this is bbc world news. the headlines: officials in washington state on the us west coast have declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus. reports have quoted epidemiologists suggesting the virus may have been spreading there for several weeks. the founder of a religous sect in south korea is facing charges of gross negligence over some of the country's coronavirus deaths. the infection has spread rapidly among the followers of the shin—chun—jee church ofjesus. the united nations has urged countries not to use "excessive" force as thousands of migrants travel to turkey's border with greece in the hope of reaching europe. greece says it has stopped almost ten thousand migrants crossing over the land border from turkey. there's a potential early stumbling block for the us—taliban agreement that was signed

in doha on saturday. the afghan president, ashraf ghani, says his government has made no commitment to free five thousand taliban prisoners before peace talks begin. at 10 o'clockjane hill will have a full round—up of the day's news. first, our world, blasian love in south africa. the country's painful past means interracial dating is still often frowned upon. do you have a thing for people of my race? erm... during apartheid south africa, you could go to jailfor dating somebody outside your race, but now, more than 25 years later, a whole generation, the born free generation, have grown up together and more and more of them are falling in love with each other. and it's notjust black and white — what's it like dating between people of colour?

apartheid was south africa's government sanctioned segregation based on race... destroy white south africa and this country will drift into chaos and poverty. ..and officially ended in 1994 when nelson mandela became president. everyone born after this year is part of the born free generation, but dating amongst this group is a minefield in race relations. being in south africa, now it's a bit like a cappuccino nation, you have, like, your little sprinkle of integration on the top. and hang—ups from apartheid are real. you know, we were very racist. on to be honest with you, because i come from old school and that stigma's always there. so just how free are the born free generation of south africa? ithra and tumelo are a blasian couple. tumelo is black and ithra

is of mixed asian descent. the tiered levels of apartheid meant that mixed asian, indian and coloured people were often given preferences over black people, meaning that divisions were just like and white. lots of people are in interracial relationships? is everyone at it? there is more non—interracial relationships than interracial relationships. and friends, in our friends... within ourfriends, it's more interracial but it's more an indian person with a white person, not necessarily with a black person. there's no other blasian relationship in our class. not in our class, but i have seen some around here. our class is 300 people. around the school, one or two, but it's not common. it's not a common thing but it does happen. so our parents are meeting for the first time on saturday. my mum and stepdad and siblings and his mum and dad. i'm excited actually. tumelo, i don't know if he's

teasing me but he says his mum's going to cook traditional food and it's going to be mopane worms — worms like, live worms i'm going to eat. i'm excited but i'm nervous at the time time because it can go one or two ways. our mums are both, like, i think they're more or less the same person and they're both, like, very loud. they must know me the way i am. yeah, i mustn't pretend to be something that i'm not, yeah. they must take us as we are, and we're going to take them as they are, that's it. ithra's family are from cape malay, a community of mixed asian ethnicity that have been in south africa for decades. ithra's mum, rhianna, who actively opposed apartheid, straddles the divide of someone who grew up in the system but raised her own daughters out of it. i remember when reality hit home that she's dating a black guy. it's really hard for me to even say

it, because it's not part of our conversation. it was, like, "0k, how will i deal with this as a mother? how will i deal with this in terms of my family and friends?" a lot of questions that i had which i haven't really had the chance to process. but interracial relationships in south africa have become more common among ithra's generation. data shows that there's been an increase in relationships between white and black and white and asian people since apartheid ended, whilst blasian marriages have only increased by 0.1%. so my previous boyfriend was croatian and german. and what was... did you notice any difference in terms of how people reacted when you were dating a white guy to dating a black guy? so, his mum actually wasn't very accepting of me initially, so that was, like, kind of our biggest challenge.

unlike past experiences, ithra having a black boyfriend has led to family tensions. so we have a family group, and then... a whatsapp group? a whatsapp group, yeah, and then i came home from a night shift at the hospital and i was really tired, and i saw everyone from my family left the group so i thought, something is happening. so i phoned home and my sister was, like, no, my gran found out i'm dating a black guy and apparently she... but she didn't even ever address me about it, she phoned my aunt in cape town to ask what her opinion was and she phoned my sister. where she comes from there very much about the community and the community was everything, so she's very concerned about what people think. we stopped speaking about two to three months ago, 2.5 months ago, yeah. and there's been no contact? there's been no contact, no. when you were growing up, would it have been possible to date outside your race? no, no.

that wouldn't happen. what would have happened if you brought home an indian boyfriend? i don't know, i don't know. what i know is that was not possible. i think i would be thrown out of the house, and i would be disowned completely. there is no ways that i could bring home a black boy. it was indians, it was blacks, it was whites and that's it. if you're black, you marry a black guy or a black woman. if you're indian, you marry the same... an indian boy or an indian girl, and that's it. tumelo introduced me to his friends. they're all part of the born free generation, also described as mandela's generation of hope. in theory, these young adults are free to live wherever and love whoever they want, and i wanted to talk to them about what this meant in practice.

joburg's a very cosmopolitan place, and when you go to smaller places there's a lot more of each to their own. would your parents be ok with you dating a black girl? they wouldn't love it, i think, but they've said yes but theory and practice is to different things, but i'd like to think so. preferably stick to your culture kind of thing. being in south africa now, it's a bit like a cappuccino nation. so you have, like, your strong black society at the bottom, and then you have your white and then you have your little sprinkle of integration on the top, 0k? so, a few people actually integrate, but a lot of the country is very much divided. so even though we're born frees and we're living in this

new south africa, we are still quite divided and we still have a long way to go as a country. people have a hierarchy that was, like, built up in their head. they think, "0k, great." honestly they think white is better, then comes this, then comes that. everything except white, it's a bit mixed depending on who you are and what you think. it's not necessarily white people saying we are better, but it's a lot things like black people saying, "we are not as good." back home, ithra and her sisters are worrying her mum's honesty about race may be misinterpreted. i know, ithra, you were eavesdropping. our twitter, it's called black twitter. i've heard of black twitter. it's hectic, you know, so... i've never reared you guys to be racist, but the reality is it's the first time i'm stepping into a black family under the context of possible

in—laws, you know? somehow it sits differently, but it goes back to what you were saying, that people are not ready to have the difficult conversations. it's just sensitive, everything is so sensitive around the race issue. because i lived in apartheid, those divides were real. i remember being so angry with my parents and my grandparents for not doing something about it. how could we be part of such a cruel and unfair system and you allowed it? now, when you have that kind of purpose, of course i'm going to have kids that i've raised that is free of that reality, but i'm also human and i come from a certain community so, you know, it does go deeper.

more than 500km south—east ofjoburg, durban has the largest indian—origin population in africa. one of the features of apartheid meant that people of different races were made to live in different areas, a segregated city planning that still exists today. shivana did not grow up around black people. even today, her extended indian family live on the same street, and her black boyfriend has not welcomed by everyone. my mum, she didn't like it at all, and she proceeded to make life difficult for me via texts. what were the kind of messages that she sent? the kinds of things she said was, like, that i was sullying myself by being with a person of this race. it's not what she envisioned for me, just things around those lines, and it was purely

because of his race. durban's chatsworth market is a former indian township, but today asian origin and black storekeepers work side—by—side. have you ever dated a black boy? not really. you think this community would accept it? not really. have you ever dated an indian girl? no, why not? i like malaysian. you like? malaysian. we don't integrate, we don't form meaningful relationships, so there is this chasm between us. we don't fraternise, so therefore we get along because neither of us are bothering each other. that's not getting along. we are doing a film about interracial relationships, do you think it's ok to date outside your race?

no, it's not right, it's not right at all. it's not right. we didn't expect a generation, a generation that turned so much, because we were living in a place which was colour blind. we looked on one section, the whites are living there. since this government took over with maturation and new south africa, this is what the bosch is all about. mixing their own national people together, like blacks, whites, green, blue and all. this is what happened in the centre because they acknowledged blacks are doing more problems than the indians. who says that? i is. you say that? i'm saying that, because why? normally an indian girl falls in love with a black guy, right? she says, ok, fine. after a couple of months, he's giving her blue eyes. i've been told about a young blasian couple in the rural province of kwazulu—natal. it's home to the most brutal riot between indian and black people. the durban riots of 1949 was anti—indian and resulted in more than 140 deaths.

here in our area, like, i feel like we're the couple that... we're the only couple in this area. yeah, we are. are there any other places where you would not hold hands in public? we don't even hold hands in public! because, like, so unromantic! we don't hold hands in public! i was so, so scared of my father, especially, that i just kept my whole pregnancy a secret from the whole family. we are scared about telling our father. "daddy, i'm about to have a baby... ..with a zulu guy." it was just... i was like "oh, gosh. i think i'm going to die right then and there!" and i told my dad "daddy. i did the thing you're gonna hate the most!" i literally gave birth on my bedroom floor. and my mother was just there like "oh my gosh! she's having a baby!" i told my auntie "please

tell my parents that i've got a baby now with an indian girl." then my auntie told my parents and they phoned me. they're like "why you never told us this?" they were, like, shouting at me. but then after two weeks' time, they were fine with that. they were like, "so when can we see the baby?" and there's the baby now! and there's the baby. there is the baby now! you couldn't date an indian girl, you couldn't date a white person, so i would say this shows that there is freedom now in south africa, and we are born frees. it's the evening before ithra and tumelo's family meet for the first time. although ithra and her grandma have not spoken since she found out about tumelo, ithra's grandma agreed to speak on camera. you know, we're staying in a new south african now. before, it would have been different

but everything is so very, very different and, you know, to us really, it's not about colour. it's not about colour. it's more culture. culture. and also, it depends on religion also. because we are very religious people. and he seems a nice person and he comes from a decent home and that is very important, and they love one another. what can we say? there's nothing we can do. would you want to do anything? in the beginning, it is a bit tough because, you know, like, we are from old school. i come from the era where it was apartheid. it was the apartheid era and, you know, there were barriers. the whites one side, the coloureds one side, and the blacks one side. but as the years are going by, we are accepting one another. we have to. we are living in south africa

and it is the rainbow nation. but what were the initial worries that made the kind of lack of contact, what were your initialfears? ok, let me put it to you like that. it's a culture. and dating a white guy or a black guy, does that make a difference? i mean, that's being racist, actually. that is racist. you know, we were very racist — i'm going to honest with you — because we come from old school and the stigma is always there. it will never go away. but it is strange when it comes to your own family. then it's a different scenario and then you have to accept it, you see? and what is wrong? like i said, it's more cultural. and it's social. that's what it is, yeah? yeah. it's the rainbow nation. on the big day, i went along early to help tumelo's mum modjajdi

prepare for the family lunch. it's like a worm. only it's alive. i am scared of it, it is like a worm, it's a worm, and they're from a tree — you have you pick them up from a tree. and they've got segments — they look slightly like a fat caterpillar! yeah, it looks like a caterpillar! sourpap. which is like maize? yes. and then you have got the chicken feed which still has the nails on! yes! and you were telling me how to eat them, which is... you first start by taking off the nails, and then you spit it out, and then you eat. what if ithra's family are not fans of mopane worms or they're not fans of chicken feet, and they're like, "oh, i don't know if i can eat all this, i don't know if i can eat tripe?" how would you feel? no, like, tumelo's going to buy halal meat. they're going to make halal meat. and then, if they don't like this, they will have the halal. would you be offended if they did not like mopane worms or chicken feet?

no, but what they said to me is, ithra and her mum, they said they cannot wait to eat mopane worms. they said that? yes, they told me yesterday that they cannot wait. have you ever had other girls come over before? yeah. with theirfamily? no, never. and that's why also this is such a big thing, like, it's making me nervous, because it is like this is an example of what it really means to integrate. like, it's ok, cool, we're going to come here, you're gonna come here and you're gonna see it, but you're gonna eat, like, our food. we're not going tojust make you — you're not going to get pizza. like, i'm not — i'm notjust accepting you as ithra and then, like, your culture and your religion and everything is like — like, i'm not going to be a part of that but i will be a part of this. like, you have to be part of the whole thing, notjust a part of it, like a little piece. so, yeah. do you think she's outside? oh, i do think she's outside — i can see them, actually.

they are outside. yeah, they're right there. i'm going to go say hi. yeah, all right. hello! hello. long time! finally! my friend! i am with my friend! lam rhianna. i'm modjajdi. modjajdi. i'm good, and how are you? good, thanks. nice to meet you. tumi's the favourite. oh, i know! modjajdi had almost the same reaction — if you were, ithra, tumi's age, if you bought home a black if you brought home a black boyfriend, what the reaction would have been, and i asked the opposite question to modjajdi — exactly the same reaction. no way! way! it's true, hey?

how things have changed. you know what i was thinking, what i was thinking about? because obviously, last night was pretty intense. we went to see my mum and dad. 0k. and they spoke on camera. and actually, it was the first time we really got to hear how they really felt. i know. and that reaction was based on fear. we got straight to the reasons of racism and, you know, everything else that media is feeding us, but when we look at it from an emotional point of view, it looks a little bit different. it is. can we please say "black people" and not "blacks"? thank you. i'm actually... i really don't know, and i said this yesterday as well on camera, i struggle to say "black" generally, you know, because ijust don't feel that we should be using this, you know, these words. because i've heard "blacks" be used

so, like, often as a derogatory term that it makes me uncomfortable, like, to hear black people be referred to as "blacks", or "the blacks". sure. thank you for raising that. if we really want to move away from how the word "colour" is associated and with it, a brand of racism, a brand of discrimination. same as how black's always portrayed as wrong and white is portrayed as pure. always, correct. if we just listen to people's language patterns and then we inherit that and society inherits that, itjust creates more prejudice and more discrimination. but do you think saying, "oh, a cultural, you know, division is what we are concerned about, or a religious division is what we are concerned about," is actually giving an easier excuse to being bigoted? now, post—apartheid, everything is ok and everyone is living happily when it isn't. there are still subtle racism and structural racism. when mandela got elected as the president, that was the moment.

but it was never the moment, right? i tell you, in my view, things actually got a little bit worse than what we thought. i want to raise my kids to go to probably a better school because i think that was what i was aiming, and that would be non—racial — in other words, it will have other races, so that they must learn what i couldn't learn. i've never interacted with indians at all, until very late in my life, when i was working. this generation will solve it. every generation has its own problem and i think this generation, this is their problem. they'll sort it out. the born frees make up around 40% of south africa's population. soon, the majority of the country will be populated by people who were born after apartheid ended. but for now, a true rainbow nation seems at least a generation away. what would be your hopes

for chloe and her future? i do feel like if people are more open to it and, like, more people start to date outside of their race, then it could possibly be less of an issue going forward. because people would see chloe as an example that two people love each other, they've created something so beautiful. i feel like that could be enough to change people's minds, eventually. hello. i know the flooding goes on but i'm sure many of you are glad to see the back of february's relentless record rainfall. the met office confirming it was the uk's wettest february on record. the first few days of march are looking a bit quieter, less windy.

more importantly, less wet than it has been and the reason for that, the jet stream has moved south and it will take with it the more substantial areas of low pressure, the wind and rain, allowing us to keep, well, overall pressure low, but really just showers feeding in from the atlantic as we go through the next few days, and we're on the cold side of the jet stream so we are in the blue, and as a result, we are going to find temperatures at or below average for the time of year. some of these showers coming in will be wintry in nature, particularly on hills. there may even be a bit of sleet and snow associated with this weather system pulling away from southern england as we start monday. icy elsewhere, where you have had showers overnight, and into the morning, and some will continue, particularly towards the north—west of the uk, ganging up on western scotland into the afternoon. rain, sleet and hill snow. it will not be as windy. it will not feel quite as chilly. another weather system overnight and into tuesday. this weather front moving through could bring some snow to quite low levels in parts of north—east england, southern scotland to start

off on tuesday morning before it clears away. a few showers follow on behind and a glancing blow for one of these low—pressure systems carried by the jet stream to the south of us may still bring a bit of rain towards parts of the far south of england, more especially the channel islands on tuesday. then that clears away. another one comes in for wednesday. it could turn things wetter again into the channel islands and there will be a few showers pushing towards the north—west of the uk, wintry on the hills, but actually, on wednesday, you can see the extent of dry weather and more significantly, dry weather where we are seeing some of the worst flooding at the moment. now beyond wednesday, the pattern starts to change again. we get a bit of a ridge of high pressure building in to start off on thursday but a weather system developing in the atlantic looks like it will head towards us later in the day. a cold start on thursday morning but a fine day to come for many of us across england, wales, eastern scotland, but the rain clouds gathering again for northern ireland and western scotland later on thursday, and the breeze starts to pick up as well as that next

weather system comes in. it dives south thursday night and into friday, so that does mean another spell of rain moving through and another area of low pressure is waiting in the wings. so we clear the rain on friday, it brightens up a bit, a few showers, not long before that next weather system brings some rain back into northern ireland, if it currently goes to this plan in terms of timing. for much of the week, though, before that happens, it is quieter. some sunshine, some of us staying dry, but there will be showers around. not as windy, not as wet, it will be quite chilly, though. there will be frosty, icy conditions. but as we have noticed, by the end of the week, and into next weekend, it is all change again. thejet stream is back, running towards us, within this dip in the jet stream we will be finding low pressure, that means it will be windier again, it will be wetter again, so this is how the weekend is shaping up and even into the following week, further areas of low pressure look like coming our way from the atlantic. temperatures, though, will head up a bit. two years ago, it is hard to find

temperatures any lower. tredegar in south wales, a high on the 1st of march 2018 ofjust minus 4.7 celsius. our coldest march day on record. the beast from the east. thankfully our beastly february is now behind us.

another 13 cases of coronavirus. there are now 36 confirmed in the uk. a teacher at an infants school is among those affected — the school has been shut and the government says many more closures may be necessary. we don't take anything off the table at this stage,