metres and let me tell you, it might look placid from a distance but it is an entirely other story once you're up there. it's a little bit windy today but we're on the singing sands and 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, yeah? that being said, it was comforting knowing that i'll be going slower than on snow. and also the cool thing about a sand dune is there's no trees! so, i mean, i guess it's safer, right? no doubt, though, this is definitely the definition of an extreme sport. and here i am, strapped in. ok, you ready? i — i think i'm ready. woo! great start! playful music. this way, yeah? like this? oh, and then the board comes — oh! playful music continues.

laughs. woo! 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 — 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 got it, karla! yeah! but before long, we're starting to get the hang of it. surfing music plays.

this is a lot of work. pants. 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 — if i can — 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. if you're waiting for the weather to turn a little bit milder, well, i think you'll be waiting a while. no sign of any end to this current cold spell, certainly not in the week ahead. it is going to stay pretty chilly, with some rain, sleet and snow at times, but also some spells of sunshine. we've got high pressure to the north, low pressure to the south. that is driving quite a brisk north—easterly wind across the british isles. it feels really chilly in that wind and the breeze also bringing quite a few showers in across eastern and central areas particularly. those falling as a mixture

of rain, sleet and snow. certainly through tonight, there's the potentialfor some ice across parts of north—east england and eastern scotland. some more general cloud and rain. i think this will mainly be rain pushing into east anglia and the south—east later in the night. a little bit milder here, temperatures just above freezing, whereas for northern ireland, and particularly scotland, we'll see temperatures well below freezing. then into tomorrow, northern ireland and scotland seeing the best of the sunshine but there will be some wintry showers here as well. for england and wales, quite a lot of cloud around, particularly the further south and east you are and through parts of essex, into kent and sussex and also the channel islands. here, we're likely to see outbreaks of rain continuing for a good part of the day. the winds pretty gusty, particularly across england and wales. so, when you look at top temperatures of just four or five degrees and you factor in the strength of the wind, well, it's going to feel pretty cold out there. through monday night, we will see further showers drifting in from the north—east. still that persistent rain across parts of south—east england into the channel islands. that line of wet weather sticking around for a good part

of tuesday, as well. further north, it's another sunshine and showers day. quite a few showers, i think, across eastern and north—eastern parts. some of those showers, again, will be wintry and temperatures pegged back to between 3—6 degrees. now, a subtle change as we move out of tuesday into wednesday. our area of high pressure starts to slip away westwards and this low up to the north is going to start to take a bit more control of our weather. most places on wednesday still seeing some spells of sunshine. one or two wintry showers, not as windy by this stage, but cloud, rain and snow will move into the north west of scotland as the day wears on. that is likely to push south—eastwards towards the end of the week, so the chance of some sleet and snow just about anywhere. some sunshine as well, but it will stay on the cold side.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines: parents in england should send their children to primary school tomorrow, the prime minister says — but warns tougher measures may be needed in the weeks ahead — and refuses to rule out further school closures. it may be that we need to do things in the next few weeks that will be tougher in many parts of the country. i don't... i mean, i'm fully, fully reconciled to that and i bet the people of this country are reconciled to that. tougher restrictions could be on the way in scotland, as nicola sturgeon recalls parliament amid a rapid rise in covid infections. india's medicines regulator gives the go—ahead for two coronavirus vaccines, as it starts one of the world's biggest vaccination programmes. the oxford jab will be used alongside a locally