let's turn to our next question, which is from suzanne ollerton. my husband and i both work, we have good jobs. i had to say i have been very disappointed in the quality l of the election debates i have viewed so far. _ and i think the main problem is that a serious question is put— by a member of the audience to one . member of the panel, who then starts to answer the question. they are going to put up your taxes by £2,000. that's a lie. however, you get interferencel by other members of the panel and this leads to a sort - of undignified verbal brawl, which is really off—putting to the viewers. _ crosstalk. last friday's tv debate also prompted a question from a number of viewers articulated

here by andrew from belfast. we sought an answer from bbc news and they told us:

the number of competing and contested claims being made by politicians during this election campaign makes it hard to work out what is accurate. thatjob is made considerably harder by the phenomenon of fake videos — images and quotes being circulated online. take for instance this appearance by labour's wes streeting on bbc two's politics live last week. what she did was wrong and what she said was wrong and it was right there was a disciplinary process. she apologised repeatedly. but it took five months... it did take a while, but look... if you didn't hear wes streeting describe dianne abbott there as a "silly woman", that is because he didn't. but a doctored version of his comments on the programme was widely shared on x, which made it sound as though mr streeting did say those words under his breath. the fake video was supported by a number of comments,

endorsing it, including one from someone claiming to work on politics live. meanwhile, on tiktok, ai—generated clips have been posted appearing to show rishi sunak declaring, "please don't vote us out, we would be proper gutted," and saying he will "send his mates loads of dosh". some of these fakes are more plausible than others but there are certainly many more of them than in previous elections. in an effort to expose them, the bbc�*s disinformation and social media correspondent, marianna spring, has created profiles for 2h fictional voters based on data and analysis by the national centre for social research on sites such as x and tiktok. they represent a range of voters in key constituencies across the uk and the aim is to provide an insight into what content is promoted online to different groups of people. shejoins us now to explain more. welcome back to newswatch. how do these undercover voter profiles work? like you say, these are 2a fictional characters and i designed them based on extensive data and analysis

that the national centre for social research had done. so what they did was provide a typology of different types of british voters and also identified eight key battleground constituencies where those voters could exist. so there are three characters living virtually in eight of the different constituencies. once i had created a character, so looked at the kinds of things they might be interested in following, liking, viewing on social media, i was then able to set up their social media profiles across the five main sites — so x, tiktok, facebook, instagram and youtube. and the goal of these undercover voters is not to act as a polling device or anything like that, it is actually as a social media investigative tool, essentially, because it is one of the only ways of interrogating what the social media sites�* algorithms — so the computer—generated systems — are recommending to different types of people. and it is worth saying that all of these profiles are entirely private — they don't have any real friends, they don't post content. all they do is passively consume posts online, so that it means

watching, viewing, liking, following very popular content. so they are not affecting other people's feeds. and it is important because, essentially, it is one of the only ways we can really see up close the subjective online worlds that different individuals will be exposed to. you have 2a telephones? 2a old iphones, which have been set up. so i have this massive bag with all my iphones. but the reason they are on separate phones is because it allows me to avoid the cross—contamination. so if i was trying to log in and out of the profiles on one phone, not only would it be time—consuming, but also it would mean what different accounts�* likes and follows could impact other profiles. so it is quite a good way of also separating them out in my own head because it is a lot of alter egos to be running all at once. we showed a couple of examples of real videos that had then been used to generate fake ones. the fake clip of wes streeting, how was that circulated and spread? that popped up on some of my undercover voters�*

feeds who are based in halifax. one of my younger undercover voters. i saw this clip appear and it falsely suggested wes streeting had called fellow labour politician diane abbott a "silly woman" — it never happened. the thing that struck me was not just that the video had been doctored, but the way that other related accounts were then doubling down in the comments to give the impression that the clip was real — so falsely suggesting they had worked in the programme or asking whether the clip was true. and this felt like an evolution in the tactics i have been seeing. it wasn�*t like someone was sharing the clip and then admitting it was satirical or a joke — they were actively trying to push the idea that it could be real. and the most concerning thing was then the actual real people, the people who were seeing this clip and commenting — "hang on a second, is this real? i need to check it out on iplayer, what is going on here?" and what i started to notice was that it was not just this fake clip of wes streeting but several others, including a labour candidate called luke akehurst, also of keir starmer, and of nigel farage, who is the head of reform uk. and they were being shared by the same group of

accounts — so this network of accounts were posting these clips, some admittedly more satirical than others, and then doubling down in the comments. one of the other ones we showed was rishi sunak being made to say things he didn�*t actually say. tell us about that. i looked at the way that tiktok has been recommending different types of content, especially to younger voters and some of my younger undercover voters. some of the content was misleading, mischaracterising comments, or ai—generated, like you said. there was this clip of rishi sunak which starts off by saying he is "proper gutted", which is perhaps not a phrase he uses that often, and then goes on to make claims about how he is spending public money, which are contrary to some of the evidence available. the problem is some of these clips are obviously satirical, but there are others that are causing confusion. and you see users in the comments saying hold on a second, is this real? what�*s going on here? that is the difficulty — where do you draw the line between obvious satire and parody, and then when it actually affects real voters,

particularly younger voters, who, for the first time, are perhaps engaging in politics. and tiktok, we know if we look at some of the data from 0fcom, the media regulator, is a place where people in their teens and in their 20s turn to for news updates. the way it will affect voters is most likely not one single post changing anyone�*s mind, but a pattern of posts and particular narratives that are seeded and could affect what people think. you don�*t realise it until you are running 2a fictional characters�* social media profiles. but we are all getting pushed this stuff all the time, even when we are not into politics. so it is important to be aware that more anything else. marianna spring, thank you so much. finally, let�*s step away from the election and hear a vote of thanks for bbc news. angela griffiths got in touch with us recently and we were so struck by her story, we asked her to record this video. nearly three years ago, in september 2021, a bbc news bulletin led with the sad death of sarah harding of breast cancer.

the girls aloud singer sarah harding has died of breast cancer. in the report, the health correspondent at the time, catherine burns, included the detail that breast pain had been one of sarah�*s symptoms. like any cancer the earlier you pick it up the better. this was something i had been experiencing so i booked an appointment with the doctor straightaway. not even three weeks after that report aired, i was diagnosed with breast cancer myself. i laterfound out i had a genetic condition that meant it was 80% likely that the cancer could return. since then, i have had chemotherapy, radiotherapy and three operations to try and reduce my risks. the last of which was three weeks ago. at the time, somebody complained to bbc newswatch, saying they didn�*t think it should have been the lead item that day. i wanted to say it may have saved my life. sarah was such a well—known person and was a similar age to me, so it made me pay attention.

thank you, bbc news, for including that detail as i am not sure i would have gone to the doctor without it, and for making it that lead item and sharing sarah�*s story. thank you to angela for sharing her story, and for all your comments this week. do tell us your opinions about what you see or hear on bbc news on tv, radio online and social media — email newswatch@bbc.co.uk orfind us on x. you can call us. and have a look at previous interviews on our website. 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 will be back with more of your thoughts about how the bbc covers the news next week. goodbye. now a look at the weather.

hello, good afternoon. the unsettled, rather cool theme is set to continue this weekend. more sunny spells and showers to come in the forecast. of course it isjune so in the best of the sunshine it feels pleasantly warm, but plenty of showers around, heavy and thundery at times, too. and across the north of england and southern scotland in particular, with very light winds, the showers could last for some time and maybe lead to some flooding. really quite blustery in the south, across south wales, the midlands, east anglia, the south coast of england in particular, gusts of wind could reach 40—50mph as average speeds. the showers will rattle through quite quickly towards the south, sunny spells and temperatures very much sunshine dependent — so 14—18 celsius, below the seasonal average still. as we head through this evening and overnight, a lot of the showers will fade away, the winds will ease towards the south, but some heavy, persistent rain just tracking westwards across northern scotland and eventually sinking southwards into northern ireland in time for tomorrow morning.

it is milder here than it was last night, for most of us 7—10 celsius into tomorrow morning. low pressure sticks around through the day tomorrow, those showers swirling around it. but for many, while there will still be some showers around but certainly fewer of them. it is a slightly drier, warmer feeling day and there will be some bright and sunny spells. that is to say away from the north and west. the heavy rain will sink southwards and into central scotland and away eventually from northern ireland by the time we get it tomorrow afternoon. turning more showery in the north and west. still some more showers further south and with lighter winds they could be slow—moving, but fewer of them, 19 or 20 celsius in the south of england tomorrow afternoon. those temperatures could improve a little further on monday. again, a general improvement. most of the showers across eastern scotland down through north—eastern england, but fewer showers further south this time, and temperatures will tend to peak between 15 and 21 celsius. into tuesday, high pressure starts to try and edge

in from the south and the west. but low pressure still towards the north and another system across europe needs watching on tuesday and wednesday. that could produce more showers in the south and east as we head through the middle of the week. but otherwise, a little drier and a little warmer, too.

live from london, this is bbc news.

the princess of wales makes her first public appearance since her cancer diagnosis — as she attends the trooping the colour parade — to mark the king�*s official birthday. president zelenskyjoins dozens of other world leaders in switzerland — to discuss how to end the war in ukraine. russia was not invited. and the g7 summit wraps up — after discussing migration, chinese trade policy and the future of ai, as well as the war in ukraine. kevin campbell — the former striker for arsenal and everton — has died at the age of 5a, after a short illness. both clubs have reacted to the news — paying tribute to him.