padman's producer, twinkle khanna. it's a compelling story, it was so compelling that i abandoned my second book, i was halfway through that, and i started writing about him. and then i chased him for eight months. i called him every single day till finally he agreed to meet me. what i found wonderful is his concept of social entrepreneurship, where he sells these machines only to ngos and women's groups, so they can earn a livelihood as well as have access to sanitary pads. sometimes it's important to be led by someone that you believe has a reputation, or you are inspired by. and twinkle khanna and akshay kumar are both beloved celebrities in india, so i think it's important for people to stand up in the community, that have a voice, and give a voice to other girls and women that don't necessarily talk about menstruation. the team behind the movie say they hope it will put an end to the stigma and shame that some women are made to feel every month. alice hutton, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news:

thejustice secretary has said the government won't be seeking a judicial review of a decision to release the serial sex offenderjohn worboys. scientists say they've taken a step towards one of the biggest goals in medicine, a single blood test for all types of cancer. the white house accuses us democrats of trying to force a government shutdown, as the deadline approaches to pass a funding bill. now it's time for newswatch, with samira ahmed. this week, is the bbc too obsessed with the problems in our health service? flu, a nursing shortage — the nhs winter crisis is dominating headlines. but is bbc news overplaying the negative? we ask health editor, hugh pym, weather bbc coverage could be

damaging confidence among nhs staff and the public. first, it's not always what you see on the news which captures the attention of newswatch viewers, but when you see it. on wednesday evening, a football match was showing live on bbc one. if you're interested, an fa cup third—round replay between chelsea and norwich city. unfortunately, not everyone was interested and when the broadcast overran because of the start to the game and they go into extra time and then a penalty shoot out, some of them were pretty angry, as the news at ten became the news at 10:1i5pm. here is deborah. last night, my husband and i got home after a long day at work and we do like to sit down and watch the ten o'clock news. but it turns out a football match was over running and the news had to be displaced by 45 minutes. i just don't think somebody‘s got their head screwed on.

if the football match is that important, put it on a different channel. but i feel news comes before football. another sport caught the attention of some viewers last saturday, although not all of them might describe it as a sport. breakfast decided to look at the world of bare knuckle boxing, with this report from johnny i'anson. liam cullan in leeds has spent a lifetime in combat sport, but this weekend, he's fighting for a world title in one of the most extreme of all. when i say the words, bare knuckle boxing, you possibly think of gangsters settling feuds in old victorian times. but there are a group of people but determined to bring the sport back to the mainstream and take it legally to the masses. a twitter user called suzie q objected to that report, writing that she was "disappointed" the bbc is promoting and endorsing violent sport. "gratuitous violence. what's the difference between this and a street brawl? hope there aren't too many children watching. shameful."

now, not for the first time, we are in the middle of a winter of difficulties and challenges for the national health service. bbc news has been reporting them with considerable attention. tonight at six, an apology from theresa may after new figures reveal pressure on the nhs this winter. from ambulance transfer delays, unprecedented calls to the helpline and operations postponed. a stark claim by doctors. winter pressures have left patients dying prematurely in hospital corridors. they say safety in a&e units in england and wales has been compromised at a sometimes intolerable level. there is a clear emergency and what a number of other observers have clearly described as a crisis. one in ten nurses is leaving the nhs in england every year, as the gap between those leaving and joining the profession widens. hospital consultants in wales say

patient safety is being compromised and that the nhs and social care are chronically under resourced. we've got patients that are in the department where we don't have space to see them and then we are coming back the next day and some of the patients are still here. it's getting worse every winter, but this is the worst we have seen it. viewer, mike hill, reacted to the coverage he'd seen by writing... "every year the bbc in january encourages public hysteria by sensationalist reporting. an open door is offered to every medical group, trade union, charity and politician with the same crisis message. and robert put it like this... "i am tired of hearing the scurrilous comments on bbc news programmes running down the nhs and the annual pressures they are coping with admirably. the nursing staff are demoralised as a result." meanwhile, brian megson declared himself a fan of bbc news, but he echoed those reservations. what i don't enjoy is your constant commentary about the nhs.

you start off in december and then you really let rip injanuary. every day there's a report about how bad it is, people dying in corridors, not enough nurses, enough doctors. there's always something wrong with the nhs every day for you guys and you really should stop it. it's a wonderful organisation, why can't you let it be? it's a very big, tough organisation to run for those who are running it and i wish he would stop this obsession and fixation with it. well, hugh pym, the health editor for bbc news is with me now. thank you for coming newswatch. there is a sense that the nhs in crisis story comes around each winter. are you too negative in how you focus on it? well, there's always a balance to be struck, we are very aware of that. the balance between recognising that the nhs does a fantasticjob throughout the year and it is a very popular and well regarded institution. the staff work extremely hard. but also recognising that

if is under great pressure and staff are feeling the pressure, and that is often what we are being told, then we need to report that. we need to hold the government to account on the performance of the nhs and the management of the nhs in different parts of the uk. now, this winter it's been made abundantly clear to us by many people on the front line, that the pressure is greater than they have known before, even worse than last year. many of them think the nhs is underfunded. we've had stories from patients as well about very, very long waits in ambulances outside hospitals and we have a duty to report that. you've absolutely made the journalistic case for why this is news, it's about what is abnormal. but is there enough consideration of the cumulative effect of all the stories, that they might actually be hurting peoples' confidence and undermining staff morale, which is what some viewers are concerned about? well, a couple of the stories we did just to highlight, as we've seen just a few minutes ago, the letterfrom 68 leading a&e consultants.

again, on the front line of the nhs, writing to the prime minister, saying they have very serious safety concerns, that people could be dying prematurely because of waiting in corridors. that letter echoed by consultants in wales, writing to the first minister. if that's how they feel in the nhs, then i think we have to report that. and when it went out on social media, there were a lot of tweets from people in different parts of the nhs, welcoming the fact that senior clinicians were speaking out like that. so in terms of the negative impact, it's hard to tell with morale, but we have done positive stories about the role of nurses, for example. a whole day of coverage on the valuable role they play. also positive stories about how some hospitals, in the face of great pressure, are coping and are having to devise ways of streaming people through a&e. i highlighted a scheme in ipswich. we've looked at the performance of luton‘s a&e, hitting all their targets. a video on our website on that. so i think we do always try to highlight the steps

which have been taken to mitigate this pressure. it is interesting you mentioned the day focused on nursing, because it wasjeremy hunt, the health secretary, tweeted that while the bbc‘s focus was good, he accused the bbc of underplaying the increase in nurse training places. does he have a point? well, we were highlighting the story which was that last year, the year to september 2017, more nurses had left the nhs band more nurses had left the nhs than joined it in england. there was a 3000 gap and that hadn't been seen at all in recent years. there was a small gap in the previous year, but it had been positive a few years before that. highlighting the real recruitment and retention challenges the nhs has. the government's line is, new training places have been set up for a future flow of nurses and we did report that. but they are, in a way, different stories. yes, planning for the future is one thing, which the government is trying to do. what was the situation last year? that was illustrated by the facts we quoted from nhs digital.

it is very clear from our conversation so far that there is a real political issue in how the nhs is being reported, given the government and the opposition are saying very different things about the funding going into the nhs and how it is being spent. how much of a challenge is that reporting it? it is a great challenge because the flow of funding is very complicated. yes, the government can say they have put more money into the nhs and others can say, including labour, that it's not enough. and that's of course, in some sense, is a value judgment. but there is an increasing view across different parts of the nhs and royal colleges, trade unions and think tanks, saying that in england and also the uk, spending is lagging behind what it might be as a share of national income. so getting that balance right and also highlighting the need for the nhs to be efficient and how it can save money is always quite a difficult thing to get right. but, there is now an increasing debate about the need for a cross—party view on this, involving everyone across society,

how do they want the nhs to be funded and social care? where is the money going to come from, does it need more tax? on this, of course, the 70th year of the nhs. what is interesting, is we started off talking about viewers' concern that the bbc is being too negative, but it has also been striking that the bbc‘s logo for this story is nhs winter. whereas in the past it has been nhs crisis, which the bbc also got criticised for. some might say, is the bbc being too shy of being as hard as it needs to be on this story? we have been very careful in our reporting not to use the word crisis and not to brand it as a crisis. it is for others to make that assertion. many are, many doctors as well as politicians are saying it is an nhs crisis. i think the best we can do is state the facts, state what is really going on in hospitals, gp surgeries, community health, mental health, right around the uk, state it as it is, make the debate about funding as clear as possible and then leave others to judge how

serious it is. i think no one can be in any doubt, we have laid out there for viewers and listeners, there is a very serious state of affairs in some parts of the nhs, currently in january with flu being a major problem. we need to judge things in the months ahead as to where things go from here. hugh pym, thank you so much. finally, in advance of president macron‘s visit to the uk on thursday, mp tom tugendhat was speaking to breakfast presenter charlie stayt about anglo—french relations when he found himself struggling with a croaky throat. it is true that our relationship is incredibly close and incredibly important for both of us. and we now have both got a responsibility to make it work on every level. thank you very much for your time this morning. we will allow you to get a glass of water to help your throat. thank you for your time this morning. thank you. always annoying when those frogs appear at the most inopportune times. it's 7:21am...

given that frenchman, president macron, had just been under discussion, was that reference to a frog, a subtle, if rather questionablejoke, orjust an unfortunate coincidence? a twitter user called the mystery man bought the former, describing it as an amazing joke and although some were less impressed, a bbc spokesman said, our guest appeared to be struggling with a croaky voice and naga was simply referring to that. thank you very much for all your comments this week. we welcome all your opinions on bbc news and current affairs, so do please get in touch with us... that's all from us, we will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello. another cold one tonight with widespread frost and icy conditions. heavy snow showers still for a time

in parts of scotland, where there is a met office amber warning until 10pm, but they will slowly ease through the night. travelling remains difficult with the new snow we've seen. fewer snow showers by the end of the night, but icy. we will see some wet weather coming into the south—west later in the night. rain, perhaps a bit of sleet, some wet snow associated with that. it sticks around during saturday for parts of northern ireland, wales, the midlands and into southern england. really quite cold under that. milder for cornwall and devon into the afternoon, as it brightens up a little bit. some sunny spells for the far north of england and scotland. just one or two wintry showers left behind through western and northern parts of scotland, but nowhere near as heavy or frequent as they've been today. on sunday, more wet weather spreading north and east across the uk. as it runs into cold air, more snow for a time in parts of scotland and northern england. this is bbc news.

i'm martine croxall. the headlines at 8pm. the justice secretary says the government won't be seeking a judicial review of a ruling to release the serial sex offenderjohn worboys. a breakthrough in the early detection of cancer? us scientists develop a blood test that identifies eight common forms of the disease. president trump hold talks with democrats in bid to avert a shutdown of the us government as the deadline approaches to pass a funding bill. the californian parents accused of holding their 13 children captive plead not guilty to torture, abuse and false imprisonment. and the train in a tube that could reach 700 miles an hour. virgin are testing the hyperloop system in america and think it could drastically cut travel times.