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tv   Our World  BBC News  February 21, 2021 3:30am-4:01am GMT

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this is bbc news, the headlines: an engine on a united airlines plane burst into flames, showering large chunks of debris onto homes and drivers in the us state of colorado. despite the fire, pilots on the boeing 777 which had 241 people on board managed to land safely at denver airport. security forces in myanmar have opened fire on protesters in the city of mandalay. at least two people were killed and more than 20 were injured. it's the most serious escalation so far in the military�*s response to protests against the coup in the country.
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senior british ministers are expected to meet later to finalise details of the full plan for easing lockdown in england, which will be announced by the prime minister on monday. in the first confirmed relaxation of the rules, there's good news for care home residents in england. anna collinson has more. a moment of relief during a dark year for 83—year—old barbara abrams. this is the closest her family have been allowed to get to her while visiting her care home in stockport because of covid restrictions. that lack of physical contact has been really difficult for us. my poor mum, her health, both physically and mentally, has really deteriorated, particularly in the last — since christmas. i think it was, like, the straw that broke the camel's back.
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but now, a sign of hope. from 8 march, care home residents in england will be allowed to pick one person to visit them regularly indoors. with the government preparing to reveal its road map for easing lockdown on monday, this announcement has been called the first step to getting back to where we want to be. there are some rules. it has to be the same visitor every time. holding hands is allowed, but there can be no kissing or hugging. the visitor must be tested before entering the home and they must wear ppe while inside. it's welcome news for many families, but too late for those who've lost loved ones during the pandemic. we have tried everything we possibly can. and what you have to remember is people in our services have very complex health care needs. and so, therefore, our primary duty has always been, through all the guidance we get, is to keep them safe and to keep our staff safe. from early march, residents in scottish care homes will be allowed two visitors. in northern ireland and wales, the advice varies between individual homes. scientists say a slow
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and steady approach is needed. there are some families who haven't seen their loved ones in care homes since march so i really welcome that announcement. i would say we still have to be cautious. let's not forget that the nhs has treated over 100,000 severely ill patients in the last month, and we still have almost 20,000 people in hospital. jill has two siblings and says it's unlikely she'll be the chosen visitor because she lives the furthest away, but she doesn't mind. it's wonderful that one of us will be able to go in and hold her hand, and that will make a whole difference to us as a whole family. anna collinson, bbc news. 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.
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�*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
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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
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taken by tens of thousands of north africans before him. he flew to turkey, where moroccans do not 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
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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. with 1.5 million views on his channel, he has built up 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.
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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?
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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?
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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. 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.
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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
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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. so he retreats to the bosnian capital sarajevo. anwar spent six months working as a barber in turkey to save for his journey.
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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
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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.
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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, violated policy and that on review they have removed a number of these comments. the posts we found 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
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again. he is travelling with a group. they are passing through a country that is still at this stage his videos are still full of tips for would—be travellers.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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a few weeks ago, anwar posted a 15—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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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hello there. the very mild south—westerly winds which we've had during the start of this weekend have also brought a lot of rainfall across some western parts of england, wales, northern ireland and western scotland. we have seen some local flooding in places, river levels running very high. and as a consequence from all the recent rain, the number of flood
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warnings has increased. but the good news is for part two of the weekend, it looks a bit drier across the board. we should see quite a bit of sunshine around. it's going to stay mild, but there will still be some rain around but not as much as what we had on saturday. now, the rain will be courtesy of this weather front, which will start out across more southern and eastern parts of england. low pressure to the north—west of the uk will bring fairly breezy conditions to northern ireland and scotland, where we'll start off for sunday with a few showers here. cloudier skies with outbreaks of mainly light and patchy rain across the south east will slowly work their way westwards. so, by the time we push on into the afternoon, parts of the north and west midlands, into wales and the south west could see some heavier rain, but not as heavy as what we had on saturday. and it'll be brighter into the afternoon across the south east, where it'll be very mild, but even mild further north and west, too. now, through sunday night, that weather front persists across much of england and wales. that's going to bring cloud, outbreaks of rain, some of it could pep up to be heavy again across wales and the south west, so we'll have to just watch that. across the south east, it'll be drier, and drier
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across the north west. a bit cooler here, but much milder for england and wales to start monday morning. we still have that weather front lingering across parts of england and wales, but through the day, it'll start to push northwards and eastwards and begin to fizzle out. so conditions will improve here. one or two showers across the north west of scotland, but otherwise a good deal of bright and sunny weather around. a little bit cooler, you'll notice, across the north and the west, but very mild again across the midlands and the south and east. now, as we head on into tuesday, we see a new area of low pressure push in off the atlantic. that's going to bring renewed weatherfronts with more rain, stronger winds here as well. but it'll also be drawing up some extremely mild air off the near continent around the middle part of the week, certainly for england and wales. and that really will be noticeable around the middle part of the week. i showed you 17—18 degrees possible in the south east. some rain in the north and the west, and then there's signs of it by the end of the week, high pressure building in, which will turn things drier and brighter for all of us.
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this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. our top stories: an engine on a passenger plane bursts into flames above the us state of colorado — scattering debris on to homes below. passengers describe the heart stopping moment. you could just feel it, like, whom, and you could hear it and you could just, we started shaking. —— boom. gunshots mark the escalation of violence in myanmar. the military faces mounting international condemnation — after reports that two protesters are shot dead. the prominent kremlin critic alexei navalny faces more than two years in a prison camp after losing two court cases in a single day.
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unrest on the streets of barcelona, as thousands night against the jailing of people protest for a fifth

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