increase from next april. but for the working population and people on benefits, it will put more pressure on already stretched household incomes. some viewers, such as these two anonymous telephone callers, felt the bbc made too much of the contrast between the benefit gained by pensioners, whose payments will rise in line with the new inflation figure, and the negative consequences for the rest of the population. itjust seems like the bbc news is always presenting pensioners when actually i've spent my whole life looking after my whole family, and it's just really infuriating. it really does annoy me that they stir this up, because of the triple lock. 3% of hardly anything is not very much. some issues viewers contact us about do recur on a regular basis. one such was identified this week by mike, who recorded his video for us.

i am as interested as anyone in seeing live scenes of hurricanes, storms, and floods affecting the british isles. but i'm really concerned at the way the bbc and other news agencies around the world appeared to pay no attention to the safety and well—being of their reporters and camera crews. earlier this week, the bbc featured the effects of hurricane ophelia in. !re!.en.df wheretheleeeemeeetter— could hardly stand on his feet because of the strength of the wind, and they could easily have been swept out to sea or hit by flying debris. surely, in this day and age, we should pay more attention to the safety and well—being of human life and use unmanned cameras if we have to. now, it took years for the allegations of sexual abuse against harvey weinstein to make the news, which may tell us something about the world of hollywood and, perhaps,

about the media too. but when they did so, two weeks ago in an article in the new york times, they unleashed a barrage of coverage across news organisations, including the bbc. the hollywood mogul harvey weinstein is sacked from the company he founded as allegations of his sexual harassment grow. the hollywood producer harvey weinstein is now facing allegations of rape from three women. the british film industry has distanced itself g fée'fzi't’ff‘f:sseefrizzegjfx 1”"”" ” the hollywood sex scandal deepens and another actor comes forward, claiming she was raped by film producer harvey weinstein. police in britain are now investigating claims of sexual assault by three women against the hollywood film executive harvey weinstein. tom hanks tells us hollywood has to change as he becomes the latest star to speak out about

the harvey weinstein allegations. last week, we aired some viewers‘ objections about the extent and nature of that coverage but as it has continued this week, so too have the complaints. one viewer felt that: annabel smith wrote to us, contrasting the level of coverage of harvey weinstein with that of saturday's bomb attack in mogadishu, which killed around 300 somali civilians.

she went into our bristol studio to explain her concerns. you do wonder — or i wonder — whether this story would have had anything like this coverage if the women being harassed were working for a company in the uk, or werejust on a factory floor somewhere. obviously, this got more coverage because the women concerned were famous and glamorous. it doesn't mean it's not important — of course it's an important story — but my complaint is about proportionality and the amount of coverage this got night after night after night when other far more important things, and far more deadly and dangerous things, were going on around the world. there is a limit to how much i can be convinced that a woman being made to watch harvey weinstein take a shower is more important than 300 people being killed by a single bomb blast in mogadishu. well, i'm joined now by toby castle,

deputy news editor for bbc news. thank you for coming on the newswatch. let's start with that last complaint. it's clearly an important story but it's been running for two weeks, and given events like the mogadishu bombing, has the bbc gone overboard on the weinstein story? i would say no, but you would expect me to sit here and say no because of where we placed the weinstein story in the running order over the weekend. but i would draw the attention — or your attention, and the viewers‘ attention — to our coverage of somalia. i think that we did a really good job on what was a truly horrific story and so, this becomes a bit of an argument about running orders and where something might run in a running order, rather than the level of coverage. i would say that we gave both stories a really, really detailed level of coverage over the weekend, and into this week. what should sit at the top of each bulletin, i think, is open for discussion, and it is a discussion we do have on every bulletin with every story.

but i would argue that the harvey weinstein story is one of a world significance, and i believe that the level of coverage that we gave it was proportionate. let's talk more about that, because i wonder if reviewers have a clear point here. if he weren't a hollywood executive, with lots of celebrity voices, you know, potentially to be reported on, you wouldn't be giving it this amount of airtime, would you? i would sayjust say take a step back and ask who he is and what the allegations around him are. he is a well—known figure within the industry and it is our job to explain the significance of somebody of his level within an industry has been able to get away with what he is being alleged to have done for so many years, this culture of silence around it, or perhaps cover—up. let's talk about the nature of the coverage, then. viewers feel there was a salacious edge to much of it. has bbc news gone too far, into too much detail about locations and things like him being in a bathrobe? i suppose what we have to balance

is about being honest with our audiences about what he is being alleged to have done, —— been alleged to have done, and there is a judgement that we have to make about how much detail we go into. there are different levels of that, depending on which programme it is. let's talk about breakfast, because viewers have complained about that. no, and i heard that complaint, and clearly the breakfast audience, it is a difficult editorial decision about how much detail — we know what audiences are at home in the morning, you know, it is families getting ready to go to work, it is not the decision about perhaps sitting down to the early evening six o'clock television news bulletin. a lot of the coverage has been new allegations by many different women, and some viewers say, "look, these are allegations, there is no police action on most of them — should the bbc be reporting as many of them as they are like this?" i'd say there is police action, you know — police on both sides of the atlantic are investigating harvey weinstein for these offences.

and there are police investigations and if there are further women that feel now empowered to come forward with allegations of sex abuse in business, or in music, or in all sorts of other industries, then, you know, there is something to be said about the level of coverage that we've given, you know, the weinstein story, which has allowed women to feel the strength to be able to come forward. look at the #metoo hashtag campaign on social media, that people feel they can talk about these things. toby castle, thank you very much. just time for a bit more of your feedback before we go, and on tuesday we had some comments about a report on the delays patients in northern ireland are experiencing in getting surgery. it began like this. # this house don't feel like home any more. # you say you've got to set me free...# megan loves dancing. it'sjust her life at the minute.

she just wants to dance. but at the minute, she needs to get this surgery to help her. stuart's response? finally, the news channel launched a new strand last week called afternoon live, and presenter simon mccoy has sometimes found it harder to consumers‘ lack of enthusiasm for certain news stories, particularly those of a royal nature. that disarming honesty was on show again on tuesday. just got this coming

in from kensington palace — their royal highnesses the duke and duchess of cambridge are delighted to confirm they are expecting a baby in april. now, bearing in mind they announced that she was pregnant back in september, and it was thought she was two months pregnant, i am not sure how much news this really is! anyway, april, clear your diaries, get the time booked off — that‘s what i am doing! that news just coming in from kensington palace. you are watching afternoon live. kay was unimpressed... but others were amused. thank you for all your comments this week.

ring us with your thoughts on bbc news, or e—mail, and we are on twitter as well. that is all from us. we will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hi there. today‘s weather is brought to you courtesy of storm brian. let‘s take a look at brian then. over the last 2a hours it has rapidly developed as low pressure moves across the atlantic. the strongest winds have been out to sea and as the storm crosses the british isles it will gradually weakened. a slow process and the winds will remain pretty strong and gusty throughout saturday. we have a band of rain for the early rises.

still lingering across north—east scotland. there or thereabouts towards the eastern coast of england. given it‘s a blowy start the day, it will be mild. 10—13 degrees for early rises. some of the strongest winds through saturday morning will be targeting the coast of south—west england and wales. gusts of 50—60 mph, maybe a few isolated gusts of up to 70 mph. one concern is that those strong winds bringing large waves could coincide with high tides, so we could see some localised surface water flooding impacts. inland gusts more typically up to 50 mph. that will blow lots of leaves off the trees. maybe one or two smaller tree branches coming down. the winds picking up later in the afternoon and towards the evening time across north wales and north—west england as we see a lengthier spell of rain here. again the winds could reach up to 60 mph. perhaps a touch stronger in some of the most exposed areas.

but for the most part on saturday, brian will bring fairly typical windy weather for an autumn day. heading through the night time, the low pressure works out into the north sea and we‘ll see showers or even lengthy spells of rain working particularly into north—west england overnight. still quite a blowy night. 9—10 degrees, something like that. for sunday, as brian works out into the north sea, over the coming days it will die. so that‘s the life of brian and looking on the bright side of life on sunday there will be fewer showers. the winds turning lighter. but coming in from a north—westerly direction, so it‘s a cooler direction. temperature wise, between 10—14 degrees. but with fewer showers, you have a better chance of dodging the downpours and having drier spells of weather. the north—westerly winds are shortly. by monday, most winds back to the south—west, with the exception of the far north of scotland. south—westerly winds dragging in mild air. temperatures up to 16—17 degrees. that mild theme stays with us for the week ahead. the best of any sunny spells in north—eastern areas initially. that‘s your weather.

welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is ben bland. our top stories: brazilian police arrest more than 100 people, in the biggest operation ever against paedophiles in latin america. suicide attacks on two mosques in afghanistan have killed nearly 60 worshippers. eu leaders agree to begin preparing for the next phase of brexit talks covering trade. how much of a breakthrough is it? and footage of sloths dragged from the rainforest so they can be used in tourists‘ holiday selfies. hello and welcome.