the party walked out of power—sharing in northern ireland over its opposition to the brexit arrangements, and the windsor framework it's hoped, would be a way for them to return. the dup isn't rejecting it completely, but is saying it's still a no for now. emma vardy, bbc news. today is march 20th. some of you will know it's the international day of happiness, others no doubt will say it's the first day of spring, marked by the spring equinox, and a good time to be enjoying some welcome signs of the new season, with flowers like these at glendurgan gardens, near falmouth in cornwall. and more signs of spring, with this cherry blossom at the royal horticultural society garden at wisley in surrey.

the national trust says that the recent cold weather has delayed blossoms in many parts of the uk, but the trust also says that when the temperatures start rising, we can look forward to a riot of spring colour, like these cherry trees in shipley in west yorkshire. and talking of temperatures rising, let's get the expert view with chris. well, we had temperatures up to 16 degrees today. that was in nantwich in cheshire. that is one feature of the weather this week. it's been pretty mild so far, more of that to come. it's also been quite grey and cloudy with rain around. more of that to come as well. this month has been a pretty wet month so far. alder grove, to the west of belfast, has had one and a half times as much rainfall as we would normally see in an average march. loads more to come. that area of cloud as the rain we had today and it will continue

overnight. we have weather systems lining up in the atlantic, waiting to swing in. it is across western areas of the country that we will see the heaviest falls of rain, the largest rain accumulations. eastern areas, a bit of shelter. it's not going to be dry but the rain will not be amounting to quite so much. overnight we have heavy pulses of rain working on at the moment. it stays quite breezy and cloudy. temperature is not really changing from what we have got outside at the moment, nine or 10 celsius. from what we have got outside at the moment, nine or10 celsius. i from what we have got outside at the moment, nine or 10 celsius. i think we will start the day across eastern england on a rather grey note, damp and drizzly weather, a bit of rain clearing from north and eastern scotland. then comes showers. the showers are going to be quite widespread. some of them heavy infantry. at the same time, some brighter spells in between. northern ireland, meanwhile, ends with the next band of rain coming in off the atlantic. temperatures on the mild side again. 1a or 15 degrees. it might be quite good for the blossoms. into the middle part of the week we get some stronger wind working on across the country. it

stays unsettled, another band of rain clearing through overnight, and another day of sunshine and showers. the showers are widespread, with hail and thunder mixed in, and temperature still on the mild side, highs of 1a or 15 celsius. but the weather patterns stay pretty unsettled, we have more rain or showers to come to the rest of this week. it will stay quite mild and quite breezy. thanks, chris. that's all from us. now it's time to join our colleagues across the nations and regions hello, i'm paul scott at the bbc sport centre. fulham striker aleksandar mitrovic is facing a lengthy ban after the football association said its standard punishment for his sending off at manchester united was "clearly insufficient". the striker has been charged with violent and improper conduct after a straight red card

for pushing referee chris kavanagh during sunday's 3—1 fa cup quarterfinal defeat.fulham boss marco silva has also been charged with abusive behaviour towards match officials. he'll also face an improper conduct charge for allegedly throwing a water bottle in the direction of the assistant referee. the club has also landed an additional charge of failing to control its players. england's euro 2024 qualifying campaign begins this week — but without in—form striker marcus rashford. he's one of three players to have withdrawn from the squad for the qualifiers against italy and ukraine. the 25—year—old is having the best goal—scoring season of his career for manchester united, with 30 goals in all competitions so far. but he's withdrawn from gareth southgate�*s squad after picking up a knock during the 3—1 fa cup quarterfinal win against fulham. mason mount and nick pope will also miss the start of england's qualiying campaign.

fraser forster has been added as goalkeeping cover. meanwhilejonny evans has withdrawn from northern ireland's qualifiers against san marino and finland. the leicester centre—back has 100 caps for his country — but misses out due to a hamstring injury. the new wales captain aaron ramsey is urging his young team—mates to "make their own history". they begin their qualifying campaign against croatia on saturday. wales then take on latvia in cardiff three days later. these games mark the start of a new era for the country, having lost several senior players — including record goal scorer and former captain, gareth bale to retirement. there's been a long time since i last had and a lot has changed in that period of time. i feel like last had and a lot has changed in that period of time. ifeel like i'm ready for it now. i've learned a lot over the years, i was 20 years old

when i last had it. so of course it is a very unusual experience one that i will be forever grateful for from gary, but now i feel like i am ready for this. it is a really proud moment for me and my family and hopefully i can be a very successful time for us. two sporting stars who've excelled in theirfield have been recognised with an accolade bestowed on the most valued members of the community — by being awarded freedom of the borough. first up beth mead — has been awarded the freedom of the borough of scarborough — her home town. last year's european championship golden boot winner says it's a source of huge pride. meanwhile in oldham — rugby legend, kevin sinfield has also been given the freedom of the borough. it's in recognition of the millions of pounds he's raised for research into motor neurone disease. the current england rugby union defence coach has taken on a number of ultra challenges to support his former

team—mate rob burrow. golfer matt baldwin admits his head is still spinning after he won his first dp world tour event — at the 200th time of asking. the 37—year—old, who nearly quit the sport altogether after a series of injuries, won the sdc championship in south africa by seven shots. unbelievable it is still not sunk in. obviously it has been a goal of mine to actually achieve it so, yeah, it is a dream come true. just knowing it open the door to bigger and better events and knowing that i could prove to myself that i could do it, it was... a surreal moment, really. my brain is still spinning now.

and finally this is how the course is being readied for one of the toughest one—day races in cycling. paris—roubaix is raced over cobbles and to keep the course clearfor the riders... ..organisors have found an unorthodox solution. in three weeks�* time there'll be 200 riders racing through at top speed — but for now, it's being grazed by a 40—strong herd of goats. they've tried sweeping the course and setting fire to the weeds, but it seems this is the most ecologically sound solution. and that's all the sport for now. this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all of them main new stories for you at the top of the hour — straight after this programme. guide dogs — for thousands of blind and visually impaired people, they're the difference between independence and isolation.

she's my best friend, my constant companion, my means of independence. i couldn't imagine my life without rio. since 1931, around 36,000 guide dogs have been matched with visually impaired people. but during the pandemic, the breeding programme shut down overnight. the charity lost a third of its puppy—raising volunteers, and the guide dog service was paused... people like us are needed, so much, to help people like you. ..leaving more than 1,000 people waiting to be matched. it is really, really difficult not having the dog. practically every step you're thinking, "this is impossible. i don't know how i'm doing with this." but with around 1,100 puppies now in early training, is recovery around the corner? we are hopeful for the future,

but we do need a little bit of patience for a little bit longer, as these dogs make their way through the system. we visit puppies at the national breeding centre and ask what needs to be done to fix britain's guide dog shortage. archie! good boy. let's go! meet new arrival archie... good boy! are you my little star? ..and his puppy raiser, lisa. hers is one of more than 2,000 households giving their time for free to help raise guide dog puppies for around a year. it's opened up a whole new world. i've met lots of new friends, i'm part of... i feel part of a community that i wasn't before. not only that, obviously you're doing something very good, at the end of the day. it sounds exciting, but it's a big commitment. puppies like archie live at home and often need

attention around the clock. as much as it's your instant reaction, "puppy, puppy, puppy," you know, "let's go for it. a cute little puppy," you've got to remember that it's a lot of work. it's... being a puppy raiser is hard work, especially at the beginning. volunteers take their puppies with them to everyday places, from restaurants to supermarkets and on buses and trains, to help get them ready for their future working lives. at the end of the day, ijust remember i'm doing this to enable somebody who's not as fortunate as me, that can't see, to actually get some independence. archie, touch! volunteers like lisa are supported by the charity guide dogs, which works across the uk. lovely. just keep doing exactly what you're doing, rewarding on the left there so he always knows where to come. that's absolutely fantastic. good boy. today, puppy development adviser beth has come to see how lisa and archie are getting on. so the reason that we use hand touch is so when archie is placed

with a visually impaired person, obviously they can't see when he's running back, when he's coming, so they can pop out this hand as a target. these routine visits are as much about supporting lisa as they are for training archie, but these are the building blocks he'll need if he's to earn a working harness. good boy! perfect. good boy! learning through play is encouraged... ..but there are some things archie will need to quit before he finishes his training. you're going to have to learn what this is for. but he's just got such a wonderful nature. he's a heart of gold, and hejust loves people. really loves people. happy times, but every puppy raising volunteer knows that if all goes to plan, the day will come when they have to give them back to guide dogs. later, we'll follow lisa and herfirst pup, fergall, as she hands him in for the next phase of his training. what are the emotions that

are going through your head today? if i'm honest, i'd say proud. i think that's my biggest one. so proud of what i've done. really proud of him. voice breaks lisa hopes that both of her dogs will go on to give someone their independence. just proud. forward, rio. forward! go on, then. i couldn't imagine my life without rio. she's so important. she's my best friend, my constant companion, my means of independence, of getting about wherever i want to go, whenever i want to go, and living the life i want to lead. go forward. good girl. ella caulfield is a first—time guide dog user. she was matched with rio in 2018. good girl. well done. she's very open aboutjust how much she benefits from having a guide dog in her life. she gives me that independence that i do kind of need, and i crave, that i need to live the life

i want...| want to lead. she's good for a cuddle at the end of an evening if i've had a bad day, and she's an excellent guide. she's very rarely led me astray. it's not a one—way street, though. ella looks after rio's needs and wants. today, she's grooming and cleaning her coat. it's one of the responsibilities ella has as a guide dog user to make sure that rio is loved, happy and well cared for. if they didn't have each other, ella says she'd never have been able to study maths at oxford university. ella started to lose her sight at four years old. when she was 15, she received some devastating news. i think because it happened gradually, it wasn't, like, an immediate shock of "you're not going to see again". i was told i had a retinal detachment, and i definitely broke down then. i was with my dad. i can remember him hugging me and the nurses kind of bringing me a cup of water, just kind of comforting me.

and then i got booked in for surgery the next day. doctors operated to see if they could save any sight they could, but those attempts failed. nothing came of it. so i've been left withjust minimal light perception in my right eye. but it's...it's not useful. i can only see light if i, like, look directly into the sun or into a light bulb. for ella, a new reality. she learnt new life skills and how to read braille. she applied for a guide dog in may 2017, and then around a year later an exciting call came. it was actually my mum picked up the call, so... i hadn't got home from school yet. my mum picked up the call. it was someone from guide dogs saying, "we've got a match for ella." i think ijust got very giggly and very kind of... yeah, very excited. like, "yes, this is happening." ella and rio spent around five weeks training with guide dog mobility specialists. can you tell me what it felt like the first time you were guided by rio? i felt lighter. i felt like i was definitely kind

of more smiley, more confident. icould... i could move freely and independently without relying on somebody else being there. like many guide dog users, ella would never want to be without a four—legged friend again. just feeling so much more confident and independent and happy that, like, i had this friend with me who was going to be there permanently with me. rio provides such a kind of welfare support to me. ella and rio are one of 3,695 partnerships currently working in the uk. that's down from around 5,000 before the pandemic. more than one in five people who had a guide dog before then now do not. i honestly think they are doing their absolute best. like me, kelly nasir is waiting to be matched with a new guide dog. we are among more than 1,100 people on the ready—to—train list. kelly's last dog, river, retired eight months ago.

her mobility has been seriously impacted. walking with a cane is like walking with one hand tied behind your back. it makes everything harder. not having the dog, that's what makes you feel disabled. because when you have the dog, you just... you get on with things. kelly keeps a busy social and work diary. she's a barrister, but also a mum. not having a dog doesn't only affect her, but her very young daughter. i'm the one who can't take her out when i want to, i have to say, "well, let's wait for daddy," or, "let's wait till we go see nanna and grandad." and i can do everything else she needs and i'm her mummy, and i love her and i'm the one that's there when she has her nightmares, and i play with her and it doesn't impact on our relationship, but i think it impacts on how i feel about thejob i'm doing as... ..as a mum. watch the tree. so why do guide dog users

like me and kelly find ourselves between dogs? puppy: puppy! the answer lies here at the charity's national breeding centre in warwickshire. bill's been explaining to me that the waiting lists are currently a bit longer than guide dogs would like them to be for life—changing guide dogs. purely for research purposes, you understand, i might have to stroke puppies like bill and many, many other puppies. is this the bestjob in the world or what? this is where a guide dog puppy'sjourney begins_ before the pandemic, as many as 1,500 dogs were bred here in a year. in 2020, the breeding programme shut down overnight when social distancing was introduced. it was the first time in the charity's 92—year history that the guide dog service was suspended. archive: guide dogs show their paces along one - of the centre's obstacle courses.

although training techniques have changed over the years, the aim to match visually impaired people with guide dogs has not. archive: and thousands of blind | people who have benefited from it will agree with her. nowadays, the charity trains more assistance dogs than anyone else around the globe. puppy! little ones like paige spend the first weeks of their life here. for them, they're just having fun... she's currently nibbling the camera at the moment. ..but staff are watching closely to see how suited they are to guide work. she's got the brains, for sure. she air kisses puppy. paige! hi, pup! are you a good puppy? yes, you are! look how cute you are! look at those big eyes and floppy ears. you're such a good puppy! sniff it. 0k! becky and anna are paying close attention to see how paige reacts to human interaction.

right... they laugh they're looking to see how she deals with problem solving. yes, she's... she's... she knows. that's a good sign because a guide dog's ability to find their way around a problem is, well, just part of the job. good girl. that's also interesting that she's... she's been to that one, smelled that one. she's like, "mm, it's not there." and she's actually worked out to go to the other one. so, in itself, that's interesting. during the pandemic, all training and breeding here stopped. guide dogs say they needed to protect their staff and volunteers. so that is our puppy reception. it is really unfortunate. our breeding programme is fantastic, it's world—class and it's always been able to produce the number of puppies that we've required to meet our service users' needs. and unfortunately, that pause in our breeding programme has really affected us. and there's been other combinations as well. bearing in mind that obviously our puppies, when they were out with our amazing puppy—raising volunteers, weren't able to experience the environments that they would experience with a guide dog owner as yourself.

so unfortunately, it's been a combination of things that have meant that we haven't produced the number of guide dog partnerships that we really want to. breeding numbers are getting back to normal. in the past year, around 1,000 puppies have passed through here. we are in recovery mode and we are hopeful for the future, but we do need a little bit of patience for a little bit longer as these dogs make their way through the system. as you said, these little puppies here that we saw today, it will take about two years for them to make partnership. around 1,100 puppies are currently in early training. guide dogs says what it needs now is volunteer fosterers who can look after dogs in advanced training, dropping them off and picking them up from the charity's offices on weekdays. our volunteers are our lifeblood. guide dogs could not do what we do without our volunteers, across the board, across all of our services. and unfortunately, after the pandemic, we did lose a lot of volunteers as people wanted to have a break, being the situation, we also kind of reduced the numbers that were reapplying. so we are at the moment

looking very heavily to recruit lots of volunteers, and we've been very lucky that a lot of people have been so generous with their time. come on then, sam. let's go. head. good boy! reporter: after more than eight years of working with sean, - guide dog sammy is set to retire, and sean may have to wait two years for his next dog. that was six months ago. when sammy leaves me, it will leave a huge hole in my heart. a few hours later, sammy left me to retire with family. much of my confidence and mobility left me too that day. sammy is more important to me, and you always will be, sammy. i know you'll always be my boy. a month later and it's clear i was still in trauma. you are actually quite moved today, aren't you? you know, we... sharing my story is by far the hardest thing i've ever done in my career. the impact, though, has been huge. i would like to say to bbc breakfast viewers, thank you so much

to everyone who's already applied to volunteer at guide dogs. since coverage, we've seen a peak in applications. so injanuary alone, we received almost 3,000 volunteer applications. 2,500 of those were to raise puppies, compared with 2,000 for the whole of 2019, the last pre—pandemic year. for lisa's first pup, fergall, it's the end of one journey, but the start of another. all this, i'm packing the three trays up from home. his biscuits that i always give him, half a biscuit at bedtimes. they've been together forjust over a year. this, i've had it made and had his name put on it, and his id number. she's packing up things that she hopes will remind him of their time together. and his christmas present. i can't tell you what it is — he'll hear! sean laughs the day has come

for fergall to start his advanced training. that means lisa must say a painful goodbye. hello! hi! i want him upset as little as possible. they're his toys, he's got his biscuits that he has half a one at night. i mean, if she's generous, she might like to give him one at first, because he deserves it. any time he's not with shelly, working and learning, learning what he's got to do, he'll be in there having a good rest. and then we've got some fab free—running sandpits out the back as well, so we'll show you them, where he can have his downtime and have some good sniffs. yeah. nice doggy hotel and playground, fergall. this may be a sad time for lisa, but for fergall, a new adventure awaits. here you go, you get big boy lead now. bye—bye, sweetheart. many guide dog users stay in touch with their puppy

raisers, but many do not. tearfully: thanks for that. you're welcome. i'll ring you tomorrow. lisa knows this could be the last time she sees fergall. crying: i am fine. woman: you've set me off, anyway. the one question that i get asked all the time or people say to me, all my friends, family, people i meet in the street, "i'd love to do what you're doing, but i couldn't do it, "because i couldn't give the dog back." he's ultra cute. he's a good boy. if i can do it, anybody can do it. as a guide dog user of more than 23 years, i know the theory of what volunteers like lisa go through, but being there for the moment of handover was as beautiful as it was poignant. it's hard, but you've got to remember why you're doing it. you know, people have to help people. there's not enough of it in this world.

we're needed, people like us are needed so much to help people like you. the tears are worth it. hello. well, it's been a pretty grey and damp start to the new working week. many of us have already seen some outbreaks of rain. these are the rather moody skies that we had during the day in argyll and bute. now, so far this month, we've already seen more rainfall than average in a number of places. aldergrove is west of belfast and here we've had about one and a half times as much rain as we see in an average march, but there is more rain on the cards as well. you see, the satellite picture shows the band of rain that we had on monday. but out in the atlantic, we've got several more areas of rain

bearing cloud set to move in. and so this week we are going to see rainfall totals really pile up, particularly across western areas. you can see the largest totals over our western hills, whereas in the east you get something of a shelter effect. so the rain won't be quite as heavy for those eastern areas. now, over the next few hours, we do have some fairly heavy bursts of rain to come through and there'll be some low cloud around a bit of mist and fog around our western coast and hills. but it's a mild start to the day tuesday, temperatures nine or ten degrees range start the day across eastern england, probably north—east scotland. that clears away what will follow is a day of bright spells, a bit of sunshine and some heavy showers and thunderstorms. we then see another area of rain move into northern ireland as we go through the course of the afternoon. now it's going to be another mild day, temperatures 1a, 15 degrees celsius. as we go from tuesday into wednesday, actually the isobars pinch together. and so it's going to be a windier day on wednesday.

again, overnight rain tending to clear through a day of sunshine and heavy thundery showers. this time, some of the showers could even have some hail mixed in. some of the showers in the west may merge together to give some longer spells of rain. it's going to be blustery gusts of wind, 40, even 50—odd miles an hour in places. but it is still, however, pretty mild with temperatures again reaching around 1a degrees in the mildest spots. for thursday we're looking at more rain as well. still quite a blustery day, the potentialfor some heavier rain to work in perhaps to parts of south—east england during the day. but away from that, the showers could merge together again to give some longer spells of rain at times. temperatures still up to about 1k degrees. and really through friday and the weekend, there's no change in the weather pattern. it stays unsettled with more rain at times. that's the latest.

welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm monica miller. the headlines... china's president extends a hand — and a peace plan — to russia's vladimir putin in the pair's first meeting since the invasion of ukraine. the united nations releases a major new report on climate change dubbed a "survivial guide for humanity". all eyes on the asian markets opening, as banks and governments around the world try to address turmoil in the financial sector and encourage confidence. and the barricades go up in new york in preparation for protests amid specuation of incoming charges for former president donald trump.