max's walks with fellow springer spaniels paddy and harry have brought comfort to hundreds of thousands of people and max's companionship to kerry has been life changing. following a road traffic accident 15 years ago he was suffering from severe depression. the anxiety it caused me to walk out of the door on my own and not have somebody with me was for me a terrifying experience. every step i took max was with me and every time i stopped and faulted he stopped with me too. the pdsa order of merit rewards animals that show outstanding contribution to society. you can see how max has not only had a massive impact on kerry's life, but his activities, all those kerry but his activities, all that kerry has been filming with them, have reached the lives of hundreds

of thousands of people right across the world. four—year—old evelyn is one of them. # happy birthday to max...#. kerry and max's videos have been an absolute godsend to us in lockdown and helped us to be stress—free at the end of the day and made every day during lockdown a fresh start. evelyn suffers from febrile convulsions, seizures that can happen at any time. her mum hannah believes max has had a profoundly positive impact. do you want to see max's videos? how does max make you feel? happy. the impact that dogs have both on mental well—being and on general well— being is fantastic. the animal equivalent of an obe, richly deserved. tim muffet, bbc news. gorgeous. time for a look at the weather. which doesn't look so gorgeous for

us this weekend. there are two sides to the way the story. it will be very mild, but for some very wet and very mild, but for some very wet and very windy, particularly in the west. this shows the rainfall accumulations through the weekend and you can see the wettest weather out west, particularly over the hills. eastern areas will stay pretty much dry. there is concern for the met office to issue an amber warning in southern parts of wales. there could be up to 200 metres —— millimetres of rain falling, which brings the real risk of flooding. this is the reason why. this is a very slow moving weather front and it will be with us pretty much all weekend long. it is already providing outbreaks of heavy rain, especially in the west. a bit of brightness in north—east scotland where you are sheltered by the wind. the wind is very strong and gusty out west, 50 to 60 miles an hour on exposed coasts. already it is pretty

mild at there. this evening and overnight the rain continues, particularly in northern england and into wales and the south—west. northern ireland and scotland turning a bit drier, some clearer spells. might get a bit chilly across northern scotland. not unusualfor across northern scotland. not unusual for this time of year. the further south and exceptionally mild night and i'll start to tomorrow. but this frontal system is still setting in place and bringing further pulses of rain. hills in the south—west and the north west of england and south wales have the greatest risk of flooding. that rain returns to northern ireland and parts of scotland during the day. east anglia and the south east should stay predominantly dry with good spells of sunshine. it is another windy day. the strongest winds to be found on coasts in the west. temperature is pretty high for all. where you get the sunshine in the south east we could well be looking at highs of 16 degrees. extremely mild for this point in february. 0n

extremely mild for this point in february. on sunday the weather front will still be with us, but it will wriggle its way a little bit further east. some uncertainty about exactly where it will end up. central and southern england and the midlands could see rain at times. to the north—west a mix of sunshine and showers. another pretty mild day. mild is the theme through next week. temperatures could touch 17 degrees at times in the south, but a bit of rain to come towards the north and the west. a reminder of our top story... the duke and duchess of sussex have told the queen they will not be returning as working members of the royal family in the last few minutes the government has released its latest estimate of the rate at which covid is spreading — the r number is now between 0.6 and 0.9 that's all from the bbc news at one, so it's goodbye from me, and on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc�*s news teams where you are.

good afternoon, it'sjust good afternoon, it's just after 1:30pm and this is the latest sports news. the chair of football's anti—discrimination group kick it out says he supports the decision of crystal palace striker wilfred zaha to stop taking a knee before matches. sanjay bhandari says he understands his frustration — and agrees that while such gestures are valuable to attract attention, they have a shelf life. zaha believes taking a knee has lost its meaning. growing up, my parents let me know that i should be proud to be black, no matter what, and ijust feel like we should just stand tall. i think it's becoming something that wejust do now, you know? that's not enough for me, i'm not going to take the knee, i'm not going to wear black lives matter on the back of my... because it feels like it's a target. we're isolating ourselves, we're trying to say we're equal, but we're isolating ourselves with these things that are not even working anyway. fulham are looking into a possible breach of lockdown rules involving midfielder terence kongolo. it's alleged that kongolo returned

to his flat in the early hours of monday morning after their win at everton, to find a group of friends there to give him a surprise birthday party. it's understood he said he had no idea it'd been planned. manager scott parker said in his news conference the club will deal with the matter internally. ryan shawcross has left stoke city by mutual consent, ending a iii—year spell with the club. he plans to explore new playing opportunities in the united states. stoke were promoted to the premier league in shawcross�*s first season there. he made over 400 appearances, most of them as captain, but he's struggled to keep his place since breaking his leg in the summer of 2019. scotland's women are playing cyprus in a euro 2022 qualifier. the scots can't make the finals, but this is an important game nonetheless, with interim head coach stuart mclaren taking charge for the first time. and they're absolutely running away with it — they lead 4—0, erin cuthbert putting them ahead afterjust 11 minutes, before martha thomas, caroline weir and kirsty hanson all got on the scoresheet. they face portugal at the same

ground next tuesday in their final qualifier. you can watch this match on the bbc sport website or bbc alba. england's most capped player, fara williams, has revealed that she's been battling a rare kidney condition, called nephrotic syndrome, for almost a year — she said it "broke" her. and williams told us she pushed herself too hard to return to action. through many different times throughout my career, football has been my go—to. so, maybe i also believed that i needed to be in it to get through this illness, but actually, on reflection, i didn't need to be in it, and i was ok in dealing with it away from there. and probably when i did take the time off, i could recover my mind better, took a few weeks out and actually mentally feel so much more refreshed and ready to go. whereas i think dealing with it at the time, just keep trying to push as much as i was, but feeling like i was just failing at every attempt. daniil medvedev has beaten

stefanos tsitsipas in straight sets, to reach the final of the australian open. the tight contest we were expecting didn't materialise — after sailing through the first two sets, medvedev was given more of a work—out in the third, but he never looked in trouble — and he produced what's been described as the shot of the tournament on his way to closing out the match. he'll face novak djokovic for the title on sunday. the russian is on a great run of form — this is his 20th victory in a row — but he's yet to win a grand slam — and he said this win wasn't as straight—forward as it looked. i got igota i got a little bit scared, i should say, and tired because it is a semi final, and for us it is not... not for novak, but i'm happy i managed to turn my game on, even though was an easy, some moments on my serve, and i'm happy to be in the final. and joe salisbury, won the battle of the brits in the men's doubles — he and rajeev ram,

who are the defending champions, beatjamie murray and bruno soares, to reach the final. that's all the sport for now but website there's more on the bbc sport website, including live coverage of the welsh 0pen snooker — it's shaun murphy against stephen maguire. maguire leading by 2 frames to i. catch that on the bbc sport website. thank you very much, gavin. good afternoon, you are watching bbc news and i'm going to take you through the afternoon's developments and we'll start the half—hour with the announcement from buckingham palace. the duke and duchess of sussex will not be returning as working members of the royal family. the couple stepped away from formal duties last year to begin a new life in california. they have gone on to sign deals with netflix and spotify and announced they are expecting their second child. arrangements over their patronages had been due to be reviewed next month. katie nicholl is royal editor for vanity fair and author of the book, harry and meghan.

she spoke early to my colleague geeta guru murphy. this has been much talked about, and we were told to expect an announcement. came a little bit sooner than i think some of us expected. the end date i proposed was the end of march, this is a little bit ahead of that deadline. but, you know, this really does signal the degree absolute in all of this, the final stage we were all waiting for in this very public separation. and i think this is now a new start for the duke and duchess of sussex. the queen made it very clear after that summit that there wasn't a way of being half in and half out of the royalfamily. and i think as much as the duke and duchess of sussex had hoped to maintain the attachments,

connections, particularly the military attachments for harry, increasingly what we are saying about their new lives in la, and america, what they're going to be doing, particularly the commercial deals... there is no congress fit, itjust simply cannot be done. and so this is the final parting of ways, and i suspect that in that statement from buckingham palace, you read at the sadness on the part of the royal family, and i'm sure there's an element of sadness, particularly for harry losing those royal patronages. i think a sense of positivity for them that they can move forward and live new, independent lives, which is why they left the royal family. and if they are not going to have funding from the british taxpayers, they have to make a living, don't they? and they proved that obviously they can do that very successfully. and inevitably, that focus on prince harry being grandson of the queen is never going to leave him. listen, you're hearing a lot of people talking about

are they going to lose their hrh titles. yes, they have lost their patronages, most people said that was to be expected, but he remains a prince, born a prince, and no one can take that away from him. but i think it's that separating of royal duty from, essentially, commercial gain. we now know that the key reason that the couple left was to pursue financial independence and independence from the royal family. and as you point out, they have been incredibly successful in that within a year of quitting the royal family. they have signed lucrative, multi—million—pound deals with some of the biggest streaming giants out there. all the signs are that this can be a success. they are no longer dependent on the british taxpayer, they paid back the money that was spent on renovating the house, they pay for their own security entourage. the complication would always have been maintaining an affiliation with royal family while trying to pursue commercial careers. it simply cannot work.

katie nicholl talking to my colleague geeta guru murphy. jenny bond is a former bbc royal correspondent. she told geeta that the couple's decision was inevitable. i don't think anyone would be surprised. it is untenable, isn't it, to live on the other side of the atlantic, on the west coast of america and retain royal duties over here. it was never going to work, and now harry and meghan have decided that this is the future they want, away from royal duties, then it was inevitable. i do think the language is quite interesting, though, the queen saying that they cannot continue with their responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service. and they shoot back through their spokesperson saying, basically, service is universal, anyone can live a life of service. i think that is rather a barred remark, really. and do you think, we shouldn't speculate, obviously, but do you think this is something

that feels like it has come from her majesty? has it been coming a long time from the palace as a whole? do we know why this decision is being made now? i think definitely it is her ultimate decision, but once they have made it clear that after this one year which they had taken out to see if this is the way they want to live their lives, away from royal duties, they decided, they have said we don't want to come back, and the absolute natural consequence of that is you cannot continue with your royal patronages. now, this is going to upset harry, obviously, particularly the military associations he has. three honourary military titles, captain general of the royal marines, perhaps the most interesting because he took over that appointment from the duke of edinburgh. meghan, she has the patronage of the national theatre, which was handed down from the queen herself. so both very prestigious

appointments. but i think its practical as much as symbolic. it is just not going to work if your life is in la, essentially living the lives of celebrities, because then you can not really have royal patronages. and what about relations within the family, between harry and william, who, the whole world really sympathised with given their incredibly traumatic childhood ? i mean, people have been quite upset to see this potential split. do we know whether actual personal relations between all of the members of the royal family are ok? i think they are not as bad as they are being painted. obviously there was a riff between william and harry, the word is that they have been patching things up, albeit at a distance. i don't think any brothers want to fall out forever. and i think perhaps the illness of the duke of edinburgh, a big family crisis like that

brings families together. i have no doubt they have been talking, what have you, been in contact more in the last few days then perhaps routinely. so i don't think it's as drastic. and the queen consistently has said they are much loved members of the royal family, even if they are not carrying carrying out royal duties, they don't want to live that life, they are loved members of my family. she has made that very clear. jenny bond, the former royal correspondent and we will talk more about that story after two. just a reminder of— about that story after two. just a reminder of the _ about that story after two. just a reminder of the par _ about that story after two. just a reminder of the par value, - about that story after two. just a reminder of the par value, that l reminder of the par value, that figure has been released in the last ten minutes or so, the reproduction number of coronavirus. it now stands at between 0.6 and 0.9, so a very slight change from last week, which was between 0.7 and 0.9. r representing the average number of

people that each person with a virus goes on to infect. so a glimmer of good news, a slight fall there, it now stands between 0.6 and 0.9, and thatis now stands between 0.6 and 0.9, and that is a uk wide figure. stay—at—home rules and wales could be lifted in three weeks' time. but mark drakeford warned that any major changes to restrictions would depend on case rates continuing to fall, and that it was too soon to say if people would be able to travel beyond their local area. i said at the end of the last three week review in january that if we did have headroom, we would use it to get the youngest children back into school and back into face—to—face learning from next week. we have been working with local education authorities, teaching and nonteaching staff unions about how we will reopen schools in a phased and flexible way

for those youngest children, the foundation phase, from monday. and i'm very grateful to everyone who has been involved in this work to prepare for the return of face—to—face learning. getting children back into school remains the welsh government's top priority. now, this means that the overarching stay—at—home measures will need to remain in place for a further three weeks. but we can make some further, very modest changes to the regulations as we take the first cautious steps to relax a number of the strictest lockdown restrictions we have all been living with for so long. from tomorrow, we will change the rules to allow up to four people from two different households to exercise outdoors together, helping people who have been struggling with the lockdown. this does not mean that it is permissible for people to drive

somewhere to exercise, and it does mean exercise, not socialising. sport wales will now make arrangements for more of our talented athletes to be able to resume training and playing. next week, we will change the law to allow licensed wedding venues, such as visitor attractions and hotels, to reopen, but only for the purpose of performing weddings and civil partnerships. and as more people are living and working in care homes with the vaccine having been delivered, we will look again at that most difficult and challenging of issues, how to allow more visits in care homes to take place, provided it can be done safely. mark drakeford mark dra keford this mark drakeford this morning at the wales government briefing. more on that after 2pm as well. as we've been hearing,

borisjohnson will pledge to donate most of the uk's surplus vaccine supply to poorer countries in a speech to a virtual g7 meeting later today. the prime minister is chairing the meeting — and is expected to encourage other leaders, including us presidentjoe biden, to follow suit. well, this morning the foreign office minister, james cleverly, said the uk would never use vaccines as diplomatic leverage — and would be sharing them through the international body covax to ensure equitable distribution. we made the decision earlier on in this pandemic to spread our risk and buy vaccine doses from a number of vaccine providers. that means we know that we are going to have surplus, we don't know exactly when and we can't say exactly how many, because that will be dependent on which vaccines ultimately get the green light from the regulators. but it does mean that we will be able to both protect british people, which is our first duty, but also be a good player on the international stage,

be a real force for good and help make sure that we are collectively, internationally, vaccinating as many people as possible to keep us all safe. we know that we have been very effective in the roll—out of our vaccination programme, one of the most speedy and effective in the world, and we can be incredibly proud of that. and that means that we will probably be one of the first countries that are able to do this. but we can't say exactly when, but we have been consistently right at the forefront of vaccine research, vaccine production and getting vaccines agreed by the regulators. because of our fast actions, we will be able to, in the future, help make the world safe. james cleverly speaking to us earlier today. jose manuel barroso is chair of gavi, the vaccine alliance,

the global health group aiming to increase access to immunisation in poor countries. he is also the former prime minister of portugal and a former president of the european commission. earlier he explained why sharing vaccines is both a moral and practical necessity for tackling the pandemic. 0h, we very much welcome this initiative of prime minister borisjohnson, convening his first g7 under his presidency. the first where we have the new american president, presidentjoe biden. we expect very important results in terms of global solidarity because, in fact, no one is safe until everybody is safe. and best, i would say, the single global effort we have now in place is precisely covax. so it's a cooperative, global effort to reach all the world. we have already 190 countries part of covax. in fact, i should say, 190 plus one because the united states justjoined covax now with this new administration.

and i think we are on track to deliver this year more than 2.3 billion doses of vaccines, at least 1.8 billion of those will be for low income countries. so i think it's important to understand that while there will be virus circulating, there will always be risks of infection. so of course i understand the point, i was prime minister of my own country, as you know. we, of course, understand that first of all the heads of government have to take care of their own countries but it is important that they also commit to share excessive doses and there are many countries that have excessive doses and that's why i really welcome the generosity of the british government towards covax, it has been great leadership of the united kingdom, but also this push for global solidarity. i heard yesterday also president macron of france.

i know that other countries, from canada to the european union, they are committing also to this dose sharing of excess doses and this is certainly the way to do it. not only because of a moral imperative of solidarity and justice but in our own interest because we cannot close the world. we need, if you want the economy to come back to some kind of normality, we need the world to be open for people, for goods, for travel, for services and this is the way to fight this pandemic. police have siezed cocaine estimated to be worth £230 million, which had been hidden in a consignment of bananas from colombia. in one of the uk's biggest drugs raids, armed officers discovered the drugs at an industrial estate in north london. the operation followed a lengthy investigation by the national crime agency, as tom symonds reports.

inside control during a big police drugs operation. tiara inside control during a big police drugs operation.— inside control during a big police dru~-soeration. ., . , ., , drugs operation. two males outside, one in to drugs operation. two males outside, gone in to the _ drugs operation. two males outside, gone in to the smaller— drugs operation. two males outside, gone in to the smaller shutter... - gone in to the smaller shutter... they are caught industrial unit under surveillance. we cannot report the full details, but they are monitoring everything that is going on. we monitoring everything that is going on. ~ , ., ., monitoring everything that is going on. ., ., on. we started to gather the intelligence _ on. we started to gather the intelligence last _ on. we started to gather the intelligence last weekend . on. we started to gather the l intelligence last weekend into on. we started to gather the - intelligence last weekend into what was going on, and we have worked really hard almost 2a hours a day since then to achieve what you've seen this afternoon. i believe they directed him to come in, go ahead... suspected gang has arranged a shipment of two tonnes of cocaine from columbia after portsmouth. the crucial decision for this joint net and national crime agency team, when is there enough evidence to make a move was? —— to make a move? these

are specialist counterterrorism fire officers. inside, 41 pallets used to transport the load, but these are dummy packages. the police seized the real drugs and portsmouth. irate the real drugs and portsmouth. we are the real drugs and portsmouth. - are talking about one of the biggest seizures of cocaine ever in the uk. we think about 2.3 metric tonnes. by the time that is divided down into deals, we could be talking about 5 million deals. it is deals, we could be talking about 5 million deals.— million deals. it is roughly half the average — million deals. it is roughly half the average cocaine _ million deals. it is roughly half the average cocaine seizure i million deals. it is roughly half| the average cocaine seizure for million deals. it is roughly half. the average cocaine seizure for a whole year in the uk. drugs which now won't be sold on streets across britain. much more coming up from two o'clock. now it's time for a look at the weather with ben rich. good afternoon. there are two sides to our weekend weather story. 0n the one hand, it is going to be very mild, particularly where you get some brightness. but on the other hand, very wet and windy across western areas. this chart shows the rainfall we are expecting to accumulate over the next few days.

that rain really tossing up across hills in the west, where there could be some issues with flooding. whereas, further east, some spots in eastern england will stay pretty much dry through the weekend, and in southerly winds, temperatures could climb all the way to 17 degrees. this is the recent satellite picture, you can see the swirl of cloud, an area of low pressure. this stripe of cloud here actually is going to get stuck for the next couple of days, it will bring pulses of rain across western parts, strong and gusty winds through the rest of the day. especially around irish sea coasts, and temperatures even by six o'clock in the evening holding up between 9 and 11 degrees, so mild as we head into friday night. we will see further outbreaks of rain, particularly across the southwest of england, wales, northern england as well. northern ireland and the northern half of scotland turn a little bit drier, at least for a time, with some clear spells. maybe a bit chilly across the far north, but for most, it is a mild night and a mild start to saturday. this frontal system here is just going to wriggle around through the day. that'll bring further pulses of rain, especially across western

areas and over the hills. that rain is going to start to pile up. there is the potential for some localised flooding. the rain taking a while to get up into the far north of scotland. and parts of east anglia and the far southeast will stay dry all day long with some spells of sunshine. another windy day, gusts of 50 mph or more, maybe touching 60mph for exposed spots in the southwest, but very mild. and where you see some sunshine for a time towards the southeast, that is where we could get 16 or maybe 17 degrees. and this wriggling weather front is still on the scene as we get on into sunday. it is likely to be a little bit further east by this stage, so parts of central and southern england, up into the midlands, could see some wet weather. keep in mind, that front could move a little further west or east. sunshine and showers to the northwest, largely dry to the southeast. it is another mild day. and as we head into the start of next week, it will turn cooler for little while. there will be some more rain towards the northwest, but mild weather is set to return. we could get to 17 degrees.

this is bbc news. i'm jane hill. the headlines... the duke and duchess of sussex have told the queen they will not be returning as working members of the royal family. borisjohnson will pledge to donate most of the uk's surplus covid vaccines to developing countries, at the g7 summit this afternoon. wales' stay at home rule may end in three weeks, says the first minister, and the youngest pupils will return to school on monday. the coronavirus reproduction number, or r value, continues to fall across the uk, suggesting the spread of the disease is slowing across the uk. the supreme court rules that uber drivers are employees, not third party contractors, in a decision with wide implications

for the gig economy.