crying at being bullied went viral. nine—year—old quaden can be seen in tears after he was targeted at school for his dwarfism. celebrities including the actor hugh jackman have spoken out to support quaden. it is amazing, if you look at social media. to see some of the messages that have been sent in after his mother publish that distressing video of his reaction. after coming home after another day at school being bullied about his size. fans of the tv series friends are celebrating, after news of the reunion they've been waiting more than 15 years for, is finally happening. all six of the cast posted this picture last night with the caption "it's happening", confirming they will all return for a one—off unscripted special. what i think you are dye used to

call the documentary. a large, elderly bear has been seen ambling around a suburb near los angeles. the 180kg visitor sluggishly sauntered around before being tranquilized and taken to a forest. a mild winter in california is thought to be the reason for the unusual february appearance. in search of food, no doubt. i am not sure he would have found much pickings in la. let's have a look at the weather now. a mixture of sunshine and showers for the site of the afternoon. any sunshine between them in the south hazy, and showers in the north falling to sleet and snow with blizzards over the hills. the wind gusts touching gale force in the far north of scotland. 4—5d at best in scotland, but up to 13 or 1a in the

south—east. a big contrast. may be a frost across eastern parts of scotla nd frost across eastern parts of scotland tonight, but temperatures rise elsewhere as cloud and more rain pushes in. persistent rain to come for parts of wales and northern england, and parts of the midlands, falling on already saturated ground which could cause flooding issues into tomorrow morning. river levels will rise as the rain moves across. the wind will ease across southern counties, but it stays cloudy and damp. sunshine for more of you tomorrow afternoon, and not feeling as cold. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: a plane carrying britons who had been trapped on a coronavirus—hit cruise ship injapan should be landing in the uk in the next hour. harry and meghan will stop using their "sussex royal" brand from spring following their decision to step back from royal duties. bernie sanders warns president putin to keep out of american politics after reports

that russia was trying to help the democratic presidential hopeful‘s campaign. the met office warns the uk to brace itself for more bad weather with warnings of snow in scotland, strong winds and more rain on the way. some of england's top rugby union clubs back a new scheme being rolled out to help young boys spot the signs of mental health problems. now, time for the travel show. this week on the travel show: carmen's chilling in northern japan, despite a lack of snow. wooo! i'm in brazilfor the countdown to carnival. i don't know what i'm doing! and we hit the road in america, with one man

and his very devoted dog. this week we're kicking off on japan's northern island, hokkaido. it's the country's winter playground, hosting skiers and snowboarders from everywhere. it's also home to one of the world's famous winter events — the sapporo snow festival. but, sadly, milder temperatures and drier conditions have led to problems for organisers this year. so carmen has pulled on her snow boots and headed north to see how they're coping. the wide open spaces of hokkaido.

at any time of year people come here to be outdoors, but especially injanuary and february — the height of the ski season. the resorts on hokkaido are globally renowned, partly because of the quality of the snow. but also there's a real diversity in the landscape which provides fast black runs, gentle nursery slopes, and loads of backcountry off—piste skiing. but this year there's been a problem. it's the lowest snowfall on record injapan since 1961. and at this resort here they had to delay their opening by one month because there just wasn't enough snow.

so do you think skiing as a pastime, a winter pastime, might be in danger? all of this is difficult to hear if this is the highlight of your sporting year. but the weather's had an even bigger impact at the bottom of the hill. this is the sapporo snow festival, held every february, right in the heart of hokkaido‘s capital. laughter. wooo!

music plays. it's a big deal and famous internationally. about 2 million visitors come every year. most people come for the incredible snow sculptures. it started in 1950 as a way for high school students to publicly display their sculptures, but now it's grown into something quite different. teams come from all over the world to compete and, for me, watching them sweat is just as much fun as seeing the final result. gosh, this is serious business. look at this man here, he's even got a sculpture, a mini version. hi. what's it going to be? it's going to be the legend of pele... pele? 0h. ..the fire goddess on the big

island, the volcano killer whale. they say that when the flames would go to the heavens she would do a hula to the gods. her spirit would be inside the fire. wow. so this is the australian entry. and it is going to be, eventually, a waratah, is an indigenous bush flower. because we've had the bushfires over the summer and the flower is like a beacon in the australian bush and it's got to regenerate after the fire. so we're going do this beautiful flower with a beautiful flower head and it's going to regenerate and it's an ode to the bushfires from summer and our country, australia. great. this is our team up on the top. hi, guys. hello! hi! konnichiwa from japan. so how long have you got? tell me the logistics of the snow festival competition. there's 11 international teams. but we're all, equally, given the same amount of tools and we've got four days. so we work from nine o'clock in the morning until nine at night.

we can have breaks whenever we want. basically today we're marking out and each day we'll progressively remove the snow and then start to put the detail and then finish off the beautiful flower of the waratah. so what are conditions like this year compared to last year? there's a lack of snow this year. it's been reported that the snowfall is a0 days late, they said. wow. so there should be a lot more snow. and in past years we've been standing against the sign and the snow‘s been up to the bottom of that sign. so we're actually standing... wow. so we're really low. with the good quality snow, it's really easy to cut and carve. the snow quality is a bit less than what we would we have, but it is snowing now, which is great. as this year's festival opens, the hills around the city were measuring snowfall of about 60 centimetres. normally it's close to a metre. so where did all the materials come from? well, a massive logistics operation sprung into action. thousands of lorries scooped up snow from around the island and brought it into sapporo.

let's hope next year doesn't show a further decline. and, by the way, if you're interested in how the australian entry turned out — here it is. the waratah flower, symbol of the country's resilience following those forest fires. and the winners, well, for the third year in a row, first place went to thailand

for this mother and baby sea turtle. well, if you're still keen to hit the slopes, here's the travel show guide to some places other thanjapan you might want to think about. two of scandinavia's biggest resorts are now much easier to get to. scandinavian mountains airport opened in december and serves norway's biggest resort, trysil and salen in sweden. salen‘s only a ten minute drive, but you can also book a transfer by dog sled. the airport is served by london, copenhagen, and aalborg. if you're in europe and would rather not fly, there are plenty of seasonal train options running to the resorts in austria. there's another month left on the alpine express, for instance, the sleeper train which runs all the way from the netherlands, through germany, to a number of stations that serve about 100 different resorts.

it's one way to shave a substantial amount of the carbon footprint of your trip. and if you can't get your act together before the end of the season in the northern hemisphere, there's always copenhill, in the danish capital — open all year round. it's an artificial slope built onto the side of what they say is the cleanest waste energy power plant in the world. once you're done with skiing, you can try tobogganing, climbing, or hiking. and if want, you can book ahead you have a peek of the incinerator inside. still to come on the travel show: i'm getting ready for this year's carnival here in rio. and we meet and easy riding duo taking on an incrediblejourney across the usa together. so don't go away.

this week we're in rio dejaneiro. a city certainly not lacking in colour. there's graffiti, there's music, but nothing quite prepared me for this. this is the selaron staircase, first created 30 years ago by chilean artistjorge selaron as a way to brighten up his local neighbourhood. there are more than 200 of these kaleidoscopic steps. it's a bit like a giant i spy. there's photos, little mosaic tiles of princess diana, bob marley, kazakhstan, right in the middle. as its fame grew, people from all over the world contributed tiles to the project. for selaron, it was a cumulation of his life's work. he died in 2013. his body found at the foot of the stairs. but his creation lives on.

today it's a big tourist attraction in a largely safe section of the city. get here after 10am and you'll probably be jostling for space. this isjorge selaron‘s legacy. tiles were sent here from all of the world to create it, now tourists come here from all over the world to enjoy it. it really is a special spot here in rio dejaneiro, brazil. up next, it's time for another of our incredible journeys. michael fiala and his best buddy, a siberian husky called sox, are part way through a truly amazing road trip through america. their aim is to take on all 50 states and 61 national parks and, as you can imagine, they're turning quite a few heads as they do it. we caught up with them as they arrived in florida.

my name's michael fiala and this is my dog, sox, and we are currently travelling all over the country. we're trying to visit every single state and every single national park in the country — all on a motorcycle. this all started when i actually went on a trip abroad and i wasn't able to bring sox with me and when i got back the greeting that he gave me, it was really heart—warming, but it also made me feel kind of bad because i knew that he was really upset that i was gone for so long. so why kind of rearranged my bucket list to do all the things i could do with sox. his safety is my absolute most important thing. i know that my eyes are on the road at all times, that i am fully attentive to what's going on.

at this point in time, he's now got almost 3000 hours on a motorcycle. and so i'm not concerned with sox falling off, because he knows how to shift his weight, he knows how to hold onto me. every national park has blown me away, just the cosmetic beauty of it, looking across a landscape that you've seen nothing that looks like that in your life. it's really impressive. and then of course the fact that every single time i'm there and i'm enjoying some sort of view i look down and my dog is doing the exact same thing, he's taking in the experience just as much as i am. my best memories with him was when we were actually in big bend national park in texas and we were driving on a highway and a deer actually

ran across the road. i saw the deer run across and then run into the woods. but when i actually looked back on his go—pro you could see that he watched the deer run into view and then traced it as it was running off in the woods. i'm enjoying all these moments, but when i look at film like that and see that he was seeing the same thing i was, to me that's really special. i get a lot of people who say, well, you should strap him down so that he's secured to the bike. but it's a common misconception. truly, the safest thing for a motorcyclist is to be able to get away from the bike, so god forbid if anything ever did happen, the best case scenario is for us to be away from the motorcycle, away from the accident.

don't go in there! buddy, you are going to be cold tonight. i'm doing this because there's too many people that say, "i wish i did" in their life. and i don't want to be one of those people. i want to say i did the things i wanted to do and i don't want to wait until i'm much older to say, ok, now i can life. to me, you don't know how long your life is going to be so you should just live it, and i have to include him, because he's living it too. sox!

this weekend, millions of people across brazil are preparing for the world's biggest party — carnival. the main celebration in rio de janeiro lasts five days, but the action does not stop there. over 500 parties line the streets of rio during carnival season, and this year you're in luck, because the mayor has more than doubled the celebration, from 23 days to 50. so in 2020, there's plenty of time to join the fun. carnival began here almost 300 years ago as a ball for the portuguese elite.

but since then, it's opened up to everyone. local groups called samba schools prepare all year round for the events, designing floats and costumes and planning epic dance routines. these schools are often located in poor neighbourhoods, which beyond carnival preparations also provide havens for local children, teaching them vital skills to help them later in life. this is you in the photo? yes! it's got to be, right? wait, ah, this one! yes, that's me. the smile‘s the same. king benefited first time from the social outreach provided by her samba school. you know, when you grow up in a favela you don't have alot of opportunities, so when you get the chance to have an opportunity, you just grab it. so i started at the social project when i was about nine. and then i got a chance to learn english, that's why i'm

communicating with you, because i got a course for free through the social project. so this is the part that most people don't know, the way that people can be part of the samba school. so the party is good, the social idea, it's much more important. patchy public funding means the samba schools have to find clever ways to support themselves. king's school, grande rio, has turned to tourism. they've opened the doors of their workshop to those who want to catch a glimpse of the monumental effort that goes into carnival‘s centrepiece parade. along with other ex—samba school students, king is now one of the tour guides here. wow. this is the backstage of the carnival. this is the most fun i've ever seen in a warehouse. i think so. we have six floats in here. only six floats?! only six.

inside of this warehouse, only six. i guess i assumed this was a float, this was a float, that was another float, but they're the size of city blocks, almost? yes. they'll be massive. yes, yes. you can really see the scale of the operation. the parade is a serious business. the samba schools all compete against each other for a big cash prize. each school keeps their plans and designs top—secret. so much of rio grande‘s workshop is strictly off—limits to tourists. but i've been allowed a rare behind—the—scenes look. i'm having a hard time understanding this. this is all for your parade? it is, this is only for our samba school. all this warehouse, all the costumes are ours. all the welding, the sewing, the machines? everybody‘s working on one show, your parade? yes, everything. we can have about 3000 costumes, easily. so this is one show out of thousands, because it looks as though these headdresses have five, six, eight, maybe, per headdress.

there's be a hundred headdresses. you know, the last time i did arts and crafts i was probably in grade five. i have not worked with sparkles in a long time. this is the part i'm good at. ready? laughter. 0k. 0k! not bad for a first one, eh? you think so? he said it's amazing. it's amazing! somehow i don't believe him. grande rio has been running for more than 30 years. the school's current leader, camilla, has grown up with it. we have an educational programme called the schools carnival and we have many courses, all through year, for free. when you meet the families and the kids and you understand the passion that they have,

why not to get this and transform it for education? especially in brazil, a place that needs a lot of effort to make people's lives better. 0k, of course, the parade is amazing in itself and all the kids love it, but all year long, you need something more for these kids. camilla's school of carnival gives these kids hope and three times a week they all come together to rehearse for the highlight of the year — the carnival parade. moments like these are why i travel. i don't exactly know what is going on, but it's a rehearsal? ah, yes, this is the place where we actually do the rehearsal. so as you can see, it's an enormous place. we can get involved, apparently! i don't know what i'm doing!

but maybe that's half the fun. behind me in this building a whole new generation is finding their best life through drums, dance, and a whole lot of fun. i think if we've learned something today, it's that carnival is much more than a party in brazil. it's part of its soul. well, that's all for this week. but coming up next week, i'm continuing myjourney through south america by heading across the border into argentina to find out how one of the continent's most fearsome predators might just hold the key to saving some of its most stunning scenery.

oh, my. guys, this is... when you make eye contact with a beast of this size, your heartjust goes... so make sure not to miss it. but for now, from me, mike corey, and the rest of the travel show team here in beautiful brazil, it's goodbye. hello. no named storm from the met office this weekend, but it is still a pretty lively day out there. strong winds around, rain, sleet and snow showers, and look at what is waiting in the wings. this cloud is

moving from the western atlantic, pushing towards us bringing more persistent rain tonight and into tomorrow. for the rest of the day, a mixture of sunshine and showers. blizzards over scottish mountains, snow down to lower levels, but in the south and east wind gusts will indicate just how lively those wins will be. up to 75 miles per hour in the very far north. touching gale force further south. clouding over from the west later on. still the chance of a passing shower in cardiff for the game later, but a lot of dry weather to come. blustery with temperatures around ten or 11 celsius, up to 1a in the south—east. but just four celsius, up to 1a in the south—east. butjust four or celsius, up to 1a in the south—east. but just four or five celsius, up to 1a in the south—east. butjust four or five celsius at its highest in the north which will drop as snow flurries pushed through. the snow continues through the night in the north—west highlands, but turning elsewhere and then the cloud will bring outbreaks of rain later on, extensively across northern

ireland, england and wales. in some parts that could be heavy and persistent rain falling on already saturated ground, causing some minor flooding into tomorrow morning. this weather system will gradually pull away through sunday. we start off wet in the rain will ease, skies will brighten from the north west. staying cloudy and damp across the south, but the wind will ease after strong and gusty conditions in the morning. elsewhere, lighter winds compared with today, a lot more sunshine in the afternoon and isolated showers with temperatures closer to where they should be for the time of year. with colder air in place through sunday night, the next approach in weather system will work its way in and this will be stormier and will bump into colder air, so potential for disruptive snow in the far north of england for the monday morning rush—hour. there could be a double whammy as that pushes north through the afternoon and the wings will strengthen. the potential

therefore damaging gusts into monday evening ‘s rush—hour. all the warnings are online. we will keep you updated.

this is bbc news — i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 11: a plane carrying britons who had been trapped on a coronavirus—hit cruise ship injapan should be landing in the uk this hour. harry and meghan will stop using their "sussex royal" brand from spring, following their decision to step back from royal duties. bernie sanders warns president putin to keep out of american politics — after reports that russia was trying to help the democratic presidential hopeful‘s campaign. mr putin is a fog. he is an autocrat. he may be a friend of donald trump, he is not a friend of mine. the met office warns the uk to brace itself for more bad weather with warnings of snow in scotland, strong winds and more