then turned promising note. but then turned cooler. look to the south—west for the next area of low pressure which is bringing strong rain and outbreaks of rain, and some snow falling over the higher ground. towards the midlands and northern england by the end of the night. the northern end of the country staying rather dry. a dry, cold and frosty night for scotland. the far south of england will turn milder to start easter monday. a wet start for many on easter monday, the rain, sleet and snow brushing northwards, maybe some significant accumulations for parts of northern ireland, northern england and central and southern scotland. the far north of scotland staying dry, maybe a few snow showers. south of this, milder air, some showers, maybe the odd sunny speu some showers, maybe the odd sunny spell and temperatures of 12 or 13 degrees. stay tuned to the weather forecast, there will be some disruptive snowfall. this is bbc news. our latest headlines... a shortage of special needs funding

means growing numbers of children in england are being left without suitable school places, according to the country's largest union for teachers. comedian eddie izzard, the newest member of the labour governing committee, says labour must stamp out anti—semitism and rebuild relations with the jewish out anti—semitism and rebuild relations with thejewish community. police antenna read say they have arrested two people in connection with the death of a nine—year—old boy in democrat from northern ireland. —— a nine—year—old boy from northern ireland. the raf is 100 years old today. events have been held to celebrate. 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 by 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 dolorosa, which is stages of the cross thatjesus walked. good morning, how are you? good, good, how are you? 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 leant 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. and then we'd just have to sort of try and follow other people, people sort of pushing me from one

way to the other. 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! you're like ali baba. 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 in theory 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! shukran. 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‘s 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 you're meeting the people, the local hosts 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 night and good dreams. shukran, 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 trains? 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. 0k. shukran. 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! yes, oil, candles... it's got 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. once they've started singing, isuppose, louder, and i thought i've got 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, then guy helped me down. realising that i was the only person

to get close to hear that, feel that, makes me feel very privileged, very warm inside. 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 they're quite slippery, very deep. oh, my goodness! from the fire into the furnace. very hot in here, and i guess it's from 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, more, more, more, more... you can touch the place wherejesus was born. this is the star, it has 1a... it's a flower, or? 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. so this is the grotto. yes, 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. apart from eastern england, many places started easter sunday on a very promising note. cold and frosty but some sunshine, which began to diminish into the afternoon, apart from scotland's many places came cloudy. the start of the change across the south—west, the next weather system will bring some pretty severe weather in the next 2a hours. already bringing wet and windy weather to southern and western areas, seeing weather to southern and western areas, seeing some snow weather to southern and western areas, seeing some snow falling over the high ground as it moves northwards and bumps into the cold air. the snow will become more widespread across wales, and later over the higher ground into the midlands and maybe northern england by the end of the night. staying cold, dry and frosty for much of scotland. for the far south of the country, milderair for the far south of the country, milder air getting in so most of the

sensation will be rain. hazardous conditions likely on easter monday morning across northern ireland into central and southern scotland and northern england. some pretty heavy snow to the higher ground and even at lower levels. some parts of the southern uplands, for example the pennines, could see up for example the pennines, could see up to ten to 15 centimetres of snow and a couple of centimetres at lower levels. add on the strong easterly winds and there will be drifting, maybe blizzard conditions. they continue northwards into the afternoon interwar central parts of scotland, bringing heavy snow. a bit drierfurther scotland, bringing heavy snow. a bit drier further south, scotland, bringing heavy snow. a bit drierfurther south, much milder temperatures of ten to 13 celsius. still very cold across the north. the snow will pose a problem to a lot of travel plans on easter monday. stay tuned to the weather forecast for possible disruption. it will continue to move northwards into tuesday. a big area of low pressure means the weather will

remain fairly unsettled. what this area of low pressure will do will start to push milder air across the uk into tuesday. that is how it looks for the rest of the week. much milder and much more springlike. tuesday starts with that weather front, with the springlike. tuesday starts with that weatherfront, with the heavy springlike. tuesday starts with that weather front, with the heavy snow across the northern half of scotland, drifting blizzard conditions. further south, a fair amount of clouds, outbreaks of rain but some showers and sunny spells, certainly for england and wales with the april showers could be heavy and thundery, but very much milder. this is bbc world news today. our top stories: pop music diplomacy. another sign of improving relations between north and south korea — as kim jong—un attends a rare concert by k—pop stars from the south. some fighters from the last syrian rebel stronghold east of damascus have

reportedly been leaving — civilians have also been allowed to leave. syria was the focus of the pope's easter message — he called for an end to the carnage "for a people worn down by an apparently endless war." also in the programme — this man could soon become the world's most experienced everest climber. today marks the start of his 22nd ascent.