He 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. I lost my grandfather, right. Will putting my brother to rest. . . . . Help me make peace with the past? i'm in hanoi, vietnam's capital city. And, like other early risers, i've come to lake hoan kiem. It's my first morning back in vietnam, a country i last visited nearly 20 years ago, and some things seem to have changed. We've got dancers busting that move! this is incredible! he laughs. There's a real buzz, and the city seems more confident. I think the last time i was here, ifelt a bit like a fraud. I didn't think i could claim a vietnamese identity because i was born abroad. I know i'm of this place, and yet i'm completely removed from it. I grew up in the deep south of the us in the 1980s, just years after the vietnam war had ended. There was a lot of animosity 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're white. My mom did the same thing. She said, oh, you're not vietnamese, you're american. And so i grew up ostensibly as a white american boy. So, i keep seeing the same people on loop 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. I think that, generally speaking, people are so warm and welcoming. But i do worry sometimes that maybe some people do remember the past. Archive: with music and news 24 hours a day, this is armed radio service, vietnam _ my parents met in vietnam. In 1968, my father was a nurse. He pulled bullets out of bones. And my mother at that time was a widower who had a young son, my brother, john. My dad fell in love with my mom and littlejohn, and in 1973, he asked my mom to move to the us. And her and herfamily 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'll 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! oh, 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, ismell 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. Mm, i definitely taste the tomato. Yes, the rice vinegar, the dam gao, is so nice and tangy. It wakes you up. Mm. And it seems so communal, people are really gathering. I think food is part of the culture. Like food is that important. Ifeel like we culture. Like food is that important. I feel like we are related to families and communities, when you really sit down and share a meal with somebody, loved ones and friends, and getting to know a stranger sitting right next to you too. Look at this, you're sharing a space with somebody you meet 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. Mm! there's something very comforting about that. Yes, it is. I've never had the hanoi pho ga, chicken pho, 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. Our mother, they did what they did to raise who we are today and give us a life. Yeah! and here we are, eating chicken pho in hanoi. . . I know, on the side of the street. It all worked out. Yes. Pure luxury! yeah. 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! ah, hey — one second, 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. Good. You take care of him, huh? yeah, yeah, yeah. Good, 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 yourfather, too, 0k? 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. 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. 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 2—3 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 f ree 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. For many of us, friday was a pretty mild day thanks to the south—to—south—easterly winds. The best of the sunshine was across england and wales. We had a top temperature of 18 celsius around the london area, but for scotland and northern ireland, there was a lot more cloud, and that has been bringing outbreaks of rain over recent hours. Now on the satellite picture, you can see the weather front that's bringing that zone of cloudier weather to the north—west of the uk. A strong jet stream continues to develop this weather system, and it's going to be bringing some very heavy rain into the republic of ireland, where there's probably going to be some flooding across southern areas. The front itself is very slow—moving, so over the next few hours we're going to keep the largely clear skies across england and wales. 1—2 fog patches possible in the east, where temperatures could dip as low as about 3—4 celsius in the coldest spots. But across the north—west of the uk, temperatures staying up into double figures. Because we've got that cloud, there's a fair breeze around here, but we also have a bit of rain to come as well. Now heading into the first part of saturday, there will be some pulses of heavy rain that works into northern ireland. The rain tending to come and go, so there might be some brighter spells for the afternoon here. Rain at times, too, for western and northern areas of scotland, but away from that for eastern and southern scotland, for the bulk of eastern wales and all of england, really, should be a fine and a dry day with plenty of sunshine. It's going to be another mild one. Top temperatures could hit 18 celsius once again. Now these weather fronts will then push eastwards through saturday night, weakening as they run into our area of high pressure to the east, so just a few patches of light rain. There will be some damp weather, then, for some as we start off sunday morning, but we've got a more pronounced band of heavier rain that through the afternoon will spread into northern ireland. This time, wales and south—west england getting a bit of a soaking, too. The south to south—easterly winds continue to drag up the milder air, so temperatures above average for most — looking at around 17 in london and cardiff and about 1k for edinburgh. Then into next week, this area of low pressure is going to continue to fire showers or some longer spells of rain across the uk. Meanwhile, a low pressure perhaps to our south contains the remnants of hurricane kirk. Well, that could bring some very strong winds to parts of western europe. Western france looking vulnerable at the moment. But here in the uk, it's an unsettled—looking week, quite windy at times, with showers or longer spells of rain next week. Bye— bye. Live from washington, this is bbc news. Air strikes continue in lebanon as israel tells more than 30 villages in the south to evacuate. Lebenese people take to escaping on foot after a key road leading to syria is destroyed, as the humanitarian situation deteriorates. And iran's supreme leader makes a rare public appearance justifying the attack on israel earlier this week, as israel decides if they will retaliate. Hello. I'm helena humphrey. The middle east stands on the brink of a wider conflict. Israel is continuing its operations in lebanon as leaders weigh options to retaliate