mention on tuesday, and then gained more prominence throughout the week. by wednesday on the daily politics, andrew neil tackled the subject to much acclaim. the defence secretary says mr corbyn has quote, "betrayed his country". in what way? well, the defence secretary has chosen his own words. i mean, the point for me about this debacle is that we believe... how has he betrayed his country? jeremy corbyn is a grave danger to this country, i believe, but that's because... has he betrayed his country? but that's because of the ideas in which he believes and what that would mean for our economy and our society if he were elected. people have all sorts of ideas. but your defence secretary, our defence secretary, the defence secretary of this government, of our government, has said the leader of her majesty's opposition has betrayed his country. in what way has he betrayed his country? although the claims lacked evidence and were firmly denied, some newswatch viewers thought it was too little, too late from bbc news. lynette smith asked on monday...

and barbara stevens had the same question. well, we put that to bbc news and they told us... here a couple of weeks ago by pascal freeman, who describes himself as an incredulous licence fee payer. we tried to find out an answer for mr freeman and bbc

news told us... now, the winter olympics come to an end this weekend and for the next four years, most of us will probably forget what the difference is between the skeleton and the luge and exactly how russian competitors there are not competing for russia. but for the past fortnight, the games have occupied a lot of airtime on bbc one and two, online and also on bbc news, with much focused on british performance —

some of which was pretty poor. let's look at examples from the news at ten and breakfast. so, it's heartbreak for elise christie yet again. after failing to win a medal at the last olympics four years ago, history has repeated itself here in pyeongchang. morning from pendle ski club in lancashire, where we've been up all night cheering on the local hero, dave ryding, who started on the dry slopes here, and as you can tell they are so proud, he came in the top ten in ninth, so well done to dave. clarke goes fourth! yarnold wins gold again! laura deas has won bronze as well! the bbc‘s commentary team seen celebrating lizzy yarnold's skeleton gold, about which more very shortly. but it was the extent of the coverage on bbc news that exercised a number of viewers, like tim elliott. and clive wilce had this to say.

for others, it was not the quantity of the coverage but its focus on british competitors which rankled. brian bollen tweeted about the bbc‘s chauvinistic coverage of the winter olympics. richard brown thought... and alan dawson agreed. well, let's discuss those issues with stephen mawhinney,

the bbc‘s head of sportsjournalism. he joins us from salford. thank you for coming on newswatch. we know that some audiences don't care about sport, but was there too much on bbc news, particularly on breakfast? well, samira, perhaps you won't be surprised to hear me say that i don't think so. obviously it was up to every programme editor of each news programme to decide whether they covered the winter olympics and how much they gave to it. but i'm not surprised that many of them chose to give it extensivecevezage becausetheue there's been some really, really compelling human stories, some wider issues at stake as well in terms of some of the politics and diplomacy that was going on around the games. and, of course, we know that there is huge audience interest in this. in fact, on the television coverage alone, more than 30 million people have tuned in through the games, that's more than many of the other major sporting events that we cover,

for instance, wimbledon or the six nations. so there's no doubt there has been a wide audience interest, although of course i appreciate some viewers and listeners are not going to be as engaged in sporting stories. —;;:;lll; szlgu out, like elise christie, wouldn't it have been better sports journalism to focus on the events themselves and the winners? so, we absolutely did focus on the events and the winners and i can come onto that. butjust to deal with elise christie, hers was an absolutely compelling human drama, there's no question about it. she went into the sochi olympics as the favourite in the short track speed skating and ended dpheving time, and she ended up being disqualified or crashing out of each of those. and then actually had to deal with a huge amount of abuse including death threats, and thought about walking away from the sport. but she decided to continue, became a multiple world champion, came again into these olympics as the favourite, and yet unbelievably, again went through a series in each of her three events where

she was either pushed out, disqualified, or then injured before herfinal race, where she attempted to complete, fell over again, seemed to have qualified, but then got disqualified again. by any standards, it was an extraordinary human drama and kind of news story around britain's favourite athlete going into the games. we had specific complaints about seeing the bbc commentary team isn't the bbc supposed to be impartial? obviously, we do understand the importance of being impartial and across our news coverage, you will have seen that. of course, in our live sporting coverage, there's no question these are moments of huge drama, huge passion, many of our pundits are obviously former olympians themselves, they have got close relationships and understandably have a real engagement and personal closeness to all of the athletes that are out there and their performances, and sport is partly about passion, it's partly about that kind

of excitement that we get wrapped up in and we want to share that, encompass it and embrace that with our audience. many of our audience—needy it's certainly true to say that with the summer olympics too newswatch viewers have said they feel bbc news coverage of these events is too much about british competitors regardless of outcome, when it should be about the top stories of who won. do you accept that bbc news coverage needs to be rethought about whether you have got that balance right? well, as i say, it is absolutely a balance and always done on a case—by—case basis for every single programme, every news programme, and you know, i make no apology for the fact that there has been a focus on team gb. there's no doubt there's huge audience interest for that, all of the evidence suggests that. and don't forget that team gb are funded by public money through uk sport, and so we literally have a stake in both seeing that, as well as holding them to account in terms of their performance. stephen mawhinney, thank you so much. no problem. finally, monday brought the bizarre news that the fast—food outlet kfc, which used to be known as kentucky fried chicken,

had run out of chicken. john kay reported on the story on the news at six. 0h! no! when you've been promised kfc as a half—term treat, but there is no chicken. the company says it's working flat out to rectify the problem. but for some, that is little consolation. so, was there something of an overreaction, notjust from customers, but from the bbc too? a twitter user describing himself as giacomo g casanova, thought so. and that's all from us. thank you for all of your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions on bbc news and current affairs, or even appear on the programme, you can call us on 0370 010 6676, or e—mail newswatch@bbc. co. uk.

and do have a look at our website. the address for that is bbc.co.uk/newswatch. that's all from us, i will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello there. the weekend is upon us and it should be a lovely one to get out and about, if you are appropriately dressed. the skies will often be blue, but underneath those blue skies it is going to feel chilly, particularly when we add in the strength of a biting cold easterly wind. now, we start saturday morning on a very chilly note. you can see the blue colours on the chart here. a widespread frost, temperatures below freezing for many. perhaps not quite as cold for northern ireland, beeedee there‘s e'bit'm'e're” ' "' where you see this white shimmering effect on the map, that shows where we have a touch of frost to start the day. now, that frost will slowly melt

away to reveal a lot of dry weather and some spells of sunshine. but, with that chilly breeze down towards the south, it is going to feel quite cold, despite the fact that temperatures on the thermometer will get up around six, possibly seven degrees in places. always more cloud across parts of south devon and cornwall but sunny skies for much of wales and northern england. northern ireland brightening up after the cloudy start and things turning brighter again in western scotland, after a cloudy start. in eastern scotland up towards the northern isles, we should see a fair amount of sunshine. then we go through saturday night, we do it all again underneath these largely clear skies. it is going to turn cold. perhaps at this stage, a little more cloud feeding in towards parts of eastern scotland and north—east england. notice still some green shading on the map here. maybe not quite as cold underneath the cloud.

the chilliest weather will be underneath those clear skies. so again, here's the frost to start sunday morning. that frost only slowly lifting as temperatures rise pretty slowly on sunday morning. but then again, a lot of sunshine. but that extra cloud for eastern scotland and parts of north—east england could start to produce the odd snow flurry. still with that chilly feel, still that cold easterly wind, particularly noticeable in the south. so when we add on the strength of the wind, this is what it will feel like — subzero for the likes of birmingham and norwich. and that‘s beeause—welte. all the way from siberia. we really start to tap into that very cold air as we head into the new working week. not only will it be cold, with temperatures struggling to get above freezing even by day, there is the increasing chance the of some snow showers, particularly in eastern areas initially. perhaps some areas with more persistent snow at times, but even further west, not completely exempt. perhaps not quite as many showers but just about anywhere, we will have the potential for a little bit of snow. so, to sum up things for next week, it will be very cold with bitter winds.

some snow at times and widespread frost and ice. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: the bombardment continues on the ground as the un security council delays a crucial vote on a ceasefire in syria. a former senior adviser to donald trump pleads guilty to conspiracy and lying to fbi investigators. as pressure grows for action on gun ownership, the american president suggests again that classroom teachers should be armed. and taking on the system — the cuban family prepared to go the extra mile for a long—awaited reunion.