voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. all of our lives are defined by the places we're connected to... ..and the people we hold close. they speak vietnamese my name is william lee adams and i'm a vietnamese—american journalist and an author. i was born six years after the vietnam war ended. i'm here to explore a country that's helped shape me. for me, it all flows from the war that brought my parents together. two people, born 12 time zones apart, thrust together to build a life. my family lived in america and my big brother, john, was my best friend. william speaks vietnamese

but two years ago, he passed away. i have a lot of unfinished business. i want to bring him home, essentially. this is where he was born. this is where he was happiest. and this is where so many people who loved him and took care of him still are. i'm travelling across the country, starting in the capital city, hanoi, and ending over 1,500km away in ho chi minh city... ..where my family still lives in banana garden market. whispering: 0h, he's so well—hidden. it's the most incredible journey i've ever taken. and i have to confront my family's difficult relationship with vietnam. my father and your grandfather would have been fighting against each other. yes. i lost my grandfather, right.

will putting my brother to rest... ..help me make peace with the past? i'm starting the second part of myjourney in ninh binh province. i'm in hanoi, vietnam's capital city. asa as a country a last visited 20 years ago. and some things seem to have changed. we've got dancers. this is incredible. laughter. there is a real buzz and the city seems more confident. think the last time 0ci felt a

bit like a fraud. i didn't think they could claim a vietnamese identity because they was born abroad. i know i am of this place and yet i am completely removed from it. a drop in the deep south of the us in the 1980s, just years after the vietnam war had ended. there was a lot of out of my city and resentment towards vietnamese people at that time and my father really contributed to that narrative because he told me you're not mixed—race, you're not biracial, you are white. my mum did the same thing, she said you are not vietnamese, you are american. so a drop ostensibly as a white american boy. so keep seeing the same people running around. it seems really inclusive, you see people of all ages, you see foreigners, this lake really is the centre of public life. i'm optimistic

about this journey, of public life. i'm optimistic about thisjourney, i of public life. i'm optimistic about this journey, i think generally speaking people are so warm and welcoming but i'd do worry sometimes that people do worry sometimes that people do remember the past. this do worry sometimes that people do remember the past.- do remember the past. this is armed radio _ do remember the past. this is armed radio services - do remember the past. this is| armed radio services vietnam. my armed radio services vietnam. my parents met in vietnam. my father was in a suitable bullets out of bones. my dad fell in love with my mum and littlejohn and in 1973 he asked my mom to move to the us and her and herfamily reached my mom to move to the us and her and her family reached the decision that she should go, but she needs to leavejohn in vietnam because she doesn't know my dad. is he a good

person or a bad person? so why don't you learn english, test out your husband, and then we will send john. before immigrating to the us, my mother used to work in the family market stall in saigon, in south vietnam. these marketplaces are still the lifeblood of the country. so i'm off to meet lylla. she runs food tours. she's a food influencer. and i'm not going to struggle to find her, because i've been following her for months. 0h, lylla! hi! nice to meet you. nice meeting you! 0h. how are you? like the women in my family, lylla's mother also ran a market stall. so, we are on the side of dong xuan market. dong xuan market is one of the largest and also oldest market in hanoi. i think that vietnamese food gives me a route into vietnamese culture. and you smell that? oh, yeah. i smell that. you recognise the tangy?

this dish is one of the most exciting dishes in hanoi. it connects you, because you can sit down with any vietnamese around the world, and they'll have an opinion on food. mmm! i definitely taste the tomato. yes. the rice vinegar, the dam gao, is so nice and tangy. mmm! it wakes you up. mmm. and it seems so communal — like, people are really gathering. i think market and food in general is kind of like the herd of vietnamese culture. it's like food is that important. ifeel like relating it to family and communities. because when you literally sit down and sharing a meal with somebody — a loved one, friends, and kind of get to know a stranger and sit right next to you. look at this, you're sharing the space with somebody you're meeting for the first time. i can tell this is really close to your heart. when you were a kid, did you help your mom cook? no, i did not. my mum was selling fur in the market. for my mum or my grandparents' generation, they worked so hard, like, seven days

per week, don't take a day off, to put you through the school. so i never realised...how hard my mum had to work. now, you chose this particular pho restaurant. why was that? the locals love it here. i think her chicken is delicious. and then i think she reminds about my mother a lot. she opened this pho shop for about 32 years already. wow! well, i can't wait to taste 32 years of broth! i know, right? me too. i mean, i come here often, but ijust love it, the scene and everything. it really is a scene. it's funny. people are driving by, they're looking at her. it's like she's a local celebrity. yes. yes! the chicken here is getting so much attention. 0k. mmm! there's something very comforting about that. yes, it is. i've never had the hanoi pho ga, chicken pho...

yeah. ..and it tastes fantastic. yeah. to be honest, when i was growing up, i didn't have a lot of vietnamese food because my mom was quite isolated culturally. we always had fast food or microwave food. it wasn't really home—cooked. i understand now why that was. 0ur mother, they did what they did to raise who we are today and give us a life. yeah. yeah! and here we are eating chicken pho in hanoi... i know. 0n the side of the street. it all worked out. yes. pure luxury. yeah. he laughs. and i think the vietnam war, or as we say, american war, here, divided the country and it led to the part that so many vietnamese people, like your mother, had to leave home and go to a different country where she don't speak the language and literally had to build life on the ground to raising her children. but now we have so many vietnamese all over the world and who are like you, spreading the love for vietnamese culture and food. so because of that, it's really more people in the world that know more about our food, our culture, our people. gong rings

my mother left my brother in vietnam when she immigrated to the us. and then, in the years that followed, john got very ill. essentially, he had a fever and his brain started to swell, but vietnam didn't have the doctors or the medicine. it was still recovering from the war. so he started to lose control of his legs and his arms and his brain. but my aunts had hope. they said, "if he goes to the united states, "perhaps he can be treated. perhaps he'll walk again." and so they told my mother he was unwell. however, they didn't tell her the full extent of his illness. the day she picked john up at the airport... ..he didn't recognise her. and he was no longer

walking or talking. mom, you don't have to hide, lean back. the doctors in the us couldn't reversejohn�*s condition. caring for him became the focus of our family — especially for my mother. william speaks vietnamese video call ringtone 0h, mom! yeah. ah, hey. 0ne se... sorry. i'm partly doing this trip for my mother, and i know she wants to come back to vietnam, but she won't come. she blames her knees, or she has too much to do. but i'm thinking this is a down payment on a future visit. i look like an old 90—years—old woman. well, aren't you an old 90—year—old woman? well... ..not quite. william chuckles the dog show. the one with the chihuahua? yes. william chuckles good. you take care of him, huh? yeah, yeah, yeah.

good. william chuckles i think in the past, when i was really young, john came between me and my mother. but on this trip, i feel like john has brought us together. and, mom, how do i say this? tell him i miss him very, very much and i will see him soon. he speaks vietnamese i will see him, 0k? and your father, too. 0k? mmm. i miss him a lot, william. well, you take good care of him, huh? you make sure you put his picture at the temple. 0k?

good. bye—bye, john. love you, john. wind chimes ring john and i, we were really raised together. he came to the united states in 1981, the year that i was born. he was 13 at the time. and so we were side—by—side the whole way. when i was a baby, i would play in his wheelchair. and i would squeeze the back of the seat and pull out the foam, and he'd be sitting on the floor next to me. i didn't understand the sadness that that wheelchair carried for my family. when i was a kid, we were both very isolated. i didn't speak till i was six. i was just so fearful and anxious.

and he didn't speak because it wasn't really an option. we understood each other. we had this deep bond. as an adult, john lived in a nursing home in atlanta in the us. when he passed away in 2022, we held a service for him in a local buddhist temple. he speaks vietnamese i got really curious about incense after my brother's funeral. and the monks said that smoke, to many vietnamese people, connects this world with the spirit world. she speaks vietnamese and i read that, in hanoi, they have this incense village that ships the bamboo stick, which is used to make the incense, all over vietnam. so i wanted to see the people behind it.

the incense village is like a rainbow exploded, and you see bundles of sticks drying and/or displayed on the ground. when i spoke to mr long, he made it clear that this is their art. are you proud of the work you do, and how important it is to people?

i'm taking my brother's ashes to saigon, where he was born. if i bring these incense, will it help our family? our local minders interrupt ourfilming. ah! it's a reminder of the limited press freedoms in a communist country. i came to this village to learn more about how these incense might be useful or helpful to my brother or my family when we take his ashes to the temple in saigon. but local authorities suggested that in some way what i was doing was wrong, or that it wasn't culturally acceptable.

and itjust stings, to be honest, because i'm not doing this for any other reason than to make sure my brother is at peace and at rest and... sighs: ..to sort of bring closure to myself and to my family and my mother. train horn honks i'm adamant to move forward. it's time to leave north vietnam. announcements over intercom all right. here we go. 31 to 36. all right! for vietnamese people, the reunification express is the bloodline of the country. it connects most of the major cities. right. choosing a bunk. i'm going to stay low. during the vietnam war, this express railway was bombed all the time and vietnamese constantly rebuilt it. just 15 hours to go. it's a symbol of reunification of one nation.

it's the end of day four, but i feel like i've been here for two or three weeks. when i got here, it wasjust a buzz of excitement. everything was fresh, in yourface, vivid, and now things have gone a bit grey. when i was at the incense village, it felt like i had done something bad or wrong and should feel shame. but a few days later, you know, it's fair enough. people do have different beliefs. we're motivated to honour the dead, to remember the dead and, in doing so, remind ourselves about life. what do you thinkjohn would make of making a documentary about this? he'd be laughing the whole time. he was always laughing about anything and everything. it was this joy, honestly. everything made him laugh. we'd watch baseball,

which, honestly, ifound a little boring. you know, the ball�*s hit, he's cackling. and i think he would have liked being the centre of attention as well. i've come to the city of hoi an. for centuries, it was an important trading port. since then, it's become a travellers' favourite. people flock to its atmospheric old town, which rests on a river. when i last visited hoi an, there were, like, five of us on the main street. it was not a tourist hot spot. and when i came back, i was really worried that maybe it might have lost its soul because everyone all over the world is coming to hoi an now. but i think there are certain elements to hoi an that are so strong, they'll never change. the portuguese, the chinese, the japanese were all there. it's this gorgeous amalgamation

of so many different cultures and art forms. i've been reading about people going on the river and lighting lanterns and sending out wishes and messages to people. so i'd like to do that for my brother. i think, for me, there's a lot of lingering guilt. he was my first friend and my best friend. but as we got older, i became more independent. and eventually, i left home. and in leaving home, i left him. it's high season in hoi an, and on the dock, it was pure chaos.

there were so many people, so many boats. it was like a traffic jam in the water. but once i got in the boat, and once the rower took me a little further down the river, i was really on my own. it's been two years... ..but there's still this well of sadness. i was thinking about what could have been, and what was. my family in vietnam had sent john to the united states with this really sincere hope that doctors could make him better. but it never happened. but also remembering that john had a superpower, which was to always be happy, always laughing. when i lit the lantern and set it off, it sort of flowed and bobbed.

he sobs for a minute, it would be out of sight and another boat would pass and i couldn't see it, but it would just bob up again... ..and i would see it. and the moment it faded away, i thought of the symmetry about how he died.

he went to sleep and he never woke up. he left the world in a sigh... ..and the lantern sort of did the same. it was a release. i felt likejohn was saying, "it's ok. it's ok. "i'm free." left or right? i think it's right. there's been this talk for months, "0h, mom, i'm taking john's ashes back to vietnam." william laughs this is my cousin and my aunt. now it's actually time to do it. and that's something

completely different. hello there. storm bert is bringing wet and windy weather in from the atlantic and bringing with it a triple whammy of severe weather as we head into saturday. there'll be some heavy snow for a while across parts of northern england and scotland. it'll turn to rain, and with snow melt and a rapid thaw, together with some heavy rain elsewhere, there could be some flooding and it will also be very windy. the winds are picking up and temperatures are lifting overnight, but these are the temperatures by the morning. so it's still cold in scotland and northern england, and it's across these areas that we've got these amber weather warnings from the met office. snow in the morning across this part of northern england and southern scotland. some snow to low levels.

blizzards and drifting over the hills, and the snow may last into the afternoon across this part of scotland, the southern highlands. there could be 30cm, even 40cm of snow. now, the snow levels are going to rise as we introduce milder air. so the snow turning to rain, and with wet weather elsewhere, there's the risk of some flooding with some heavier rain. not too much rain until later towards the south—east. the rain should clear away from northern ireland in the afternoon, but it is going to be windy. widespread gales, severe gales and the strongest winds around coastal areas, particularly through the irish sea and into the north—west. gusts of 60—70 miles an hour, but it's a southerly wind this time, which is why temperatures are going to be lifting through the day. it's going to turn very mild in northern ireland, wales and the south—west in the afternoon, and temperatures further north and east are likely to rise as we head into the night. there's storm bert lingering to the north—west of the uk. we do have this weather front bringing some more rain

overnight and into sunday. that'll be hanging around across this part of england and wales. could be heavy rain at times. closer to the storm, this is where we've got the strongest of the winds and the more frequent showers. but it will be windy everywhere, and the winds could be stronger running through the english channel as well. but again, it's going to be a mild day. this time the highest temperatures are going to be across eastern england — 15 or 16 degrees. even as we head into the beginning of next week, storm bert is going to be there across parts of scotland, maybe weakening just a little, but still bringing some very windy weather for northern areas. gusts of 50 or 60 mph in scotland, even through the central lowlands. and we've got showers or longer spells of rain. as you move further south into england and wales, it's not going to be as windy. there'll be fewer showers and more sunshine around. temperatures perhaps not quite as high. top numbers around 12 celsius.

live from london, this is bbc news.

us president—elect trump makes a number of big nominations to his cabinet, including picks to lead the treasury, labour and the centers for disease control. the laos government says it is profoundly saddened by the poisoning deaths of six foreign tourists. sean "diddy" combs faces further days in detention after a new yorkjudge delays a decision on whether to grant him bail. and several yellow weather warnings are now in place across the uk, as storm bert brings high winds, rain and snow. hello, i'm lauren taylor. we start with a developing story, and lebanese media says israeli warplanes have struck an eight—storey residential building in central beirut with several missiles. massive explosions were heard in the lebanese capital early on saturday morning. these are the latest pictures we have, showing first responders at the scene of the blast. earlier, israel struck several targets in the southern

suburbs of beirut.