this is tough. and it is technical. if there was ever any doubt, mining is a toughjob. it has to be time for a cornish pasty. we will be looking at his expenses carefully to see how many pasties he claimed for. let's get a look at the weather with helen. rather weds 2a hours, flood warnings in place for parts of england and wales and rain to come, low pressure gci’oss wales and rain to come, low pressure across the country, it's gradually drying up, brighter in north—west scotland, western fringes of england and wales but for the majority and right up into the southern and eastern scotland it's a damp, cloudy picture. hill fog and snow, temperatures a bit more low than you

expect for this time of year. the breeze bringing the rain in eastern areas which will continue overnight but it will dry up for the west, ha rd but it will dry up for the west, hard frost across scotland and parts of northern ireland, frost elsewhere in western fringes but that means here we will see a dry and bright start with plenty of sunshine first thing. but that's unlikely to last as the weather system approaches later on and by monday a risk of disruption possibly due to snow. this is bbc news — our latest headlines. two british men — believed to have been members of the notorious islamic state cell known as "the beatles" — complain they can't have a fair trial because the government has stripped them of their citizenship. clashes in gaza — the head of the un calls for an investigation after 16 palestinians are killed by israeli forces on the gaza border russia gives the uk a month's notice to further reduce the number of staff it has in the country — as further foreign diplomats are expelled by moscow.

through teary eyes — former australia cricket vice—captain, david warner, says he will always regret his involvement in the ball—tampering scandal. now on bbc news, the travel show. my name is tony giles. i'm from england. i'm totally blind and severely deaf in both ears. and i'm travelling around the world trying to visit every country. we're in the old city! israel is country 124. i see a place with my senses — i see a place by the sounds, by the smells, by the textures. the hustle and bustle of people

shouting, buy this, buy this, come and look at this! i feel the atmosphere, the energy, the buzz. i was born with my eye condition, so i don't have any vision apart from sunlight sensitivity. and i've gradually gone deaf as i've got older and i am now 80% or severely deaf in both ears but i use digital hearing aids. i travel alone, because it's the biggest challenge i can get. and the travelling by myself... excuse me! ..i get to interact with more people. if i travel with someone, particularly someone sighted, they would be doing all the work, they'd be doing all the guiding, and i would not get to touch and find as many things as i do buy myself. today i'm going to catch a bus into the old city to go to the western wall.

western wall? western wall, yeah. ok, let's go. i will help you. 0k. let me hold your arm like that. where are you from? i'm from england. huh? england! i was lucky that the bus driver was nearby waiting, so it was really easy to find the bus. yeah, i've got it... let go, let go. new orleans was the first place i went to by myself — a foreign city by myself. didn't know where i was going, i was blind, and ijust froze. and then i took a couple of deep breaths and said to myself, "tony, this is what you want — if you don't want it go home." a couple more deep breaths, turn left, walk down the street, and the rest is history. excuse me, are you hear me...?

this is your stop station. my stop? yes. you can get off. 0k, thank you. you want any help? i'm good. just trying to get my bearings, trying to work out which way the traffic is going, and if i can use the sunlight, but i can't sense any sun at all. i have to be careful going down the steps, because they're all marble and slippery and worn so i have to go slowly and take care. no, no, it's ok. yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah. all right, thank you. two people came to try and help me but they were a bit aggressive, theyjust grabbed me, which is not the correct way to help — it's a bit frightening. if people want to help, and many people do, ideally you would want them to speak to you and say "hello, can i help?"

but obviously not everyone speaks english. so if they don't, then touch you gently on the hand, on the arm, but not pull and not grab, ideally. you have to be patient, you get lost all the time. it's very difficult if you're looking for something specific when you can't see. because obviously you can't pinpoint it. excuse me? you might get ten people walk past and then someone will stop, "are you lost, do you need help?" and then you can interact with them — that's how it works. excuse me, is this damascus gate? yeah. straight in front of me, no? 0k. want to help? yeah. i like this!

i like the atmosphere and the smells. and it's all close, and compact. it feels authentic. i'm going to the western wall, and on the way i'm going to hopefully explore some of the via della rosa, which is stages of the cross thatjesus walked. good morning, how are you? good good how are you wanted you want to see my shop souvenir? i could have a brief look, why not? yes? come on. what do you sell? very good! laughs. beautiful!

yeah. this is coffee. coffee yea h ? ok, i get this. about $3. that's five? that's two five yeah? yes. two five. thank you. i probably write a blog once a week, so i document myjourneys, and my travels, and i want to share it with the world, really, and try and inspire people to believe in themselves, and they can overcome whatever their challenges are. and i also add pictures i've taken. originally i did it because i thought it would just be funny, someone seeing a blind person take photos. it's an extra way of sharing, i can show my family and friends and stuff, that's the idea, to try

and share with everyone. thank you. excuse me! take the hand! people... don't leave him! over here... ok, thank you. someone on a motorbike coming through, that's not very clever. hello. looking for the station of the cross... this way, this way... this is the station of the cross? come back. 0k... then to the left... this is where he put his hand, here. this is where christ... up, up, up, up... to the right... yes, exactly. 0h, 0k! thank you! welcome. apparently i'm at one of the stages of the cross, wherejesus put his hand on the wall

and lent against a wall. defined handprint, very smooth, also quite rigid, quite bumpy. it's a lovely texture. right, this is some barrier, i presume. hmm. is this the way in? hello? sorry, machine? womans. woman? yeah, it's not man. the wall is sort of separated, male and female, and the guy took me into the male section and took me up

to the wall. 0k. there's all these notes in it. massive blocks, very smooth. the texture, the shape of the wall, the bricks, from a historical and a spiritual point of view, it's worth visiting. tony at the western wall. so, i'm heading to bethlehem, which is in palestinian territory. and it's separated by a dividing wall and a checkpoint. so, i'm going to have to get off the bus, get through the checkpoint, and somehow meet my host.

i e—mailed him using my laptop with speech software, and he sent me his phone number, and i memorised it, and i'm trying to call him with my phone now. i can use the phone because the buttons are tactile. i couldn't travel without my memory, my memory is my biggest asset. i'm using my memory constantly, i'm exercising it all the time — i have to remember phone numbers, i have to remember directions. it allows me to find things. my memory gives me my independence, along with my cane. i'm now at the checkpoint betweenjerusalem and bethlehem. i've got to walk across the checkpoint and go past the dividing wall. railings... getting through the checkpoint is a little bit complicated.

slightly more complicated than i thought, slightly more confusing. have to get past this... looks like we're on the palestinian side, the palestinian territories. it's quite exhilarating. as you come out of the tunnel into the taxi area, and where the wall is, you can hear all the people talking and smell the food and coffee and stuff. that's quite lively, that's quite interesting. can you show me to a taxi? taxi cab.

i'm looking for a taxi. where? church of the nativity. 0k. maybe you want, i'll take you for photo at the wall, we stop and take photo. ok, cool. you happy? yeah, always! how big is the wall? it's very big. 30... 20 metres? yes. it's far. tony... yeah? welcome to bethlehem, you're going to church? yeah, the church of the nativity. all this way... yes, wall. behind the wall you have hotel banksy behind the wall, you have hotel. i'm feeling excited to be

in bethlehem, it's a new city, new town, new experiences. driving through bethlehem, along the wall, has sort of given me a brief sense of how long the wall could be. it certainly feels quite long travelling along it. in my mind it would seem quite impressive. and i guess quite scary to a lot of people. here the church, tony. yes, this the church. ijust called my host to let him know i'm still coming. adam, we're at the church. hello?! hello... ? adam?

give me, i call him... hello? i call him, he's coming, one minute he coming here. thanks, mohammed. thank you. hi, tony, how are you? hi, adam, good to meet you, looking forward to seeing your place. how many country you visit before? i've visited 124 countries. oh, my god, that's nice! yeah. yeah! i'm very lucky! i love to travel! have you done much travelling? not, just here, it's not easy to go move, or to travelling another country. so you get travellers to come to you?

yeah! you have steps here... this is actually couch surfing, so invariably you stay for free. ok, have steps five... you live in a castle! yeah. it's a website and you can find people on it, they have profiles, and they want to travel or they want to meet travellers, and that's how it works. now, come here, the lift. oh, this is home! we've landed, thank you! i have had a wide range of couch experiences, i've slept on floors, on mattresses like this, i've slept on couches, and also i have couch slept

in africa where the toilet is outside, and it's a hole in the ground. i think it probably helps not seeing, i don't see the dirt or the danger or the holes, ijust get on with it. the main thing is your meeting the people, the local host and sharing their food and their culture and their knowledge and whatever they can offer you. and hopefully you make friends at the end of it. good evening. and to you! people think being blind must be terrible, poor you, they don't understand, they don't know what they're talking about. i'm so lucky and i'm leading a fantastic life, to be able to go country to country when i want, where i want... this is the way to travel! with very few restrictions

on what i want to photograph or do, and you come here and you see people, yeah, they can see and they can walk but they can't go places, it's just sad. you know for directions to go change? ok, so can you give me directions? just a straight, not left, not right. so, just straight? yeah. and i wish you be happy and lucky in your life. bye—bye, good to meet you, adam. bye — bye. bye— bye. is this the entrance to the church? you can go in straight now. ok, thank you. i can roughly hear a voice but it's a bit disconcerting. the echo splits the sound, so it takes away the direction. we'll get there, it can't be far.

there is a big metal thing with studs which could be... yes, that's a gate! oh, yes! oil, candles... a waxy smell... polish. finding the entrance is like reaching my goal, it's like reaching my target, and everything else after this is a bonus. they've started singing, isuppose, louder, and i'm going to get close to this, because there's going to be a lot of energy involved,

and then i've got to try and get close in close—up, eventually using my cane and picking out the steps, the steps, then a guy helped me down. realising that i was the only person to get close to hear that, feel that, makes me feel very privileged. i'm absolutely buzzing after that. energy is incredible! that was cool, just to be here for that if nothing else! it was quite crowded going down those steps, and quite slippery...

oh, my goodness! from the fire into the furnace! very hot in here, and i guess, some candles at and more some candles and more people coming in. this is my hand yeah? this is the place where jesus was born, here is the star where he was born. kneel down on your knees. kneel down... more, more, more... you can touch the place wherejesus was born. this is the star, it has 14... no, it's a star. the star of david, yeah. marble? no, it's silver. this is marble. yeah, this is marble. the ground wherejesus was born is down here, you feel it, he was born here.

0k. about there? yeah, it's not ok like this, let me help you a little bit, it's like this, you can take a photo now... definitely an experience, a very humbling experience, to sort of be in a place where one might argue history occurred 2000 years or so ago. visiting the church, the smells, the sounds, that's what makes travelling, for me, special. i travel by myself because it's my challenge,

it's like climbing a mountain, you feel, oh, this is difficult, it's a struggle, and then you get to the top, and you're like, yeah, i've made it, this is magical. that's what it's all about. broadens my horizons. and makes me become hopefully a better person. good friday was wet for many parts of the uk, it will be wet again through the rest of today but probably not quite as wet as it has been. there are still rivers with flood warnings at the moment, this picture coming in earlierfrom north yorkshire, the breeze, the wind throwing those large winds and waves. the best of the brightness today will be across the north and west of scotland and northern

ireland with some sunshine and very few showers. as the weather system slowly tru ndles few showers. as the weather system slowly trundles its weak east some brighter skies, more dry skies materialising, for the rest of us, low cloud, spray and standing water and for the low cloud, spray and standing water and forthe rain low cloud, spray and standing water and for the rain to come even though it is easing it will be quite a damp day for many of us, called on the north sea coast with the called air coming from the north sea. the drying up process continues overnight, and clearing skies further west, sunshine tomorrow, frost, probably quite hard frost and widespread across scotland in particular because it's been so damp we will see mist and fog as we had towards the morning hours which we will have to clear first thing. the start of april. sandwiched between weather systems, this one coming south and west, it does look like the driest day of the long weekend, easter day that is. it will tend to fragment, some brightness coming

through, sunshine and a few showers, snow showers for scotland but good sunshine here, initially in the south and west but through the afternoon the approach of the next weather system will blank out sunshine and bring with it rained through the second half of the afternoon. into easter monday the process , afternoon. into easter monday the process, the weather system continued to go north, butting into cold here, turning into snow mostly over the hills, up into scotland, some low levels will see snow as well in the heavy bursts, it turns more mild with heavy showers in the south, contrasting weather but for easter monday intentionally many people will be returning from the long weekend and on the roads with a risk of snow, it's not good news, there are warnings on the website. this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley.

the headlines at 11: two british men accused of carrying out beheadings for the so—called islamic state have complained that they won't get a fair trial after losing their citizenship. the un calls for an independent investigation as 16 palestinians are killed in clashes with israeli forces on the gaza border. russia announces further measures against uk diplomats — expulsions of officials from 23 other countries are also announced. the uk is considering letting russia have access to yulia skripal — who was poisoned alongside her father sergei in salisbury. creative subjects such as art and drama are being cut