hello, this is bbc news with samantha simmonds. the headlines... care home residents in england will be allowed to have one person visit them regularly from the 8th of march, as easing of lockdown measures start to be revealed. number ten says reuniting families and allowing people to have more social contact will be an "absolute priority" in easing lockdown after schools reopen. prince charles has visited the king edward the seventh hospital in central london where his father the duke of edinburgh is being treated. a court in russia upholds

a decision to jail opposition leader alexei navalny forjust over two—and—a—half years, and finds him guilty of a further charge. president biden declares a major disaster in texas — as he unlocks federal funds for a state paralysed by a severe freeze and a huge powerfailure. now on bbc news, our world. welcome to europe. it has been a bad year for travel lovers. but the pandemic has not stopped everyone. we are here to meet some people who have been blogging about theirjourney to europe.

they are not your typical travel bloggers. �*harraga', in arabic, means someone who burns through borders. they are undocumented migrants passing into europe illegally. over the last few years, this group of unorthodox travellers have made a corner of youtube their home. a place where they can document their wild journeys for fans back in morocco. but are these stories of adventure encouraging other people to take a difficultjourney? or are theyjust providing a service, showing the hardships of migration so that others will not make a fatal mistake? it is may 2020. five years after the migrant crisis that led the eu to secure its borders. but that has not stopped anwar al hafidi.

he is in greece without a visa, hiking through the forest so that the police will not find him. anwar wants to go to italy. he trained as a barber in morocco but he left because he was not making enough money to get by. anwar is following a route taken by tens of thousands of north africans before him. he flew to turkey, where moroccans do not need a visa.

and then he set off for europe by land. in sharing his journey on youtube he has become part of a phenomenon that started two years ago. the migrant influencer. in morocco, they belong to a forgotten generation. nearly one in four young people do not have a job. but through youtube they found a new identity. this is said. better known in the world of youtube as boya vlog. he has a university degree but last year he left his home in morocco and moved to turkey. and from there he decided to reach europe on foot.

a cult following with his special brand of dark humour. church bells ring. we travel to meet him in the italian city of bergamo where he now lives undocumented and is still vlogging. when he left morocco, said had no intention of posting his journey online.

but his light—hearted posts mean he's creating a rosy picture of a journey that is often really dangerous.

what do you think was the most difficult part of the journey? in some of your videos towards the beginning thejourney seemed kind of fun, like an adventure. do you think that may encourage more people to try to take it? one person who has been influenced by videos like said's is anwar. he is still making his way across greece, following a route that he spent years researching on youtube. he is constantly on the move

so we're following his journey online and chatting on whatsapp. he has bought a bike and is hoping to cycle all the way to italy. like said he does not make it very far before he is arrested. unlike said though, anwar takes his youtube followers with him. even when things go wrong. as soon as he is released,

six days later, he tells his followers how to avoid the police. his channel has become an unvarnished account of life on the road.

each post is getting tens of thousands of views. but two months in, he is nowhere near his destination. he has travelled through five different countries but the border with croatia and the eu seems impenetrable. he has been pushed back by croatian police four times. so he retreats to the bosnian capital sarajevo. anwar spent six months working as a barber in turkey to save for his journey. but there are other influences who have figured out how to make money through their vlogs. meet zizu. with over 12 million views on his channel, he became one of the most popular migrant youtubers in morocco.

in 2018, he followed his heart to brazil to meet a girl he fell in love with online. but when that ended he decided to head north to the us. the jungle is not easy. is danger or not? very dangerous. he told the bbc that he funds is journey through ads on his channel, social media partnerships and crowdfunding his fans. but there are other people finding ways to make money from the migrant youtube phenomenon. lurking in the comments section of those videos, we found people smugglers using the platform to find clients who are willing to pay to get into the eu illegally. looking at some of the comments underneath anwar�*s posts, there is a post here that has a phone number

that says a moroccan guy in turkey who can help you travel by truck to the czech republic or slovakia. we asked an undercover reporter in morocco to contact the number posted on youtube. she pretends to be a single mother, hoping to reach austria with her young daughter. a people smuggler on the other end says he can arrange her travel. he sends our reporter an example of the fake medical documents that he can produce which will help her circumvent morocco�*s strict covid travel ban. he says an associate will

collect her from the airport. youtube says videos and comments offering contact information that facilitate the sale of smuggling services violate its policy and that on review they have removed a number of these comments. the posts we found are no longer on the platform. but we know that they were there for at least two months. it is coming to the end of a hot summer in eastern europe. anwar spent a month at a migrant camp in bosnia, just beyond the eu border. but he is ready to try to cross croatia again. he is travelling with a group.

they are passing through a country that is still showing scars of the bosnian war almost 30 years ago. at this stage his videos are still full of tips for would—be travellers.

but once again he is caught by the croatian police and sent back to bosnia. something is starting to change. instead of offering advice, anwar is now issuing warnings.

he has given up on italy to aim north, for germany. he says he got as far as austria, in the undercarriage of a lorry. but then he was spotted. the austrian police drove him back to hungary. the hungarian police drove him back to serbia. and the serbian police drove him all the way to the south. he has been pushed back almost 1000 kilometres in a matter of days. and it is here, in serbia, that we eventually meet. he is staying in a camp for migrants, but we are not allowed in, so we arrange to meet

in nearby town. anwar isjust doing an instagram live right now, to his 2000 or so followers. and as soon as he started, the questions started pouring in. he's answering their questions, but this isn't just about anwar helping other people avoid trouble. his followers are supporting him as well.

so was that a busy one? did you get many questions? but are you worried that people will then try and do the same route, take the same risks that you did? he says no matter what he does, people are going to travel anyway. a few weeks ago, anwar posted a is—minute video which explains why shipping containers are a dangerous mode of transport.

he felt compelled to make video after the deaths of seven people. they'd snuck inside the wrong shipping container at a station in serbia. their bodies were found four months later when the container was finally opened up in paraguay. one of the victims, ahmed belmiloudi, was a friend of anwar�*s.

your whole experience so far, do you feel like it has been worth it? we were hoping to speak to anwar again, but it seems like some of the other people that he's travelling with have put pressure on him not to talk to us. so the only way we've been able to speak to him today is by voice note.

he's scared, but he leaves with the men that have been swearing at him, heading for the hungarian border that night. we were in touch with him for another week, and then he went quiet. throughout his journey, anwar has been getting help from said. they belong to a network of migrant influencers who have been supporting each other on social media. foranwar, said is a success story. his new life in europe is something to aspire to.

he's working, but is only getting by on odd jobs until, he hopes, he gets the legal right to work in italy. but said is starting to realise that europe is a complicated dream. it is something he is now trying to communicate to his followers. but anwar might not have seen these posts. he's missing.

what do you think? do you think he is safe, or do you think something has happened to him? it seems said is starting to realise the power of his voice online.

hello there. last saturday, temperatures struggled to get above freezing. this saturday was the mildest day of the year so far. temperatures were well up into the teens, but with that came huge amounts of rain for some parts of the uk — enough to cause some flooding. you can check the latest flood warnings by logging on to the bbc weather website. and it looks like it is going to stay relatively mild through the coming days,

but not always as wet as it has been. through sunday, this frontal system will be bringing some outbreaks of rain initially across parts of the midlands, central southern england, drifting westwards into the south—west and parts of south—east wales, but not as wet as it was during saturday by any means. elsewhere, some spells of sunshine, some showers across parts of northern ireland and north—west scotland. not as windy as it has been, but still relatively mild, with temperatures between 11 and 15 degrees. now through sunday night into monday, this weather front will still be setting in place, but it will tend to weaken as this ridge of high pressure builds its way in. and that will bring drier weather for most of us as we start the new week. but we do still have this weather front in place on monday, likely to be edging its way eastwards across parts of england. the rain tending to fizzle. behind it we'll see some spells of sunshine, and it's going to start to feel just a little bit cooler temporarily.

but these temperatures are still not bad at all for this point in february. as we move out of monday into tuesday, we see another frontal system pushing in from the west. and this promises to bring more heavy rain — not great news where flooding has already caused some problems. but to the south of this frontal system, through the middle part of the week, we get a renewed push of very mild, even warm air across the british isles. so during tuesday, we see outbreaks of rain from that frontal system affecting parts of northern ireland and scotland, maybe into parts of wales, north—west england, possibly the south—west as well. further east, it stays largely dry with some spells of sunshine. those temperatures between ten and 15 degrees. it'll be pretty windy across the west as well. stays blustery into wednesday. our frontal system likely to be very slow moving. so still rain across western areas, drier and brighter further east. and that's where we're going to have the highest temperatures, potentially the highest temperatures of the week. values up to 17 degrees there in london. that's the low 60s in fahrenheit. now, as we move into thursday,

this slow moving frontal system should finally get a move on and push its way eastwards. the rain easing away with it. and we see a slightly drier spell of weather on thursday. some sunshine around, still the potential for one or two showers here and there. the winds a little bit lighter. and those temperatures, while not quite as high as during wednesday, we're still looking at values between ten and 15 degrees. and then as we head through the end of the week into the weekend, of course, towards the end of february, it looks as if high pressure is going to build more strongly from the south. so, for most of us, that's going to give more in the way of dry weather. still frontal systems fairly close to the north—west. so a bit of rain here at times. but with that area of high pressure settling quite close to the british isles, it's going to cut off the supply of really mild air. having said that, it is still going to stay milder than it should be through the end of february and into the start of march. it will be mostly dry, some fairly chilly nights

and a little bit of rain at times towards the north. that's all from me. bye for now.

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