‘than 68 cigars. ‘than 48 cigars. often fell fewer than 48 cigars. often fell asleep with a cigar, stories about a friend coming to see him, in the morning, and he has fallen asleep in his chairand morning, and he has fallen asleep in his chair and has a whole cigars worth of ash on his chest...! his chair and has a whole cigars worth of ash on his chest. . .! like his grand project, this museum has been a labour of love, six years in the making, many of the items being shown for the first time. we have [10w shown for the first time. we have now claimed brunel as our own, which is marvellous. i think we have a lwa ys is marvellous. i think we have always felt that he is our adopted son, but he's now well and truly a bristol boy. it will bring tourists andi bristol boy. it will bring tourists and i hope we have a world—class museum here. that should make eve ryo ne museum here. that should make everyone in bristol feel really proud. absolutely marvellous, really was. we both felt we got into his mind. fascinating when you pull out the draw, and you see some of his original letters, almost as if you can reach out and touch the past. dressing up is part of the experience. as well as picking up

some fun facts about the great man. brunel only slept for hours a night. he could draw a perfect circle. brunel loved acting and one dressed up brunel loved acting and one dressed up as an old woman. he once inhaled a coin, threw a party trick, and then invented a machine, to remove it. party lover, landscape gardener, so it. party lover, landscape gardener, so much more to brunel band that hat on and that cigar. —— so much more to brunel than that at and that cigar. —— hat. now it's time for newswatch with samira ahmed. this week, the challenges of reporting from russia. complaints about that hat for in,

did newsnight doctor a picture of jeremy corbyn to paint him as a kremlin sympathiser? —— continue to flood in. three weeks since the poisoning of sergei skripal and his daughter, yulia, and relations between the uk and russia have not improved in that time, reporting on the deteriorating relationship from moscow has been correspondent steve rosenberg, who had a rare opportunity last week to question vladimir putin, then on the campaign trailfor his vladimir putin, then on the campaign trail for his re—election. vladimir putin, then on the campaign trail for his re-election. president latimer putin, bbc news, is russia behind the poisoning of sergei skripal? translation: we are busy with agriculture here, to create the conditions for people's lives. and you talk to me about some tragedies. first, work out exactly what happened there, and then we will talk about it. tonight russia described theresa may's commons statement as a circus show, and

dismissed accusations against moscow asa dismissed accusations against moscow as a political campaign based on provocation, a fairy tale. rhetoric was blunt and continued since to the surprise of no one, since he was re—elected last sunday. surprise of no one, since he was re-elected last sunday. tonight, by the kremlin, vladimir putin thanked his people for re—electing him. translation: we are destined to succeed. russia, russia, they chanted, but in his fourth term, are russia and the west destined for a cold war? we will be talking to steve in a moment. before that, a couple of your thoughts on the coverage of russia. russians often declare they do not know what to believe, that is a product of kremlin policy, plus

fear of being seen as a dissenter. how did steve penetrate this? is he making enough efforts to discover the true thoughts of ordinary russians. concern about how bbc news has covered russian reactions to the accusations of its involvement in the salisbury poisoning. the kremlin steve rosenberg joins me now on the line from moscow. you do give us the kremlin‘s side of the story, as we saw in the e—mail, some viewers fear that it gives them credibility, how

do you answer that? i consider my job as the bbc moscow correspondent to tell viewers in britain and around the world what moscow is thinking, this is a very confusing story and it is important to listen to what the russians are saying. they have a range of arguments and i think then i have to use my experience of living and working in russia, and i have been here for 23 yea rs, russia, and i have been here for 23 years, not with the bbc all that time but to use my experience, to examine what the russians are saying, and to try to cut through all of that and give my interpretation, my opinion, about what is happening here. it is a very confused story but it is important to present the russian perspective on it. saw you on the campaign trail, asking quite a tough question, often, was that difficult, perhaps even a scary thing to do? not a scary decision, it was quite a

challenging thing to do because normally, question and answer sessions with president vladimir putin are heavily controlled. we we re putin are heavily controlled. we were covering him on the campaign trail, we found ourselves in a position physically where we were able to pop a question to him, and it was the question that really eve ryo ne it was the question that really everyone wanted to ask at the moment, journalistically, it was the right thing to do. the thing about that putin, like him, hate him, whatever you think of him, he has no trouble answering questions. you have been in russia for 23 years, one wonders how hard it is to report there now, and how it compares to reporting there in the past. one thing we cannot always get into our short two—minute news reports but which is important to say is that if you go outside the bureau here, moscow seems like a normal european city, we don't get the feeling that

we are being followed by people in long raincoats with trilby hats(!) and being watched constantly. in that sense, we don't feel greater pressure now. having said that, we have been harassed while covering controversial stories, sensitive stories, and this did not happen ten yea rs stories, and this did not happen ten years ago. one does wonder how much real political opposition there is in russia, including from ordinary citizens. interesting question, vladimir putin hasjust citizens. interesting question, vladimir putin has just been re—elected with a landslide victory, it is clear that although this was not a level playing field, this selection, and only those candidates who pose no serious challenge to vladimir putin were allowed to take part, many russians do support vladimir putin, some because they really like his muscle flexing, his strong arm tactics, his anti—western rhetoric. there are other people who

support him because they fear change, many russians fear change, they don't want life to get worse thanit they don't want life to get worse than it is now and they fear picking a new president. you talked about being on the campaign trail for the selection, added compare to covering western election? it is not like a western election? it is not like a western election, as i said before, only those candidates who did not threaten vladimir putin were allowed to ta ke threaten vladimir putin were allowed to take part, russia —— russia's most prominent opposition figure was barred from taking part, and look at the airtime given to president putin ahead of the election, far more airtime than the election, far more airtime than the other candid is put together, and all the coverage of latimer putin was very positive. —— vladimir putin. this is not like a western election. russian authorities have been particularly critical of the

british media, do you worry about your safety? i have not worried up until this point of the walking around moscow, it feels pretty normal, you go into the copy shop, happy smiley faces serving you, and although there is... i have noticed more anti—british sentiment on russian television, for example, i saw a report the other day where the reporter claimed that over the last few centuries, britain has had it in for russia, they listed all the things over the last few hundred yea rs things over the last few hundred years that britain has done to russia. we have seen that. from the public, i haven't noticed really any rise in anti—british settlement sentiment and also, russian british officials are still talking to the bbc, we get comments from the foreign ministry, from the parliament. which is important. as i say, important for us to be able to listen to what russia's argument is,

and include that in our pieces. thank you. one aspect of the ratcheting up of tensions between the uk and russia this week was reported on wednesday's news at ten, it began like this. tonight at ten, another plunge in relation between britain and russia, borisjohnson relation between britain and russia, boris johnson compares president vladimir putin to adolf hitler. during the day, as inspectors continued their investigation in the salisbury area, the foreign secretary suggested that the forthcoming world cup would be used like the olympics were used by adolf hitler in 1936. what is going to happen in moscow, in the world cup, in all the venues, yes, i think the comparison with 1936 is certainly right. what was not spelt out, it was made clear late in the programme that boris johnson had was made clear late in the programme that borisjohnson had not suggested that borisjohnson had not suggested that analogy of his own accord, but

merely agreed with the comparison proposed to him by the labour mp ian austin, even though russia responded with outrage, the distinction seemed an important one to several viewers, including graham raines: if that caused a stir among viewers, it was nothing compared to the ongoing row about last thursday's newsnight item on jeremy ongoing row about last thursday's newsnight item onjeremy corbyn‘s attitude to russia, asked week we mentioned complaints that the graphics used in the report and subsequent studio discussion portrayed the labour leader as a kremlin stooge, with a russian style hat that some thought had been digitally alter that. since then the bbc has received thousands more complaints from those adding their voices to that objection, which has

spawned its own hashtag. —— digitally altered hat. many people remained unsatisfied by that explanation, thank you for all your comments, if you want to share your opinion on bbc news and current affairs, or

even appear on the programme, you can call us. you can e—mail us. you can call us. you can e—mail us. you can find us on twitter. have a look at the website. the address for that, above. we are off the air over easter next weekend but we will be back to hear more of your thoughts about bbc news coverage again in a fortnight. goodbye. some pleasant sunshine around today, we some pleasant sunshine around today, we will get more sunshine arriving as the weekend goes on, but there is cloud spreading in from the south—west across england and wales, big enough overnight to give pockets of rain and drizzle, towards the south west more especially. further north, scotland and northern ireland, different story, clear skies, light wind, maybe one or two icy patches, much milderfor england and wales underneath the cloud, quite a cloudy start, many areas will stay that way, low cloud across

southern parts of england, this is where we are southern parts of england, this is where we are more southern parts of england, this is where we are more likely to see rain and drizzle. most places will be drier, sunshine arriving in the far north, sunny skies in scotland and northern ireland away from sharp showers, cries of nine to 11 degrees. better day for england and wales on sunday. more sunshine, patchy cloud, most places will have a dry day, fewer showers in the north—west, the wind will be quite liked, some sunshine, feeling quite pleasant. highs of 12 or 13. this is bbc news.

the headlines at eight... three people have been killed and a policeman is in a critical condition after a gunman took hostages at a supermarket in southern france. the lieutenant colonel from the police, who was with his men, voluntarily swapped himself for a hostage. former labour leadership contender owen smith has been sacked from jeremy corbyn‘s shadow cabinet after calling for a second eu referendum. the high court has granted an application by the information commissioner's office for a warrant to search the london offices of cambridge analytica. the head of the porton down defence laboratory categorically denies russian claims that nerve agent from the site could have been used to poison the former spy in salisbury also this hour — president trump signs a huge