this is bbc news. the headlines: almost 150 people have been killed in a crush in the south korean capital, seoul, during halloween celebrations. emergency services say almost all the deaths occurred in one narrow alley in itaewon, a popular entertainment district. witnesses described chaotic scenes ahead of the incident. russia says it's suspending its participation in an agreement, brokered by the united nations, that allows grain exports from ukraine. moscow claims it's taken the decision after a drone attack on russian ships in occupied crimea. a un spokesperson said they hoped discussions would continue. british opposition parties are urging the government to look into claims that the former prime minister, liz truss, her phone hacked while she was foreign secretary. media reports allege the hack was discovered during the conservative leadership campaign. the government has refused to comment.

the household energy supplier octopus is to buy its competitor bulb — the largest energy company to collapse last year, amid soaring wholesale gas and electricity prices. since then, the government has spent billions of pounds keeping bulb afloat. but now, octopus has agreed a deal to take on the company's 1.5 million customers. our business reporter, ramzan kamali, has the details. the energy market was in disarray this time last year, dozens of firms going bust as energy prices soared. the regulator, ofjam, increased regulator, of jam, increased what regulator, ofjam, increased what was then known as the energy price cap, the biggest victim bulb, putting on a special administration, kept going by huge government bailout. today octopus are confident the takeover of bulb's customers would be smooth. . , bulb's customers would be smooth. , ., bulb's customers would be smooth. , smooth. octopus has a good track record _ smooth. octopus has a good track record of _ smooth. octopus has a good track record of bringing - smooth. octopus has a good | track record of bringing large numbers of customers across, for example, one another fell,

the largest company today, we could look after the customers and staff pretty seamlessly. with bulb, the experience we got means we are properly natural choice.— got means we are properly natural choice. interests or 1.5 million _ natural choice. interests or 1.5 million customers - natural choice. interests or 1.5 million customers of. natural choice. interests or. 1.5 million customers of bulb moving to octopus, bailing them out with a $1.7 trillion loan but the office of budget responsibility printed the total baler package would be to 2p. this still could save taxpayers millions. i 2p. this still could save taxpayers millions. i think it'd be good. _ taxpayers millions. i think it'd be good. for- taxpayers millions. i think it'd be good. _ taxpayers millions. i think it'd be good. for octopus| taxpayers millions. i think it'd be good. for octopus to take over bulb and relieve the taxpayer of the burden of running of the moment, also, make bulb customers give the more confident, comfort someone is running their business and looking after them in the best way possible. looking after them in the best way possible-— way possible. additionally, octo - us way possible. additionally, news has _ way possible. additionally, octopus has agreed - way possible. additionally, octopus has agreed to - way possible. additionally, l octopus has agreed to share profits if any are made from its new bulb customers with the government for up to four years. octopus will be one of

the country's biggest suppliers of the company were keen to reassure customers.- of the company were keen to reassure customers. no-one will see prices _ reassure customers. no-one will see prices going _ reassure customers. no-one will see prices going up _ reassure customers. no-one will see prices going up as _ reassure customers. no-one will see prices going up as a - reassure customers. no-one will see prices going up as a result i see prices going up as a result of the agreement. people should sit tight for now, the service will carry out unlikely as it does, provided by the same people. does, provided by the same --eole. ,, . ., people. since the war in ukraine. _ people. since the war in ukraine, angie - people. since the war in ukraine, angie bell- people. since the war in ukraine, angie bell is l people. since the war in ukraine, angie bell is a| people. since the war in - ukraine, angie bell is a much higher, despite the government has energy price guarantee, dude and next april. even though there has been some certainty with the deal, for consumers, what they pay in the future remains unclear. ramzan kamali, bbc news. now on bbc news, the travel show. mind blowing. look at this. incredible! i have been to japan several times but never to explore the remote, rural and volcanic south, where you can expect the unexpected. the extroverts. risk takers. and the unpredictable. i want to see an aspect of japan where they enjoy

the wilder side of life. japan. a country of 6,000 islands, dominated by honshu, the home of their country's capital. where are you from? japan! but 500 kilometres south of tokyo is the kansai region they call the heart of japan. and a city with a very different history and personality. osaka.

this was japan's real first gateway to the rest of asia. korea and china, especially. it is a real trading hub — export, import, commerce, and it was run, and still is, by businessmen and merchants. and it is those generations of wealthy traders who have shaped the city, creating its own unique culture. it has become a centre for food and developed as a home for popular entertainment. it is frantic behind there. in particular, humour became osaka's speciality. flourishing into a multimillion—dollar business. it is about nine o'clock in the morning and look at this. this is the hottest ticket in town. osaka is japan's mecca of comedy. these guys are really famous here. this theatre claims to be

the busiest and most popular comedy venue in all ofjapan. the demand is phenomenal, it is open 365 days a year to full houses of up to four shows a day. that is around one million people a year. thanks to constant tv exposure, comics are huge celebrities. fans travel from all over the country to see the stars live on stage. why are you here? the show includes many types of comedy but one of the most common and popular is manzai. a double act with a straight

man and a funny guy trading jokes, and it is this style that emerged in osaka. this is now the third act that we have seen and each one is going down a storm. laughter i wanted to find out more about the roots of comedy in this city. hello! kaishi—san! nice to meet you! katsura kaishi practices the traditional form of comic story telling, rakugo, and he says osaka's love of entertainment and culture evolved from its trading history. speaks japanese so there is a very special sense of humour here in osaka.

0k. kaishi has learned to perform in english as well as japanese in order to share his art with the world. i'll come to your show tomorrow, we'll see, we'll find out. rakugo comedy was invented by buddhist monks to make their teachings more entertaining. speaking english: there was a car accident, - and the family — father, mother, and their children were all hospitalised. but their pet, a monkey, was the only one left with the police.

the police said, oh, i wish this monkey could talk! it's a storytelling tradition that obviously resembles stand—up comedy, but this is some 200 years older. what was the father doing? he was drinking, maybe he was drinking and driving. what were you doing, monkey? applause after the show, i wanted to get some tips from the expert. hold the pen? "monkey, what was the father doing?" "hang on a minute, what were you doing, monkey?" and that's it?

they laugh you should maybe move to japan and should be a professional rakugo performer. really? laughter time now to leave osaka and head 30km south to a satellite city, kishiwada, home to japan's most famous and dangerous festival. i am about to witness something really quite special, one of japan's wildest annual festivals. and it is rehearsal time for a jamboree that has been going on for 300 years. it began when local craftsmen would show off their wares to the lord of the castle. today, the tradition

continues with teams, still all—male, from individual neighbourhoods, competing in a procession around the city. this year marks the debut of a brand—new float, or danjiri, and p0 is the proud master craftsman. are you excited? maybe i could help, could i help with your rehearsal? maybe. before anything can happen, there is an official blessing where they pray for safety. they are making an offering to the god for a wish for a happy and safe festival. i am now a member of

a very special group. even though this is a dress rehearsal, it is deadly serious. deadly serious. it may not technically be a race, but pride dictates the four—ton float hurtles around at full throttle. every year there are accidents and even deaths. but the tradition continues. wow! wow, wow, wow, wow! 35 floats in total tackle this course at the same time.

so when you get down these very narrow streets in particular, this will be really dangerous because that is a four—ton load on top and when they turn the corner, they can bash into the corner of buildings! it's crazy. it is like bull running in spain. but madder. after three hours of rehearsal, the teams take a breather. were there any dangerous moments, any times when you were a bit worried? do you have the energy to do two more days, long days? so ijoined the hundreds

of thousands of spectators for the real thing. the biggest event of the year. right now we have the perfect vantage point and they are about to do what is called yaremasu — the really dangerous corner turn. we're now doing what surprisingly few visitors to japan do, which is to leave

behind the main island of honshu and head out to explore one of the thousands of others. my next destination is japan's fourth biggest island, shikoku, where roads become narrow and winding and you are surrounded by dense forests of cedar trees. the views from up here are simply stunning. we're now in the mountains on the western side of the island. the iya valley. in the 11th and 12th centuries, these remote highlands were a perfect hideaway — literally. right, i'm now going to relive a bit of ancient japanese history. we're really inland and remote here, up in the mountains, and this is where disgraced

or defeated warriors would escape to. so this is the legendary kazurabashi bridge — apparently about 1,000 years old, made of vine and wisteria. here we go. it's supposed to be really dodgy to cross. but hey, if warriors did it before, so can i. the plan would be you would get across this bridge and then cut the vines, so that the enemy couldn't catch you. mind you, getting across the bridge in the first place is hard enough. the gap between these planks of wood here is, i'd say, large enough to have your foot go through.

well, look at that — they are sprinting across here! you're doing very well. so, these guys are using the side railings, which is very sensible, but i think the real samurai way is to walk across through the middle, so i'm going to do that. 15 metres up and 150 feet across, this bridge is today reinforced with steel girders and rebuilt every two or three years. yes! whata samurai can do, i can do. so, further inland we go, and the stranger things become. so, i'm now walking into a village, nagoro, which, on the face of it, it's like many other rural

villages in japan. it's peaceful, serene and quiet — almost too quiet. nagoro is going through the same process as thousands of other villages here — a low birthrate and an exodus from the countryside to the big city, leaving an alarming number of new ghost towns. but one lady who returned to her home village to look after her elderly father was dismayed by this trend and vowed to try and repopulate the village...after a fashion. konnichiwa! ayu na—san? speaks japanese. rajan — nice to meet you, and yourfriends.

now, it's become a cottage industry, using old newspapers and clothes donated by fellow villagers and well—wishers, ayano has created her own scarecrow community. we will call it hiro! it takes two days to prepare and make each scarecrow and now, there are 350 of these mannequins — way outnumbering the ten villagers left here. some people may find this scene rather spooky but for ayano, it's brought unexpected celebrity. tourists arrive in regular numbers from all over the world, and there's an annual scarecrow festival. now, it's time to take the new boy to find some friends. i think i'm more attached to these scarecrows than ayano—san is, frankly.

wow! this is amazing! astonishing. ayano used to attend this school — as did most other locals. but two years ago it closed down. so she's preserved it for posterity — frozen it in time from its last ever day.

from a community on the verge of extinction, to one forever on the edge of danger. my next destination takes me 600 kilometres south to japan's third—largest island and the city of kagoshima, in the shadow of the country's most volatile mountain, sakurajima. japan is home to 108 active volcanoes — more than almost any other country. beneath us, three peaks of the volcano and two craters. there are three eruptions a day on average from

sakurajima and today, it is happily gurgling sulphuric gases, making the air pungent. 100 years ago, there was a massive eruption from this volcano, which basicallyjoined it to the main island. it used to be a separate island. in fact, all the time, new islands are being created all across japan because of volcanic activity. 5,000 people live in this area, their daily lives constantly affected basically by what this volcano does. so, what is it like actually living down there? only a couple of months before our visit, 77 people here were evacuated. akira ohmura is a local tour guide who has lived here for six years, and he says he loves the energy of the place.

first stop, an unusual beach where the sand isn't really sand, but lava ash. tourists who he meets are always surprised that the volcano erupts so frequently, and that people actually live here — but that's because they are so well—prepared. the monitoring equipment here is some of the best in the world and locals take the danger in their stride. mayumi ohyama was recently forced to evacuate from her beloved home town.

but in spite of the constant threat of upheaval, she wouldn't live anywhere else. and there are some fringe benefits from living in a volcanic zone. south of kagoshima lies ibusuki, a unique hot spring resort. basically i am about to be slow baked in a sand oven of 50 celsius. wow! for therapeutic reasons, i am assured.

it's hot. i'm sweating underneath here. and it's — it's a very strange experience, but i think the thing is to just relax into it, i guess. so, at the end of my all—too—brief time injapan, i'm struck by the sheer diversity of the country in terms of culture, landscape and people. yeah, you are smart! you're good! laughs. as soon as i got off the regular tourist trail, i encountered quirky, humorous, adaptable individuals who love to live life to the max. cheering. and ultimately, i am left with a deep sense of serenity and tradition that is, i would venture to say, uniquely japanese.

that was... ..unlike anything. hello. if the sky is clear sufficiently in northern scotland, there's a pretty good chance of spotting the northern lights. having said that, it has been pretty overcast across many parts of northern britain in the last few hours. let's see where the greatest chance of spotting the aurora borealis is. where you see the red colours, that's the highest probability, but northern scotland is just on the edge, so it could well be on the horizon pretty low and if the sky is clear. low pressure is still dominating our weather. it is still pushing in that mild current of air

from the south, rather dragging it in, so sunday is going to be another mild day with a few showers. some of them could be heavy, though, perhaps one or two cracks of thunder, and blustery ones, too. here is the forecast. through the early hours, we will have seen showers drifting into some western parts but clearing skies again in the north and in many eastern areas. the possibility of some showers in the south—east and east anglia as well. and after a mild day, a mild morning on sunday — between ten and 1a, 15 degrees. so here is tomorrow's weather forecast. blustery showers out towards the west pushed in from the south—west, moving northwards, carried on that breeze. they could be heavy across northern parts of the uk. further south, i think predominantly sunny spells and actually, it may stay dry along the south coast all through sunday. and, again, a mild day but not quite as warm, so not the 23 degrees that we recorded on saturday in the south — more like 17 in london. and here is the forecast for the evening. you can see showers continuing

there in northern scotland. how about monday? a weather front is approaching. ahead of it, you can see some clearer weather there. so, monday is halloween. we are going to see some sunshine to start with but i think through the course of the morning into the afternoon, this weather front will approach and start to bring some rain from western scotland to northern ireland, perhaps the irish sea, and later nudging into wales and the south—west, but again really mild — the high teens, i think — and it will stay mild, particularly across eastern areas, some clear skies during the course of monday evening. now, let's have a look at the outlook for the next few days. it stays relatively mild until round about wednesday and then from about thursday—friday, we start to see those temperatures returning to the seasonal norm and it will be blustery at times, with frequent showers and spells of rain.