this is bbc news. the headlines: kazakhstan is holding a presidential election on sunday, following the shock resignation in march of nursultan nazarbayev, who's ruled the country for almost 30 years. there have been a wave of protests by young kazakhs since mr nazarbayev stood down, as he still retains key powers. the sudanese opposition has called for a nationwide campaign of disobedience starting on sunday and continuing until a civilian government is installed. the announcement follows a tumultuous week in sudan, in which more than a hundred people are believed to have been killed by the security forces. president trump says he believes mexico will try very hard to implement the deal it's reached with the us to curb illegal immigration. the threat to impose tariffs on all imports from mexico has been dropped. but they could be introduced if mexico fails to live up to the deal.

irish fishermen are being warned they face arrest by scottish authorities if they're caught fishing around the tiny atlantic island of rockall, which lies more than 200 miles west of the hebrides. ownership of the rock has long been disputed, but scottish ministers now say they have a duty to defend the interests of their fishermen. laura maxwell reports. inhabited only by seabirds, rockall is a big lump of granite miles from anywhere. but the waters around it are rich fishing grounds for haddock, monkfish, and squid worth millions of pounds a year. it's access to this catch which the scottish government says it's defending. in a statement, they told us... we would not like to see

conflict but in this case it's straight and clean, it's a matter of illegality under international law and we'd like it fixed. the uk claimed sovereignty in 1955 with royal marines hoisting the union flag. but the ownership of rockall has been disputed for decades and irish fishermen maintain they're working illegally. they're extremely worried and they are looking and we expect that if there is any detentions here, we will have the full backing of the irish government to defend ourselves against what we consider is an illegal act by the scottish authorities. the irish government says the jurisdiction remains disputed and the threat of action by the scottish government is unwarranted. it says it will pursue every legal avenue to defend its fishermen. laura maxwell, bbc news. now on bbc news — it's the travel show. my name's tony giles and i'm totally blind and severely deaf in both ears.

now we're moving. feel the wind in my hair. i have spent the last 21 years travelling. i have visited over 120 countries. every continent in the world, including antarctica. my mission is to visit every country in the world. i started off in december planning this recent trip and i decided i'd just start in egypt, the top of north africa, and work my way through several countries to to get to ethiopia. have a try of that. mm, it's good, it's quite sweet. yeah, right? it is my passion, it is what i do. it always makes me happy. it is the biggest challenge i can get.

when i'm travelling country to country i usually take public transport. when i get to the city i am visiting, i hear people get ready on a bus. the bus will pull up, stop. i usually wait for most people to get off. i get my backpack, get my stick out. meskel square, yes? bye— bye. bye—bye, thank you. i follow the people. i can hear them so i know they're getting off.

i'm looking for a phone shop. i will ask people is there a shop nearby i can buy a sim card if i haven't got one. you can show me? thanks. excuse me, mate, could you help me put my new sim card in my phone? i use a website called couchsurfing and ifind local people on the website and they have profiles and i have a profile so i contact them. hello, is that mr happy? hi, this is tony, couchsurfer. can you tell me how to get to your place, please? i'm going to take a taxi so what — where so i need to tell him to go? ok, so i will see in about half—an—hour, a0 minutes. thanks very much, bye. i need to find a taxi now.

taxi? where are you going? hello. i go to gotera. gotera? yeah, gotera, yeah. 200 birr. 200 -150? 0k, go on. i lost my dad when i was 15, i6. i lost my best friend when i was 16, i don't really talk about. it was a big loss for me. it sent me off into alcoholism for a good six to seven years. by the age of 2a i was almost an alcoholic. once i got my head out of the bottle, i could see that there was a different road to go down.

i was hung up about being blind for a long time, especially as a teenager, early 20s. and then i suddenly realised the more people i met, i realised they wanted to be around me not because i was blind or different but because of who i was, my personality. driving along a straight road, a bit of wind. still smell the car fumes, they're everywhere. hello, mr happy, it's tony. i think i'm at your street, at your place. i'm opposite a restaurant. i can smell the food but i am not sure how to get to you. apparently i'm by the gates, someone‘s told me. hey—hey, tony! hello! guess who's here. mr happy. yeah, i'm glad, i'm glad to see you. good to meet you. how are you? thank you very much for coming. you found it already. welcome to addis, my place already. thank you. he's a really nice guy.

very friendly, as his name would say, happy. full of energy and was really happy to meet me, i was really excited to meet him. take a step. yes, there you go. you have it all easy. welcome to your couchsurfing place. thank you. your happy home. my space, thank you. take off the load. this will be your sleeping spot. 0k, just a mattress? yeah, it's a mattress. i mostly even sleep here. 0k. i like to sleep on the floor. 0k, great. one of the main components about my travelling is food. eating food, talking about food, sometimes buying food and cooking. hello, i'd like to buy shiro, please. i was very fortunate that mr happy very kindly offered to cook for me

some local ethiopian food. how much is that altogether? 70? i bought some shiro, and also a kilo of tomatoes and a kilo of chilli. people are lovely, very, very helpful, very kind. some people speak a little bit of english. i asked a guy to help me to find shiro, and he took right me to the shop. and then the shopkeepers helped me buy the food. it was a lovely experience. sometimes it can be confusing, especially if there's a lot of people pushing each other, all shouting for the same thing. even when you can see, you don't quite know what you're buying. sometimes it is a bit more confusing but you just be patient and keep going, keep asking. most people will help you.

what is shiro exactly? shiro is like a powder made of chickpeas. it is like one of the staple foods that we have here. so we call this dancing shiro time because the shiro kind of bubbles out and then dances. and you just cook it here, where the heat is coming from? yeah, where the heat, we have a charcoal here, so natural fire—making. do you want to have a try of that? give me your hand. you just put it here and then you can just put it to your mouth and taste it. nice. it's good, it's quite sweet. yeah, right? that is from that of tomato. i hope it tastes as good as it smells. of course, ready for it? lunch is here.

what a nice smell, lunch! thank you very much. hungry? very hungry. great so we have our shiro in the centre, which is like the focal element of the food. and then we have a couple of vegetables. do you like kale? yep. kale is like our green vegetable. then we have some tomatoes by the side, and some chillies. mostly we take time to bless the food, in a way. we kind of give it a good vibration in a way so just take a few seconds to be just grateful and thankful for having this food. thank you very much. great. the other thing cultural in ethiopia as we eat together, is something called "gursha". gursha is basically feeding each other. it is like, i made a bit like a bite and then i just give that to you. beside the content of feeding a person, it is also a sign

of respect and care. it's like a mother feeding a child so there's some care into it. it is a culture we do here. so i'm going to give you one of that now. are you ready? that will be interesting. open your mouth and you have yourfirst gursha... wow. nice. this is incredible food. people, you have to come to ethiopia and eat this food. you like it? it is delicious, it's tasty, it's a little spicy, it's a little...so rich. at least four or five different textures in this one dish i can taste on my tongue. now is your turn to give me a bite of that. see how you do the gursha. here it comes. you are like a pro. having this little ceremony, eating traditional ethiopian food with a lovely person, who i now consider my friend, is a wonderful experience. it's very humbling.

to be able to share and exchange cultures is so wonderful. it is hard to describe, really. very emotional. i can't pick up a book and think, let's go to this place or let's go to that place. so i had to have the research, i had to have the knowledge beforehand and i have a very, very good memory so i plan my route before i travel. i don't know who i'm going to meet, i don't know what's going to happen and to me that is all an adventure, it is exciting. many people say i could not do that, i couldn't imagine it. but i've never really seen so me, i don't worry about it because i don't know.

it is all the unknown and that is what i love and enjoy. trying to find people that i can help me with on line. i found this guy called mike, a local guy, who seemed really interesting, good fun. i says i was coming to addis, want to meet up? have a coffee or have a chat about ethiopian life and culture? tony? mike, hi, good to meet you. thanks for coming. welcome to ethiopia. have a seat. ijust really wanted to meet you and find out a bit more about ethiopia and what is going on in addis. likewise, i really wanted to meet you, when we contacted. we recently had change in government so it was not an election but by popular demand a new government has come up to power. it is a new government, a young leader, a kind of visionary. the people's man. the first time most people would have heard about ethiopia

would have been 1985, the band aid and live aid, the famine. but there is more than that, what's more to ethiopia? that image stayed in people's minds and shuttered everything else. when the famine was over and we were back to safe times, nobody was reporting on that. like, if you take the farming side, ethiopia is the fifth—largest country in the world with the number of livestock. it is not as depicted. ok, mike, where are we going? now we are going to the headquarters of the african union. so there, we are going to see a statue, a new statute that was just inaugurated

and it is a statue of haile selassie, our last emperor. i've heard of him. if you do this, you are getting a nice picture, and if you turn the camera sideways, because it's... vertical, yeah. tony, you're a nice photographer. thanks. yeah. awesome. yeah, yeah. you have a talent for pictures. yeah, just shoot and point, hopefully something comes out. how important is haile selassie to ethiopian people? for some, he was a hero, for others he was a villain. because whenever you occupy a throne, those are the things, the two balls you juggle. he tried to modernise the country. so he did work a lot on education, that was one of his main interests. my grandfather was a big fan of him. he said, he used to come to their school, randomly, just to check on what the students were being fed.

every time he would come, he would bring them grapes, apples, oranges. and how was he viewed by young ethiopian people today? haile selassie is immortalised, he is iconic. if you bring your hand, and interlace it here, and you do this... yeah, yeah. it goes back to unity. yeah, yeah, of course. so, we are heading into north addis. we are going to see an art gallery, an art gallery for blind and visually impaired people. i'm assuming some kind of tactile art exhibition. different textures to make a picture or pictures. that's what i'm assuming. we'll find out when we get there. thank you.

the entrance? hi, tony. welcome. hi. welcome to my studio. thank you, i'm really looking forward to it. let me show you one of the art pieces. wow. so, we're touching a piece of art. these are people, who are laughing. this is their mouths.

0k. this is their nose. this is their eyes. these are like buttons, are they? yes. so it is a face. you can see their hands, they are screaming, happy, expressing themselves. do you like it? it's really good, it's really interesting. it really gives a blind person a better understanding of expression of people. it's amazing. it's really inspiring. so many times you go to art galleries with your friends, and you sort of feel excluded. touching this made me feel included. a christian cross. actually art i can appreciate. i felt equal. it was really nice, really positive. i feel just like anyone else looking at art.

radio: ethiopia's number one station for news, music and entertainment? that's us, 105.3 afro fm! driving through addis one afternoon, got a bit hungry, so got a taxi to stop at a food stall on the street. i went in and talked to the guy there. i was talking to him and telling him my story, i travel around the world and i'm blind. we're about to go live on air. are you ready? he said, do you want to come on my breakfast show? i said, yeah, that would be cool. talk to the people, share my story, maybe inspire a few people. good morning, good morning, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. how're you doing?

it's the best breakfast in town, your voice of motivation and inspiration every single day. i'm sitting here with an amazing person, tony giles is here in the studio. he is a blind person, but also partially deaf, but he has managed to travel to 138 countries around the world. good morning, everyone. the question i have for you right now, i'm sure a lot of our listeners are wondering as well, what are the main challenges you face doing this project you've been doing? one of the most difficult ones is getting money out of atm machines, cash machines. i have to find somebody i can trust. i have to check them out, listen to their story, how they're sounding, figure out that i can trust them and go to the cash machine with them. they help me to read the screen, i can press the buttons and put my information in, and once i get the money, i have to ask them, what denomination are these? i can't read a menu in a restaurant, so i have to have an idea of the national dish of each country i visit. in ethiopia it's quite easy, injera. probably one of the other biggest challenges for me

is crossing borders. i have to hand my passport over to someone, and i don't know where that passport goes, and i have to hope it's going to get back to me. what keeps you going, when you are faced with challenges? how do you keep your chin up? when i get tired and i think i can't do it anymore, i think about my best friend. he died when i was young. he had a serious disability, and he couldn't move most of his body. i always think of him, he inspired me. i've got it easy compared to what he has. just keep going, yeah. ladies and gentlemen, here you have it. the one and only tony giles here in the studio. it was such an amazing, inspirational story. yeah, i have dark days. not so many now. one of the main reasons i started travelling was escapism, escapism from my emotions. i can do things physically, that's easy. i run away from my emotions.

i couldn't deal with relationships for a long time. because i thought an everyday relationship would end the same way as my relationship with my friend, i thought. people would go away. i thought that's what would happen with a relationship. and for a long time, it did. i realised that there's more to life. i could stop grieving. i still occasionally gets dark days. but the way you overcome them, the way i overcome them, is, i think, when i get up tomorrow, i think, what's the next challenge? i know people love me. so that's enough. some people might say i'm on the extreme edge of travel, and the extreme edge of disabled people. i do worry sometimes, when i'm giving talks, doing interviews, am

i going to put people off? am i going to make people think, wow, that's incredible, that's so out there, i couldn't do that, i couldn't possibly. i wonder if in a weird way, maybe i discourage people. i guess ijust thought i'd have to tell it and let people take from it what they will. without people, i wouldn't be able to travel. i think it's a two—way thing. people help me, and i'm given something back. i show them there's an alternative way. they say, how do you travel, how can you see? why have you come to my country, you're blind. i tell them, well, i come to eat the food and meet the people and hear the music and walk on the terrain up

and down the mountains. i can feel it all through my skin and my feet and that's how i see a country. the terrain around the churches on the outside is up there with some of the toughest places and terrain i have visited. i just want to be normal. it's just so frustrating. got to be strong all the time. it's the only way i can travel, the only way i can cope.

hello again. it's not been the best of a start to the weekend, really, with a lot of cloud, outbreaks of rain and blustery winds. for much of the day across good parts of the uk, skies look rather grey and leaden like these. you can see just how extensive the rain is as well. in the north—west of wales, 36 millimetres of rain over the 24—hour period. that's getting on for 1.5 inches of rain. but the brisk winds calmed down and generally it was a better end to the day. for example in hertfordshire with clearing skies. if you are heading outside over the next few hours, for many of us, lengthy clear spells with showers restricted to the north and west of the uk as the area of low pressure continues to drift away from our shores and move closer and closer to norway. given the clear skies, is not particularly cold. temperatures for most of us between seven and nine degrees celcius. and it means it's going to be a fine start to the day, with the sun up. plenty of that sunshine through the morning and a largely

dry morning to come. that said, quite cloudy for scotland in the north and a few showers here. going into the afternoon shower clouds will begin develop around midday. in the afternoon, those showers become heavy, thundery and slow—moving. they'll form in lines where the winds clash together in these convergence zones and they will bring heavy showers to the south—west england, the south midlands. maybe a few downpours for mid—wales, northern ireland and across the north of scotland. these areas, with the convergent winds, are the areas where you will most likely see showers. away from those zones, fewer showers, more dry weather and more in the way ofjune sunshine. all in all, it will feel a warmer day. temperatures, 16—20. looking at the weather picture into the early part of the new week, a real clash of hot air from africa into central europe, colliding with cooler air coming down from polar regions. that clash of air masses with big temperature contrasts brings quite an active weather front and the met office have already issued a yellow weather warning for this. through monday and tuesday, some areas could be getting on for a month's worth of rain. the rain is not going to bejust intense but persistent. the rain notjust across eastern areas either but is extensive across england and wales.

further north, scotland and northern ireland, a few passing showers, whether largely dry, though, with spells of sunshine. you can see how the rain will continue to pump in both through monday and tuesday with the threat of localised flooding. that is where we see the heaviest and most prolonged bursts of rain. from there, the rain travels north and rain going into scotland and northern ireland later in the week as the weather tries to improve in the south.

welcome to bbc news, i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: polls open in kazakhstan, as the country holds a snap presidential election following the shock resignation of its soviet—era leader. despite arrests and a crackdown, leaders of the pro—democracy movement in sudan call for a nationwide campaign of civil disobedience polls havejust opened in kazakhstan in presidential elections after the shock resignation of long standing leader

nursultan nazarbayev in march.