were made against him. he didn't address the claims directly, but has previously said his relationships were "always consensual". it is just after 2:30pm. it isjust after 2:30pm. a it is just after 2:30pm. a very good afternoon to you. now on bbc news, the travel show. my name is lucy edwards, and this is my first time injapan. yay! oh, it's a latte! i'm experiencing it through sound, taste, smell and touch. all the colours taste different. different, yes. i'm a content maker, activist and broadcaster. hi, guys. this is my first blind vlog. ten years ago, i lost my eyesight. and since then, i've been on a mission to prove that having a disability doesn't have to hold me back.

i've come a long way, learning to live with sight loss. hello, sweetheart. good girl. but i've never been this far away from home. it's just hit me like a ton of bricks that it's actually really hard being in a new place when you can't see it. in this second part of my travels, i get to grips with the future in tokyo. ai voice: start navigation. i've never been guided by an ai before! this is so cool! and i discover a new sense of hope in hiroshima. lucy sobs there's so many names. i believe that this journey that i'm about to embark on is going to be one of the best of my lifetime. this is japan: the way i see it. i'm kicking off the second leg of myjourney in tokyo, home to 37 million people.

tokyo being the biggest city in the world, there are definitely sirens around, a hustle and bustle to the air. people injapan are so techie, and it's really cool. and for me, i think tech really does help me when i'm travelling as a blind person. it allows me to have a much more fulfilling experience. i think when you first go blind, you rip up the rule book of anything you've learned. you know, the sighted world doesn't apply. so making toast and buttering it is a massive achievement. those little wins that i had were just so amazing. and i want them here injapan. i walked up to the vending machine, had high hopes that i could take

a picture with my ai app, and it lets me know everything that's in front of me. i love the fact that it can translate japanese. it says, "the picture you sent was a vending machine located "on a street." indistinct ai voice it's telling me i'm in tokyo. there's fanta and coca—cola. because i'm not used to vending machines in this country. i'm used to the set—up being really different. its not like uk vending machines, so i'm very confused. how much is the coca—cola, question mark? 130 yen. right. what button do i press? "in the picture, the coca—cola is second row from the top. "third button from the left." give it money. it's not talking. two, three.

thud 0k. yay! i've got something, and it's dinging at me. 0h, 0k. this doesn't feel like coca—cola. what's this drink, question mark? indistinct ai voice oh, it's a latte! why not? i don't care. i've got a drink. never had a latte in a bottle. that is so good. i would have went with that, to be fair. i can't believe i'm standing on a street in tokyo and i've just managed to get myself a drink independently. that achievement will stay with me for the rest of my life. i haven't been able to do that for ten years, since i lost my vision. so, yeah, ifeel quite emotional, and i love this latte. guys, was there actually coke in the vending machine? producer: no. a! has completely changed the game for me. at first, i was quite freaked out

that a computer could tell me what a sighted guide could tell me. but now i think it's so cool. i'm going to meet an extraordinary inventor who's pioneering tech for accessibility. nice to meet you. hello. hi, lucy. nice to meet you. dr chieko asakawa is developing what could become the world's first robot guide dog. oh, my gosh. is it a navigation tool? is it like a different aid other than a long white cane? yes. 0h, brilliant! a mobile phone app is used to programme a destination into the suitcase, which plans a route and directs the user. just hold the handle. not too tight. which button? ai voice: resume navigation. yeah, resume navigation. just hold. 0h! 0k, bye. bye! lucy laughs

i've never been guided by an ai before! this is so cool! ai voice: push the elevator button on your front. .. - push the elevator button on your front left. no way! it's moving me round the lift! we're going down. go! it's not a guide dog. forward ! no, door�*s not closing! no, suitcase! ok, i'm out the lift. go! faster, faster, faster, faster, faster. i think he's possibly going slow because there's loads of stuff around me. he's just being careful. he cares about my wellbeing. come on, robot. you can do it.

there's amazing people out there developing al to change the lives of our community. and now a! is allowing me to see the world again. this is so cool. i know i keep saying that, but it's just insane. you have arrived at - exhibition number one — how your body is made. hi, lucy. hello! i made it! why was it your mission, when it wasn't anyone else's, to make the world accessible? it was my first priority to be independent. i didn't want to give up anything because i cannot see. you might think your options, choices are limited compared to sighted people, but that's when you take a fresh approach, act and never give up. it will lead to chances you never imagined. i, for so long, felt that i couldn't really have a lot of hope

because i never believed that the world would ever accept me for who i am any more. and when you have to grow up overnight and you don't have any vision any more, that really does shape your view of the world. my time in tokyo has come to an end and i am on the move again. tannoy announcement in japanese i have to ration my energy levels when i'm in a new place. understanding and navigating that environment and then trying to hear all of the different sounds around me, that is so overwhelming. hubbub whoa... may i help you? is that ok? that would be amazing. i think there's like... i was always telling myself,

"i've got to be independent." and then independence became a really, like, negative word. in here? in there, yes. put in there. yes, yes. ok. and then i realised that, you know, everyone on earth relies on someone. yeah, thank you. thank you so much. your train departing from track number 19. i9? i9. hiroshima. thank you so much. thank you. have a nice day. you too. in some ways, i feel much more confident coming through tokyo station because of the tactile paving. it is absolutely incredible. no matter how many people went in front of me, behind me, i had my line and i had a sense of direction. i always say that i live in a sighted world that isn't made for me. and i'm in a city...

..that accepts blindness so much. voice breaks: and i can't quite let myself believe... ..that i'll ever be truly accepted. but it feels like it here. feeling quite low energy, to be honest. and i think i was so elated about getting on the train, the shinkansen, and feeling happy about the platform being accessible, it's just hit me like a ton of bricks that i'm now going to a new place and have to learn a new hotel room and a new environment. it's actually really hard being in a new place

when you can't see it. i've taken the bullet train from tokyo about 500 miles to hiroshima. it's impossible to come here without acknowledging its past. gong clangs but first, i'm going to stay overnight in a buddhist temple on the outskirts of the city. chanting the majority of japanese people are buddhist, so i want to understand what i can learn from this religion�*s teachings. good afternoon. konnichiwa! welcome to the kokubunji accommodation. oh, thank you for having me! i'm lucy. my host is shoko, the wife of the head monk. together they run the temple. can i take your arm? mm—hm, yes. lovely. ok. watch the steps. ok.

when i first heard that i was going to a buddhist temple, i was like, "am i going to sleep on the floor? "am i going to be able to plug in my straighteners?" but then the innerjournalist within me was like, "you know, "can you be a buddhist monk if you've lost your eyesight?" hi, lucy. hello! thank you very much for waiting. the temple for me is somewhere that you can really be with nature. i love that i can hear so much of the wilderness because it is in such a remote destination. have you ever slept in a futon before? no. oh! it's the first time! yeah! they chuckle oh, i love it! perfect. perfect! cooing

it is sam, and i'm getting ready for my 6am meditation. i slept so well. i slept so well on this futon. it is so nice. i realised i had hardly opened my eyes. good morning. bell clangs monks chant i went to listen to the monks�* morning service and the chanting really does relax you to the core. bells chime gong clangs

bells chime it's something about being in fight or flight all the time and having a stress response to different environments around me. i feel like it really centred my nervous system. thank you. arigato. this has definitely helped with my sensory overload of being in a new country

and experiencing different things because, at the end of the day, i am just relying mainly on my hearing, so coming here, it's like a reset button for me. thank you so much for preparing this. i'm so excited to try it all. first time using chopsticks! ok... ok. mm—hm. the other side... ok. i'm a chopstick novice. ijust could not get the hang of them. no! they chuckle but i was pleased because i've been taught by a monk. i got a little grain then! chuckling i actually felt really proud that i was eating with them. i was very slow, but i'm going to use them at home.

i'm a very confident person, but i don't believe that my hope is still shining in the same way that it did before i lost my vision. i...still do see hope as a glass half empty rather than half full. i think this self—exploration injapan is teaching me a different way to view hope and acceptance of myself. is buddhism accepting of disability in... you know, just being in this temple, ifeel like it is.

it's my last day and i've come to meet mariko higashino in hiroshima peace park. ever since i learned about the disaster there, i felt compelled to find out about how people from the blast and the families that have followed actually deal with the aftermath of that. nice to meet you, lucy! konnichiwa! konnichiwa. could you audio describe where we are, mariko?

mariko's mother and grandmother lived in hiroshima at the time of the bombing, and mariko has been sharing their story with the world.

wow. i'm so sorry.

there's so... is it this here as well? they were so young. they were the same age as me when i lost my eyesight. oh... she stifles sob there's so many names. does it keep going? yeah. oh, my god. i didn't know it was this big.

thank you for showing me. even though i've lost one of my main senses, they didn't have the chance to start again and to figure out what their future was. you know, i owe it to them to have a future that is bright. oh, ok. to there? mm—hm. hold there? press ? oh, wow! she chuckles meeting mariko—san and learning about herfamily story and history... is this the symbol of hope? ..made me believe that... ..you can have a massive trauma in your life and still... ..and still have hope.

meeting everyone that i've met on this trip has been a true blessing. go! yeah. she squeals they laugh i can't wait to take a new sense of hope back home. i'm going to remember what the monk has taught me, how to meditate... ..understand that being with nature is one of the best things you can do for your mental health. understanding that hope comes even from the darkest of times. mariko taught me that. and... woman calls out in japanese ..a tactile experience is a beautiful one. sighted experiences don't have

to always come first. hello. for most parts of the uk, a chilly start has given way to some saturday sunshine. but there are some changes to come through the rest of the weekend. it is going to turn a little bit warmer, but it's also going to turn wetter and windier thanks to this weather system, which you can see on our earlier satellite picture. this contains the remnants of what was hurricane nigel, certainly not a hurricane any more, but an injection of tropical moisture that's going to bring some heavy rain and some slightly higher temperatures. for the rest of the day, we'll see cloud and some rain spreading into western parts of the uk, particularly northern ireland. still on the cool side for the time being.

and then as we head through this evening and tonight, we'll see strong winds and some outbreaks of rain across western parts. another pulse of rain starting to push up towards the south west of england and wales by the end of the night. so it is going to be milder than last night. in fact, by the start of sunday morning, i! to 16 degrees. but for sunday, we see this wriggling frontal system which will continue to bring some outbreaks of heavy rain, especially across western areas. and we will have some pretty strong winds. so these outbreaks of rain through sunday spreading across western parts of england and wales, a bit of rain for northern ireland, some rain returning to the south west of scotland, all the while, east anglia and the south east staying mostly dry with a little bit of sunshine. temperatures here up to 20 or 2! degrees. a warmer day generally, in spite of the cloud, in spite of the outbreaks of rain, because the winds will be coming up from the south. now, into sunday evening, we'll see some very heavy bursts of rain pushing in across western areas, some squally downpours with some gusty winds.

in fact, we could see wind gusts of 50 to 60 miles per hour and some particularly wet weather moving across some western and central parts of scotland. the weather system responsible will tend to clear through as we head into monday, but low pressure still in charge of the scene. as we head into monday, we will see some pretty heavy showers, maybe some thundery ones across parts of northern ireland and western scotland, further south and east across england and wales, more in the way of dry weather, some spells of sunshine, and it is going to feel quite warm out there with highs of 22 in the south east corner. as we look further ahead, it is going to be a very unsettled week. there will be some outbreaks of heavy rain and potentially some very strong winds for some of us around the middle of the week.

live from london. this is bbc news. a missile strike on russia's black sea fleet headquarters in occupied crimea. ukraine's military intelligence chief claims russian commanders are among those injured. in the uk — borisjohnson urges the government not to scale back plans to build the hs2 high speed rail link, amid speculation part of the route could be axed. the liberal democrats gather for their party conference — pledging free social care for anyone in england who needs it — at an estimated cost of 5 billion pounds a year. pope francis calls on european nations to show greater tolerance towards migrants — during a visit to the french city of marseille.

hello, i'm rich preston. ukraine says russian commanders were among those injured in friday's missile strikes on the headquarters of russia's black sea fleet in occupied crimea. the building in sevastopol appears to have been hit by at least two missiles, causing extensive damage. there are reports that the missiles used were storm shadow missiles — supplied by britain and france. it comes as reports in us media suggest america is planning to give ukraine more advanced, longer—range missiles to help with its ongoing counteroffensive against russia. bbc�*s europe regional editor, danny aeberhard, has been following the reaction fom both — ukraine and russia. we've had a new interview by kyrylo budanov, he's the head of ukraine's military intelligence. he was speaking to us media and said that basically nine

people were killed and 16 people were injured.