welcome to the first newswatch of 2024 with me, samira ahmed. coming up in our round—up of your comments on bbc news coverage — the row over how the bbc reported on the resignation of harvard university's president in the united states. and was the removal of a christmas tree from the bbc bbc news studio premature? happy new year. darts tournaments don't normally feature on news bulletins, but this wednesday was an exception when that night's news at ten ten started, the progress of 16—year—old luke littler to the world championships had just finished with defeat to luke humphries in the final. natalie perks was the reporter on the spot at alexandra palace.

natalie pirks was the reporter on the spot at alexandra palace. well, it's not only the smell of two weeks�* worth of beer—soaked carpet that's in the air here tonight. a certain 16—year—old could become the youngest world champion in darts history here tonight. oh, and he'd be half a million pounds better off, too. for sally smith, the bbc�*s coverage failed to hit the bullseye. but it was a score of 184 skippy 561. not so special forjohn lister. now, last month, the heads of three top colleges in the united states appeared before a hearing of the us congress to face questions about their response to incidents

of anti—semitism on campus since the start of the conflict in the middle east. one of them was the president of harvard university, claudine guay at harvard. at harvard, does calling for the genocide ofjews violate harvard's rules of bullying and harassment? yes or no? it can be depending on the context. what's the context? targeted as an individual. targeted at an individual? it's targeted at jewish students, jewish individuals. do you understand your testimony is dehumanizing them? do you understand that dehumanisation is part of anti—semitism? there was a widespread scathing reaction to the answers given by dr gay and her fellow college heads. and on tuesday, she resigned, having also faced allegations of plagiarism in her academic record. ..and an online article

with the same headline. there was a swift and angry backlash on social media to that interpretation of her departure, and a community note was added to the post on x reading... claudine gay. at harvard, does calling for the genocide a community note is publicly shown according to access to potentially misleading posts when enough contributors from different points of view rate. points of view rate a note helpful. the bbc then deleted its post and replaced the headline on its website, although it still featured a phrase objected to by the former bbc north america editorjon sopel. others were equally unimpressed, such as heidi bachram. and capitalbard added...

we put those criticisms to bbc news, and they sent us this response. now, is it legitimate for the bbc to broadcast bad language when it's quoting words used by a public figure and those words are the essence of a controversy? it's a question we've covered before on newswatch, and it cropped up again this week after tuesday morning's today programme on radio four, during which mishal hussain asked the home secretary, james cleverly, about what he did or did not say in parliament in november. now, we are going to bleep out the terms used, but the today programme didn't. there was the personal place you referred to in

parliament as bleep hole. no, ididn't. you did say, didn't you, that it was a... no, no, i absolutely didn't. no, ididn't. so when you picked up on a microphone, who was talking, who said the word in parliament? you need to do better research because i've made it very, very clear what i what i said i was referring to an individual. you used the word, didn't you? yes, i did. in all, as several newspapers pointed out, the today presenter used the term in question seven times that morning, which upset a number of people, including this anonymous listener. others disagreed, though, with jill gordon pointing out that... do let us know what you think

about that and about any of the issues we're covering in the show. details of how to contact us at the end of the programme. now, we've been off the air for a couple of weeks, of course. so let's hear a couple of your comments that came in during the holiday period. the first relates to this item shown on the news at six a few days before christmas. now, have a look at this mother and child who had the most extraordinarily lucky escape on saturday afternoon. just incredible, isn't it? neither mother nor child were hurt at all in solihull. the woman driving the car suffered only cuts. a man who witnessed the crash described how the mother reacted afterwards. she can't believe that, what's happened. was another another life...

but when i see her, i see she was very scared. totally shocked. pauljones got in touch with us to make this point. well, among the viewers who also complained was the walking and cycling commissioner for the mayor of the west midlands. we asked bbc news for a response to that and they told us...

over christmas and new year, there's traditionally a lull in the news agenda, and the bbc runs some special programmes, including a number. programmes, including a number looking back on the year in news. as one might expect, audiences were given a number of chances to see these programmes. but what did surprise some of you was the frequency with which the news channel repeated them. of the four of them, we remember on those who had died in 2023 were shown ten times over the holiday period. a review of the sporting year appeared 14 times. the biggest stories had no fewer than 21 outings, but that was topped

by the royal year broadcast 2a times within that ten day period. within that ten—day period. they were also shown at the same times on the bbc parliament channel, and karen smith had this reaction. why was it necessary to show the same annual review programmes so many times on your news channels in favour of other news that was going on at home and around the world? and to make matters worse, to show them on two channels at the same time. yes, reviews are fun and i sometimes needed to look back on to learn. but surely having a review on your news channel and showing all the news at the same time on the parliament channel wouldn't be too far outside your remit, and one would think there wasn't anything else going on around the world. finally, we have the story of the sad case of the disappearing christmas tree. there had been a tree in the bbc news studio. in the bbc news studio up to and including this monday new year's day. but some eagle—eyed viewers spotted that from the following day, the 2nd ofjanuary, it was gone, and julie taylor was not happy.

another viewer called tricia echoed that... we put that question to bbc news and they told us... thank you for all your comments this week. why not make it your new year resolution to come on the very comfy newswatch sofa with me and share your opinions about what you see or hear

on bbc news, on tv, radio, online and social media? here's how. you can email newswatch at bbc.co.uk or you can find us on x, formerly known as twitter, at newswatch bbc. you can call us on 03700106676 and do have a look at previous interviews and discussions on our website, bbc.co.uk/newswatch. that's all from us for now. thank you forjoining us. do you think about getting in touch, perhaps even coming on the programme. and we'll be back to hear more of your thoughts about how the bbc covers the news next week. goodbye.

stockholm, capital of sweden and the city of islands — 14 of them, to be precise — which makes water transport a big thing around these parts. so, today, i've decided to take the ferry. but this is no ordinary ferry. because this ferry can fly!

this is the candela p—i2, the prototype of a ferry which would go into service injuly 2024 and its cruising speed of 25 knots and wings called hydrofoils provide huge amounts of lived in the same way that aircraft wings can get a plane off the ground, these wings can raise the whole hull above the surface. because hardly any of the boat is having to push through the water, it doesn't need as powerful a motorcar. and that means there's something else that's very special about this craft. it's electric. these small propellers are all that i needed to get the ferry up to speed and is on—board batteries give

it a range of 50 nautical miles, all of which promises to make waterborne transport a whole lot cleaner and a whole lot greener. normal boats consume an awful lot of fuel and are extremely inefficient compared to land—based transport. this is because the boat is wrong to push its wake through the water and much resistance? a lot of resistance and you can use batteries on ferries if they are done very slowly, but if you want to go a bit faster in a big longer, the whole thing collapses because you could of course put in more batteries, but at the end, you're putting in so many batteries the boat will sink. you have a fiscal limit that you can't get around. gustav says that one hour of charging will allow this ferry to run for three hours, meaning it could service communities during the morning rush on one charge to be ready for the afternoon peak after being recharged at lunchtime. another advantage to

being almost entirely out of the water, too — it doesn't bounce about on the waves! it is pretty steady. i can't really tell i am out of the water, but i can tell i can feel the of something around. but actually, our boat is using the same hydrofoil but actually, our boat is using the same hydrofoi— but actually, our boat is using the same hydrofoiltechnologies, so it means is also _ same hydrofoiltechnologies, so it means is also out _ same hydrofoiltechnologies, so it means is also out of— same hydrofoiltechnologies, so it means is also out of the _ same hydrofoiltechnologies, so it means is also out of the water. i and look at him — he's having the time of life out there! this is the science bit. when you raise a boat almost entirely out of the water, it becomes unstable, because you have all the weight up here above the wings that it's balancing on in the water, a bit like trying to balance a pencil on yourfinger. in order to keep it upright, you have to do a lot of that, and that's what this boat is having to do. having to adjust its position hundreds of times a second

to keep it perfectly balanced.