this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, just straight after this programme. was there too much speculation before the budget about what might be in the budget? welcome to newswatch with me, samira ahmed. coming up — we all found out what was in the chancellor's red box on wednesday. couldn't bbc news have held off reporting on it till then? and... this is the starting gun for the next general election. the polls don't look good for your party, do they, particularly...? was it really possible to analyse jeremy hunt's announcements amidst all that background noise?

it's been a big news week on both sides of the atlantic — with the budget dominating the domestic agenda, and in the united states, the president's state of the union address and super tuesday. the latter, a series of primary votes in 15 states and one territory, crucial in selecting the candidates for this autumn�*s presidential election, pretty much confirmed what we already knew — that we're heading for a rerun contest of biden versus trump. the bbc�*s coverage elicited this response from graham, in chingford... last week, we broadcast a plea from viewer alan watts for a ban on the word "expected" and on speculation in general in regard to coverage

leading up to the budget. as we speculated might be the case, his appeal fell on deaf ears. so, do we have any sense of which taxes might be cut? the government wants a positive headline, so we understand they are carrying on with trying to cut personal taxes. we've got the chancellor in two days' time. if he was listening tonight, what are you hoping he might do for some of the people who've spoken on this evening? at six, the chancellor is expected to cut national insurance by 2p when he unveils his budget tomorrow. other measures may include a squeeze on council budgets in england. we'll get the latest from our experts chris mason and faisal islam. well, we hoped to discuss how bbc news reported on the lead—up to the budget with a senior executive, but we were told no one was available. instead, they gave us this statement...

we arejoined, though, by one of the viewers who got in touch with us on this subject, bob skipworth. bob, thank you for coming on newswatch. why did you get in touch? precisely because the news bulletin began with something that wasn't news, it was just speculation. and this was, what, the day before the budget — days before the budget? the 6pm news, the day before the budget. so, would you rather the bbc not discuss the budget at all before it happened? certainly not, no, i think it could have been an item later on in the bulletin simply saying something like, "well, "we all know tomorrow is the budget, and there's been a lot "of speculation as to what may or may not be in the budget, "such as tax cuts or cuts

to national insurance. "but we'll have to wait and see what happens tomorrow, "then we'll analyse it further." yeah — so the chancellor, as you'll know, was on the laura kuenssberg programme the sunday before the budget. would you rather the bbc hadn't had him on? it's a common practice these days to have him on before the budget, but it would be far more useful to have him on after the budget, surely. do you think the bbc should be making that the condition? that they should say, "come on after, not before"? well, i think it's the easiest thing to do. more much more informative, really, he can say what he wants. he was supposed to be in purdah — that was the old way of doing it, wasn't it? well, absolutely. nowjournalists, it's clear nowadays, are being briefed by government figures on what might be in it. i suppose there's a question about, isn't it fair ifjournalists then share that information with the public? i have to look at that with — take a big pinch of salt, because we all know that governments indulge in kite—flying before something like a budget.

there was talk of inheritance tax being cut, income tax being cut — and of course, they test the waters this way, and then, the bbc rise to the bait and splash it all over the news bulletins. so, you're saying, although politicians are to blame for, as you say, putting stuff out there to see how it lands with the public, you don't think the bbc should be indulging that at all? they should, but not to the extent that they do. it was not a major item of news. ukraine and gaza were well down the schedule on that day, when really, we were looking at what i would describe as the "bbc crystal ball at six," not news at six. bob, i suppose one of the things that bbc might say is, "all the other major broadcasters were doing speculation of a similar kind." wouldn't the bbc look stupid if they didn't do some of this speculation in the run—up to the budget, too? i think they've put themselves head above the crowd, really. bob skipworth, thank you so much. my pleasure.

well, if the charge of speculating on the news sounds like a familiar refrain, so too is a point made by several viewers about another aspect of the budget coverage. here's rajini vaidyanathan with conservative mpjames daily, live outside parliament for the news channel on wednesday afternoon. so, let me phrase that better... tories out, tories out! distracted by that over there, let's start this again. erm, there are many people who say that these tax cuts, you know, at a time where... i apologise, i'll start that again. tories out, tories out! why do you think this is an election—winning budget? just as we stopped that interview with james daly. .. general election now! i said it was going to quieten down, and it hasn't. we are grateful that you continued through this interview amid all the noise. thank you so much, deputy chair of the conservative party, james daly. thank you very much. tories out, tories out!

we're carrying on despite the noise in the background... credit to rajini for ploughing on there — butjillian saxon was amongst those unimpressed with that, and she sent us her reaction. is there anything that can be done about the loud and boring heckling that goes on when politicians are being interviewed on college green? it was appalling on wednesday after the budget. i couldn't concentrate on what the interviewers or the interviewees were saying — and at times, neither could they, and i felt quite sorry for them. is there some kind of sound protection zone you can set up? either that, or you'll have to do the interview somewhere else, because it's just not comfortable to listen to. i'm sure the people doing the heckling think they're standing up for free speech — but all they're doing is just shouting everybody down. a sound protection zone — you mean, like a studio? monday's news at one led on comments made by the detective in charge of the sarah everard murder inquiry, when she was told the chief suspect was a serving police officer. the interview featured

in a documentary that was being aired the following night — as presenter ben brown made clear. and sarah everard: the search forjustice is on bbc one at 9pm tomorrow evening, and it's also available on bbc iplayer. a few minutes later, the bulletin ran a report about the risks of artificial intelligence being used to mislead voters ahead of the us election. again, this was linked to another programme — in this case, that night's panorama, as was again acknowledged on the news at one. and you can see that edition of panorama, trump: the sequel, on bbc one at 8pm tonight, and it's also available on the bbc iplayer. those reports both also featured on the news at six. and, though they may have had news value and interest for some viewers, that wasn't the case for carol beveridge. ..

stephanie rowley thought she'd detected a trend... two weeks ago on newswatch, some viewers alerted us to a couple of mistakes that appeared on the news ticker, running along the bottom of the screen on the news channel, within a few seconds of each other. errors occur, of course, but the perception was that they had become more common. lo and behold, this was what appeared on the channel last week. keep your eye again on the text at the bottom of the screen. it is footage shot by a video journalist for the associated press with his colleagues in mariupol in 2022, as russian forces began to encircle the ukrainian port city.

this film tells the story of the first 20 days of 86 days' siege of mariupol. that sentence, "michael gove, placed investigated "by common standards watchdog," was still appearing on air an hour—and—a—half on, while the reference to a "dopping ban" — spelt with two ps, rather than a doping ban — could be seen uncorrected a full five hours later. steve davies wondered... while claire phillips commented wryly... and we received this phone message with a generous offer. hello, i was just wondering if you were interested in employing any proofreaders? because i read your news every day, and it's getting worse. turns out, i can actually complete a sentence that makes sense, so i could be a great asset to you. so if you did any help

there down at the bbc, don't hesitate to call me — henry talbot, very happy to help you. well, this was another topic we wanted to discuss with a bbc news executive or editor — again, though, no one was available. but we are planning to bring it up when we do get to speak to someone. thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions about what you see or hear on bbc news, on tv, radio, online, and social media, email newswatch@bbc.co.uk, or you can find us on x — formerly known as twitter — at @newswatchbbc. you can call us on 03700106676. and do you have a look at previous interviews on our website, bbc.co.uk/newswatch. that's all from us for now, thank you forjoining us. do think about getting in touch, and perhaps even coming on the programme. we'll be back to hear more of your thoughts about how the bbc covers the news next week. goodbye.

welcome to mobile world congress — or mwc. with 1.4 billion phones sold a year — that's 28 phones a second — it's no wonder industry events like these in barcelona take place, and i'm excited to see what's happening. from the honor magic v2, with its ground—breaking slimness — less than one centimetre when folded... it's so thin and so lightweight, this one. ..to motorola's latest design that rolls round your wrist, and lenovo's laptop with a transparent display — all the biggest names are here, fighting for my attention. one of the major talking points of the tech world has been the samsung galaxy ring, and this is the first time it has been officially revealed.

i think the most important thing is to say, what value are we presenting to our users? and i would say it's in three areas. one is obviously the things you would expect, like steps and activity, heart rate. and then there's the area of sleep, particularly around sleep stages, movement during sleep, heart rate variability during sleep. and then lastly, women's health — using skin—temperature sensors to detect trends of change, to essentially predict the window of fertility for women. so what does the medical field think about this? do you think that there will be genuine diagnostic developments as a result of monitoring this type of data? so i think it's an evolution. i think there is generally a blurring of the lines of what was once a consumer device versus a medical device. and those things are becoming a little blurry now. there's a real buzz around humane ai�*s pin — and this is the first time it's been shown in europe. i'm looking forward to trying this.

here's the ai pin — there's two components. that one goes behind one layer of clothing, and this one just goes on top, so you can just attach like that — and that's it. once you clip the ai pin to your clothes with a magnet, you can talk to it. what are the three top sights to see while i'm in barcelona? and it'll answer questions by voice, like your own personal assistant. pin: the three best sights - in barcelona are la sagrada familia, parc guell, and la pedrera—casa mila~ _ and there's a two—finger gesture that i do, as well. what are some great seafood restaurants around here? quins son els millors de marisc per aqui? i and what was the difference, then, between the one and the two? so one is just any kind of question that you might have about anything. and then two, really, is about translation. so itjust locks in translation, and you can have it translate in up to 50 languages. wow, ok.

if you don't want to hear it, then just look at the answer,