it borders russia to the north, iran to the south, with the caspian sea on one side, and georgia and armenia on the other. i want to explore the many faces of azerbaijan, both old and new, through its people, culture and food to find out more about this diverse and complex country. baku is a swing! it's a jazz! fish, yeah! my favourite — i love fish. nazrin, hi. and, there are horses! yeah. i didn't know we're going to have horses. i'm also here to find out why the likes of you and me, potential tourists, are seen as the bright new hope as an alternative to black gold. so, welcome to azerbaijan.

when you look at the guidebook, or on travel websites, or in fact almost anything about azerbaijan, they all start by telling you the same thing — azerbaijan is the land of fire! huge natural gas and oil deposits are so close to the surface that they cause these natural fires to spring out of the ground. fires which burned continuously for over 4,000 years were once common across azerbaijan, but this is now the last. right up here, it's really, really pretty hot — right up to your face you can really sense it. the whole of my body is really, really hot. this is incredible! it's. .. ..beautiful and bewitching at the same time.

2,500 years ago, these fires enticed zoroastrian priests from persia, who considered them a divine miracle. no wonder people for thousands of years have pretty well worshipped at this, certainly felt spiritual about it. i do — it's overwhelming. but, halfway through the 19th century, azerbaijan's natural wonders attracted a different but equally fervent kind of outsider — the oil magnate. as the world became industrialised, people realised the value of the oil underneath the surface and the world's first oil well was drilled. the sheer abundance of the black stuff is clear to see as you take a taxi into the capital city,

baku. perhaps a better name for azerbaijan should be the land of oil rather than land of fires, because they stretch on, these oil fields, for miles. by the turn of the 20th century, azerbaijan was producing half of the world's oil, making multimillionaires overnight. can i ask you how much is, i'd know, a litre of petrol here? a little of petrol is 50 cents. 50 ce nts 7 wow! that is about a quarter of what it costs back at home. yeah. but they know here the oil and gas is not forever. nobody can prove that, but i think we have plenty of it, still plenty of it. but, across the world, fossil fuels are being phased out. along with most other nations, azerbaijan signed up to the paris agreement to cut emissions to net zero by 2050. but, in the meantime,

all this easy oil has meant huge prosperity for azerbaijan and in particularfor baku. people tell me that the city landscape in baku has transformed massively in the last two decades. in fact, walk around these parts and you can almost smell the wealth here. baku is right next to the caspian sea, where much of the sturgeon fish, which produces the world's most expensive caviar, comes from. so, where better to try something for the first time? this is a basic type of caviar. it has a black colour and the size of the eggs is quite small. yeah. so the most proper way to taste the caviar is to taste it from your hand. 0k. and then put it on your tongue and then push the tongue to the top of your mouth. 0k. and make it slowly,

feel the taste spreading all over your mouth. 0k, cheers! cheers. do you feel how the taste develops? it started with something sour. yeah. and then it became salty. yeah. so the longer this taste evolution is, the better the caviar is. yeah. this is delicious! it's a little bit like pate. yes. yeah? caviar acquired its cachet in the 1920s when, after the russian revolution, wealthy aristocrats fled to paris, bringing their expensive tastes with them. interesting! so now let me open the beluga caviar. yeah. this is a top level product. and don't finish it. small sip — small. it prolongs. mm, mm! the creaminess definitely

comes out, a tiny bit of the nuttiness that i can taste there as well. yeah. so tell me how expensive it is. so more than $200 for 113 gram of beluga jar. 0bviously see that the price of the caviar in azerbaijan is like four times less than in the uk or north america. so, basically what you're saying is this would cost about $800 ? yeah, yeah. wow! but not everybody in baku sips champagne and samples caviar. underneath the streets runs the metro, frequented by regular bakuvian commuters. and now me. right, well, i've never been on the metro here before, and... ..lesson number one, buy a ticket. ok, that way! you can get bakikart only. do i want a bakikart? english! oh, i have to select

a card to purchase. hi, can you help me? yeah. ijust need to buy one ticket for the station 28th of may. 28th peak? yeah. huh? peak? 0ne. speaks own language at one point, it felt like half the station was trying to help me buy a ticket. yay! thank you very much. so i am going to the 28th of may station, which is just here, and we are currently in nizami. and rather conveniently, it looks like it's only one stop on the green line, so even i, even i should be able to do this. here we go! from 1920 to 1991, azerbaijan was part of the soviet union under communist rule, and many still view the state here as authoritarian, despite independence. the soviet planning policy

was that when a city reached a million people, it was required to have a metro and baku's was built in the 1960s. before we got on the train, i'd been told to look out for this amazing mix of kind of soviet architecture and azerbaijani artwork. and actually, if you look here, this to me is very traditional mosaic. and then all around, the mosaics everywhere. right, let's look for my line, the green line, which goes to... ..28th of may — that way. ah, here is the train. currently four lines serve 27 stations, but there are plans to expand. but it's only one stop — 28 may. train announcement i think we're here!

this is real baku. the capital's heritage is one that's changed dramatically over the years, with layers upon layers of influence, including, of course, soviet. i've come across town to meet fuad, who's a bit of a local celebrity here. i've been told that he's the expert on how this city has developed over the years. you must be fuad? somehow! pleasure meeting you. you too. fuad is known as a local historian, legendary for giving extensive tours around baku, sporting his bag of photos to illustrate the city. this is a building that used to be a japanese cinema, built by one of the local oil barons who happened to be injapan and was so much impressed by the architecture that built something shaped after a kind of pagoda. right. and then the soviets came

and turned it into the workers�* theatre of baku! 0k. and they made the renovation adequate to the name. so this is the same building? exactly the same building, but all the flamboyance is gone — it looks like a prison. so, i used to joke saying that architecture shows the spirit of its times. so, at the times of oil boom, it was impressive. while, then, under stalin, it becomes oppressive. then further down, it becomes depressive. and here it's post—soviet and post—depressive, a kind of cascading... post—depressive? post—soviet and post—depressive. now, why don't i take you to a place where we could have a traditional local tea? excellent. so, in azerbaijan, the tea must be hot. but to keep the heat of the tea for a longer time, they made this waist of the glass, so that the bottom part is always hotter. and whether you want or no, you subconsciously grab it from the top. and from the top you have a higher space for evaporation,

so it's slightly cooler on top than in the bottom. tea doesn't like haste. right. slow down. yeah. and when you're slowed down, you can talk up everything. yeah, but first, let's get a little bit tranquilised! fuad has seen the changes in azerbaijan first—hand. when i was a kid at school, we were told that everything great had to start after 1920, when the communists came into power in azerbaijan and just a mere look at the mere glance at the architecture of baku was enough to say that the best buildings were built before 1920, and what they built after was not to the standards often times. and there were no books written and there were no researches made. i started going into old houses, trying to find our descendants. and i started collecting these private family stories with pictures of the owners. so for me, it was important to see the owner behind the house and that brought the house to life. from what i observed, being around baku, i'm seeing some real exhibitions of wealth. from your perspective,

is this baku unleashed? baku is a swing! it's a jazz! it's a society where everyone plays its own game, but it kind of accommodates his own piece of music with others. so with this flamboyance, you get something veryjazzy. and that's the reason why, by the way, baku was one of the hotbeds ofjazz in the caucasus. and that was exactly the time when khrushchev outlawed jazz! butjazz is alive and well today. isfar is making waves internationally, with a fusion of modern jazz and traditional azerbaijani music called mugam. it's coming from 11th, 12th century, but it's arabic stuff, iranian, you know? can you show me? i'll try some stuff

on, you know... plays piano that's kind of, you know, jazzy stuff. and this phrase is very specific, you know? it's from the melody which the mugam singers use it, you know, the guitar players or others, they use this kind of phrase. plays mugam phrase but i played the fourth chord, like, you know, it's like... plays faster so you're really mashing up all these different modes of music, from jazz to classical to mugam? and it works! yeah, for me, i think that's very interesting, you know, to use it. this is brilliant! it uplifts the soul. and it is really interesting how you've got this music that comes originally from the deep south of the states of america, and then you've got this music, mugam, from the caucasus, and they come together and produce something extraordinary,

something magical. one of the most incredible things i've learnt about azerbaijan is that within this small country there are nine out of the 11 climate zones that exist in the world. and you can really see that when you drive out into the countryside, because you go from desert to green fields and up in the mountains you can actually see snow—capped peaks. but, surprisingly, this remote rural region is the backdrop for a viral social media sensation. this is the place where the magic happens. wow! this is what we see on all the videos. but, if you're expecting a self—obsessed, overconfident, chatty 20 something... the man! ..think again. the youtube star!

speaks own language delighted to meet you. tavakkul has a massive five million followers, with millions of global views of his videos each week. he fronts atmospheric films about traditional azerbaijani cooking and lifestyle. with no music or commentary, he lets the food do all the talking. super! he does have a catchphrase, though you, may have noticed. super! and we're going to cook here. 0h, fantastic. this oven? this is the oven, yeah? this is the oven, it's called tandoor. it's like tandoori? we have fish. my favourite. i love fish. ok. now the other side of the cooking, i can see. which of these vegetables are from just around here? ok. now, then?

with his easy manner, tavakkul guides viewers and today me... ..through the art of country cuisine. exactly how you do it! but the brains behind the channel, the real youtuber, is his nephew, shamil. and this isn'tjust a family business. it's part of a big operation. it all started with videos for kids, but then we start to film cooking channels. when you do youtube, you have to upload a lot of videos every week, every few days. and that's why you have to be like smart, you have to be fast. how many videos is this company basically making every week? i think in a week, i think maybe 10, 15. 10 to 15 videos a week? that's a lot, isn't it? yeah.

and the beauty of notjust being one of those viewers, but actually meeting tavakkul in person is that you actually get to taste the food! because so many people around the world are seeing your videos, do you think it's helping tourism in azerbaijan? did you ever think that a guy cooking food in his garden in rural azerbaijan, did you ever imagine that the whole world would be watching that? i imagined it, but not on this level. it was like a dream come true. all: super!

there is a downside to having a beautiful mountain range here in azerbaijan, and it's this. right now we are here in karbala and we want to go just a0 kilometres away, roughly, to shahdag, our next destination. but, because of that amazing mountain range, we have to drive all the way back to the capital. and then come all the way out again to shahdag, which is an eight—hour round carjourney. mind you, the next people i'm heading to meet would probably choose the mountain route. since 2014, hiking has exploded as an activity in the caucasus. part of that is due to the trans—caucasian trail, a mega—project building a hiking route stretching across the whole caucasus

region from georgia to azerbaijan. ok, i think we have arrived. here we go. well, hello! hello! it's the team! this crew are working on the azerbaijani section. nazrin. nazrin, hi. and there are horses? yeah! i didn't know we were going to have horses. wow! they've invited me to help scout out a potential addition to the route. so this route, actually, it will be coming from the qriz village, which is one of the high mountain villages of azerbaijan. and it drops down into lhasa, which is a beautiful scenic village. fantastic, let's do it. yeah! graba horse! a couple of years ago, i was trying to find some fun hiking to do. i found the trans—caucasian trail, got so excited, but saw that azerbaijan hadn't been added to the project yet.

so i came out and i've been here ever since. look there, we've got these rocky formations, which we want to avoid. here, along the grass, you can see that the sheep have already carved out some nice trails that flow with the contour of the landscape. if we were to build a new trail, we would dig out the earth to make a wider, flatter area for hikers to walk on. the tct is built by volunteers and we headed down to meet some who are working on an existing trail which had become overgrown. cheering this is a pair of loppers. yeah. hold it in both hands. you'll see there's a lot that we can cut over here that's getting in the way. ok. yeah. i fell in love with the trail idea, because you're slowing people down.

you're really encouraging people to interact on a human to human basis. what's your ultimate aim? do you want hundreds of kilometres of routes connected? actually, one day we're going to have 3,000 kilometres of interconnected trails. so, my time in azerbaijan is up and my takeaway is that this is a country of wild and wonderful contrasts. it's a country where some enjoy immense wealth, while others continue to live simple lives. this small nation has had a turbulent history and the repercussions are still being felt today. and as the demand for oil runs out, azerbaijan is going to have to make some difficult choices to secure its future. but, ultimately, what i take away most of all is the boundless generosity and hospitality of the azerbaijani people.

hello there. well, love it or loathe it, new year's eve is just around the corner and it's likely that the weather will play an important role in closing out the year of 2023. yes, there's more rain to come, some of it heavy, and snow likely at lower levels into the north and still, there's a risk of gale force gusts of winds with the heaviest of the rain. it's this area of low pressure, it's drifting in from the atlantic, bringing that wet weather with it. ahead of it, we've got this little brief ridge of high pressure, so that means a bitterly cold start to saturday morning across scotland and north east england

but you will keep the sunshine for most of the day. clouding over from the west. heavy rain moving out of northern ireland into scotland. we'll start to see some snow at lower levels as well. heavy rain across north west england, wales down into the south—west, accompanied by gale force gusts, but central and south—eastern england should stay dry during daylight hours with temperatures around 11 or 12 degrees. cool in scotland — five degrees at the very best for some — and that means a further risk of some snow, some of it at lower levels, which could cause an impact if you're out and about, so keep abreast of the forecast, keep tuned in to your bbc local radio station for traffic and travel updates. that frontal system will start to ease away but we're still under this influence of low pressure centred to the north—west and so, circulating around that low will be a rash of sharp showers. most of those showers will be out towards the west. sheltered eastern areas a little dry and brighter but some will tend to drift further inland. so, let's take a look

at new year's eve in the afternoon. some showers out towards the south—west into wales, southern england. blustery winds here. temperatures between eight and ten degrees. a few sharp showers. some of these could be thundery across north west england into northern ireland, western scotland as well. but a slightly quieter story across north—east scotland in comparison to of late. still the risk of more persistent rain into the northern isles and still pretty blustery here. but as we move out of new year's eve into new year's day, we need to keep a close eye on this frontal system that's drifting in from the south. that could bring some rain into the channel isles, into parts of cornwall and across the isles of scilly but for most of us, it will be a slightly quieter bay. there'll be a few scattered showers around, the winds not quite as strong and, hopefully, some winter sunshine to look out for. so, if you're going to get out and about and just walk off some of the excess, we're looking at around 5—10 degrees at the very best. now, moving out of monday into tuesday and wednesday,

if you're lucky enough still to have a couple of days at home, there will be some rain around. this makes it look pretty dismal but there will be showers with some brighter interludes from time to time and just that little bit cooler as well. now, that trend for the first week of january will start to ease away. as the low pressure moves through, we could see this area of high pressure building and quieting things down. now, if that happens, we could actually drag in more of a north—easterly wind, so it potentially could get colder as well. a lot of uncertainty about this — keep watching the forecast for updates — but after that low moves away, early january could see a gradual change to some drier but colder weather. there'll be some winter sunshine by day but also the risk of some overnight frost and fog. there you go — something to look forward to. whatever you're doing, happy new year and take care.

live from london, this is bbc news. the un says around 150,000 palestinians are being forced to flee parts of central gaza, as israel's ground offensive advances. faces from the worlds of sport, entertainment and charity are recognised in the new year honours list. and police search the australian coastline after packages of cocaine washed up on beaches in new south wales. hello, i'm nicky schiller. we start with the latest on the israel—gaza war.

south africa has asked the international court ofjustice in the hague to declare that israel is carrying out genocidal acts in gaza. the israeli government has reacted furiously, calling south africa's case a "despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the court". meanwhile an estimated 150,000 palestinians are being forced to flee parts of central gaza, as israeli forces advance in the terrority. 0ur correspondent shaimaa khalil sent this report from jerusalem. explosions. a massive israeli bombing in northern gaza turns an extensive network of hamas tunnels into dust. these idf pictures show a well—equipped infrastructure of long and branched—out tunnels in which the army says senior hamas members moved and operated. in central gaza, more than 150,000 people were ordered to evacuate two of the area's

biggest refugee camps. and this is where they were told to go for safety —