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In Azerbaijan, the oil is cheap, the skyscrapers are shaped like fire and donuts, and the ruling elite have got rich quick from its abundant fossil fuels. It could be the Dubai of the Caspian Sea.This former Soviet state is blessed with such abundant fossil fuels it oozes out of the soil, and in some places has been burning for decades. On a still day, the smell and taste of oil from the dozens of oil wells engulfing Baku catch in the back of your throat. Image: A beach on the Caspian Sea in Baku, Azerbaijan, with Soviet era oil platforms in the background. Pic: AP Delegates at the COP29 climate summit are now leaving the country with a bad aftertaste for another reason.Rich countries that have done far more to cause clima...

Russia launched a large drone attack on Kyiv overnight, with Volodymyr Zelenskyy warning the attack shows his capital needs better air defences.Ukraine's air defence units shot down 50 of 73 Russian drones launched, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries as a result of the attacks. Russia has used more than 800 guided aerial bombs and around 460 attack drones in the past week.Warning that Ukraine needs to improve its air defences, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: "An air alert has been sounded almost daily across Ukraine this week"."Ukraine is not a testing ground for weapons. Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state. "But Russia still continues its efforts to kill our people, spread fear and panic, and weaken us."Russia did not comment on the attack. It comes...

On a beach just outside the Azerbaijani capital Baku, a pair of deserted swings creak back and forth in the wind.They were built to be close to the water of the Caspian Sea. Now the ground beneath them is parched, and they are just relics of what once was there.Less than 20 years ago, the land beneath them under the water of the "Mother Caspian", as they call it here.It is the world's largest inland body of water and the lifeblood of the five countries that surround it.But the whole sea is shrinking, and on this sliver of land in the Absheron national park, the shoreline is now 200 metres away. "It is sad… even heartbreaking sometimes," said Elana Alizade, who used to play on other beaches around Baku."This is the place where as a kid we first discovered what bi...