mentions on the bbc the foreign secretary's incorrect statement last week that she had been working in the country training journalists. she was on holiday. on sunday, andrew marr followed up on the comment by asking michael gove about nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe. what was she doing when she went to iran? i don't know. one of the things i want to stress, there is no reason why nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe should be in prison in iran as far as any of us know. you say you don't know what she was doing, her husband is clear she was on holiday. i take her husband's assurance. he said she was training journalists, that has been grabbed by the iranian judicially to put her plight into an even worse position. that is surely his fault. whatever we as democrats choose to do or say, extremists will choose to deploy for their own purposes. we play their game. if we point the finger at democrats who try to do the right thing

when it is extremists responsible for the use of human rights. —— abuse. that exchange, and what boris johnson said about it, went on for around five minutes and prompted this reaction about andrew marr. this week saw the latest chapter in the saga of the uk preparations for leaving the eu with the withdrawal bill reaching its commitee stage the house of commons. it is part of a compact legislative process in westminster, mirrored by equally lengthy negotiations in brussels where david davis and michel barnier have reached the final round of talks. bbc news have been following the talks every step of the way. 12 months after the uk voted to leave the eu, the first formal talks to set the terms of departure have taken place in brussels. michel barnier, the chief negotiator, said he hoped the talks would be held in a constructive atmosphere. behind the smart suits and stiff smiles, it was clear that both sides

are talking at cross purposes. about what brexit subjects to tackle in which order and whether and how much progress is actually being made. time is a precious commodity. don't the uk and the eu know it. we are halfway between the date of our eu referendum and actually leaving the club. expect many more face—offs along the way. and if those negotiations are proving tricky, so too is the bbc‘s task in covering brexit in a way that satisfies the audience of its impartiality, while keeping it informed in a clear and interesting way. not everyone feels that is being achieved. martin from plymouth said: meanwhile, david begged:

and another few had this concern: —— viewer. the bbc‘s europe editor katya adler spent much of her life living and breathing the brexit process and shejoins me now. welcome. the biggest complaint we get is about perceived bias, a sense that bbc reporting is constantly knocking british negotiators. it is a fair comment that you would expect to make. as europe editor, it's myjob to put

across the european perspective. that might come across as anti—uk but it is putting across the other point of view. as we see these negotiations becoming pretty bad—tempered, obviously, there are very differing points of view. taking all that on board, viewers feel we don't seem to get the same scrutiny of eu negotiators and their strategy. since the negotiations started, i don't know if you're familiar with the sicilian word ‘omerta' which means ‘silence‘. eu leaders have been told to zip it and only let mr barnier speak about brexit. we just don't have that same access at this stage to talk to the main players on the european side as we do on the british side, to put those difficult questions to them on camera or on the record in a radio interview.

i understand that for our viewers and listeners, that is extremely frustrating and it feels like when not doing ourjob but believe me, because it is my job, i am doing it and asking those questions but the players are not allowing me to do that on the record and that is why i have to quote sources and contacts and eu diplomats. a lot of complaints say there is acres of coverage and little fact. why do you spend so much airtime speculating? many in the uk feel we voted for brexit and it's a done deal and we can move on and see some action. there isn't much action. i feel your pain on that one because we have to deal with that as well.

brexit remains one of the top stories of importance for us in the uk so it is going to remain right up there and we have to keep coming back to it as the negotiating rounds proceeds. even though actually, for example the last round, pretty much nothing happened in terms of news terms but we had to cover it and say that very little had happened. that leads you to speculate, and that is where it comes in, if there will be a deal in the end or will we be in a no deal scenario. how do you feel about viewers think that the coverage is too complicated 7 i would say that brexit is a very combative issue. what about the financial services industry, agriculture, other goods, what happens to the label that says made in the uk but between the jar and the labelled the content it crosses over between the uk and europe several times before a product is finished? these are all fiendishly complicated and that is why, as well as the brexit negotiators, you have lawyers on both sides. this is dry and detailed stuff

but that is what goes into untangling the uk from the eu and in the end will do into making a trade agreement between the two sides. repetitive coverage is a bit charge also a lot of men in grey suit walking out of buildings. is making this coverage front and interesting and challenging question of on a daily and hourly and weekly level it can seem quite dreary without much progress. i can tell you that here in brussels i am surrounded by the eu institutions and they are grey and full of people in grey suits. that can be a bit difficult sometimes, the way we can lift it is in a different kind of coverage we have this whether it is my blog where i can get some colour into it, we have the brexit podcast as well. tell us about that, what is the thinking behind it? it is two fold really. on the one hand, if i have to do a q and a on got news, and often told, you got 50 seconds in which to get so much nuance in and that's pretty

much impossible. never mind trying to get fact and a bit of colour. you go on brexitcast you have ages of time to chat. we have our hosts and laura kuenssberg as well, a lot of knowledge in there and a lot of humour and we are able to get some humour into it. but i admit, brexit is not something where events happen in a fast and furious manner but it is a hugely dramatic moment in eu and uk history. thank you for coming on. before we go, no secret that some newspapers like to have a go at the bbc and this week the sun italy enjoy doing so. published photographs of night shift workers asleep at their desks, passed to them a fellow member of staff who complained... we won't embarrass our sleeping

colleagues that we will mention the response of middle east correspondent quentin sommerville, perhaps recovering from his exclusive report on sunday. thank you for all of your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions or even appear on the programme you can call us on this number. you can find us on twitter and have a look at our website for previous discussions. that is all from us, we will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello.

colder air is in and is staying for the weekend before mild air makes a fight—back next week. for friday, it was sunshine and showers and the cold air in scotland across southern and eastern parts of england. hardly a cloud in the sky. here is a view from the isle of wight. flipping things around, though, for the start of the weekend — it's actually scotland who will have the best of the sunshine. there will be a brisk wind, with isobars close together. an area of cloud and patchy rain extending across wales and south—west england and other parts of england and wales through the day. there will be a patchy frost to start the morning for saturday — not as widespread as friday morning, and then sunshine becomes more limited for many of us through the day. not the case though in scotland. there will be blustery showers in the far north, the northern isles, wintry on hills to relatively lower levels in places, but plenty of sunshine in scotland. mainly dry in northern ireland, but a fair amount of cloud around. a band of showers working south across northern england early in the day but then the sun comes

out for the afternoon. early sunshine east anglia, the south—east of england with a touch of frost, but not lasting too long. already got cloud across wales and into south—west england and that's going to extend eastwards during the day, taking some occasional outbreaks of rain. never amounting to too much but making for a dull, damp afternoon for some here. you can see the sunshine across northern england, but especially into scotland, but remember that brisk wind in the far north with the blustery showers. technically milder for some in wales and south—west england. then again, it won't feel that way with the cloud and any rain. but for most of us, it'll be single—figure temperatures once again. now, for the rugby, well, we're expecting some rain in cardiff, maybe a bit of patchy rain in twickenham, clear and cold going into the evening at murrayfield and also a dry evening for the ireland game in dublin. looking at things going through saturday evening and saturday night, some wet weather affecting wales and southern england overnight, becoming confined to the far south—west of england. elsewhere, clearing skies and the temperatures dip and the frost will be more widespread going into sunday morning.

temperatures lower than this away from towns and city centres. so some of us will be at or below freezing, but with some sunshine to follow on sunday across much of scotland, northern england and the east of england. clouding over in the midlands, cloud for south—west england. for wales, northern ireland — not as chilly here but here, we have cloud and some outbreaks of rain. most of that light, most of us in single figures, so it will be another cold—feeling day. going sunday night and into monday, we take cloud and outbreaks of rain northwards, but into colder air, particularly with scotland and the risk of snow, perhaps notjust on hills on monday, so keep checking the forecast throughout the weekend. we will keep you updated. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. our top stories: robert mugabe's zanu—pf party calls on him to quit the presidency as opposition continues to grow against zimba bwe‘s long—term leader. lebanon's prime minister, saad hariri, has left saudi arabia on a plane for france, after tendering his resignation two weeks ago. president trump tweets about the sexual abuse allegations

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