so buried in the centre of the ring, so to avoid defiling that space females are not allowed in the ring. the sport of sumo is centuries old and still contains many ancient rituals but some have accused it of failing to modernise. this latest incident is unlikely to end such criticism. the japan sumo association apologised, saying the decision was made by a referee who was upset that it was an inappropriate act in a situation that involves 1's life. an embarrassing episode for sports trying to rebuild its image in the wa ke trying to rebuild its image in the wake of recent scandals including match fixing, gambling and various high profile cases of assault. the mayor meanwhile is recovering in hospital, in part thanks to the actions of female medics who dared to step into the ring. caroline rigby, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news. richard osborn—brooks — arrested on suspicion of murdering a suspected burglar — has been released without charge. sergei skripal, the former russian spy, is no longer

in a critical condition and is responding well to treatment. the met police commissioner offers reassurance to londoners, after a string of murders. now it's time for newswatch. this week samira ahmed examines plans for equal numbers of male and female contributors to bbc news programmes. hello, and welcome to newswatch with me samira ahmed. bbc news says it's aiming fora 50—50 me samira ahmed. bbc news says it's aiming for a 50—50 gender balance of expert contributors to its programmes. we ask how and why. and well and truly got out. a bbc brea kfast well and truly got out. a bbc breakfast presenters fell for an aprilfool in the breakfast presenters fell for an april fool in the papers. breakfast presenters fell for an aprilfool in the papers. first breakfast presenters fell for an april fool in the papers. first the row overjeremy corbyn‘s response to

an anti—semitic mural was widely covered on bbc news last week. there we re covered on bbc news last week. there were further criticisms this week over the labour leader's handling of abusive anti jewish messages on facebook and on tuesday then write reported on mystical than‘s attendance at passover dinner organised by the left wing group, jewdas. not in the slightest. and politics every choice matters, decisions sent a signal and jeremy corbyn ‘s choice to organise a pass of the event celebrated by a left—wing group has brought about anger in the broaderjewish community. in the last fortnight hundreds of viewers have contacted the bbc saying the issue of anti—semitism in the labour party has been blown out of all proportion. steve williams wrote on wednesday, i watched in disbelief that the bbc again seemed to be taking part in a witchhunt against jeremy corbyn. several times

yesterday it ran in these bees labelling jewdas a radical left—wing jewish group as opposed to mainstream jewish organisations. the implication was that his visit to this group was somehow anti—semitic. what has he done wrong by attending this dinner. was it the wrong type ofjuve? if so who is being prejudiced now? and susan parks agreed, anti—semitism is bad like any racism and needs to be dealt with yet the bbc seems moderating and has a virus in its anti—jeremy corbyn position than other broadcasters. —— is a virus. this is no longer news. the bbc has also reported on the spate of violent crime in london, with more than 50 killings in the capital this year, one victim of a drive—by shooting on monday was 17—year—old tanesha melbourne whose death was covered by a dealer campbell. speaking exclusively to the bbc tanesha's brother says the family are devastated. i'd just come

brother says the family are devastated. i'djust come up brother says the family are devastated. i'd just come up from university, like, i didn't have a clue. tanesha, she wasjust in university, like, i didn't have a clue. tanesha, she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, i don't have a clue, man. when did you get to see her afterwards?” don't have a clue, man. when did you get to see her afterwards? i saw her today. ray cornish was watching and have this reaction. the young man was clearly distressed and may have said it was ok to interview him that although he had broken down during the interview the reporter persisted. he was clearly in shock. please don't fall into the gutter with the rest. and susan bates had the item "disgusting". she wrote, i dislike all the interviews of victims, friends and family immediately after a tragedy or even during it, it is not needed and intrusive. we just get the same sentiments and information so we

gain nothing. now it has long been the case that you are more likely to see or hear a man interviewed on a news programme and a woman. news editors might argue that most senior politicians and business leaders for insta nce politicians and business leaders for instance are male but when choosing contributors because of their knowledge and experience rather than their position, there is a wider pool to draw on. so why did recent university research find there were more female than male experts on his progress. things have changed since all mail discussion panels were the norm, but audiences still detect a lack of balance when a special edition of newsnight recall that a problem there was a panel with only three women on a problem of 17 people. outside source, showing

daily on bbc world news has more than a year been the gender of those featured on its programme. it has since to be since achieved an equal balance. problems including the one show and the news at ten is now taking part in what the bbc are calling the 50—50 challenge. and this week the corporation announced its aim to achieve an equal gender split in what it called equal expert voices by next year. some members of the audience applauded the move, with one writing on twitter, the bbc has a gender equity problem, change is overdue. yet others have reservations, several along these lines. rather than worrying about gender and whether the split is even you could just put the best person regardless of gender. or as this twitter user put it, oh great you are the leading expert in this subject but we can't put you on because we have exceeded our man

quota. this is the prison death outside source, ros atkins. welcome to newswatch. hope difficult was this when you started doing it? that was back in 2016. back in 2016i was looking at what you have alluded to, that there are more men in news programmes than women. i think the bbc doesn't particularly have a gender problem, news media more broadly has an issue it needs to ta ke broadly has an issue it needs to take on. my challenge was before talking about other problems i needed to prove this was possible so isaid to needed to prove this was possible so i said to the team who make outside source why don't we try to do this. and the core idea of the proposal, to them, was that we would measure the people coming on to our programme every day, immediately after broadcast from whichever state andi after broadcast from whichever state and i was convinced that seeing that state would inform us better about the challenge, it would engage us better about the issue and it would increase motivation which in turn

would help our approach to it. and to my immense excitement we went from 39% of women injanuary and by april 20 17th we reached 51% of women. how difficult was that to do. quite difficult, part of it was a mindset where we went from sometimes thinking about the issue to everyday thinking about the issue to everyday thinking about the issue to everyday thinking about it, that made a difference. we also studied the subject areas where we found we a lwa ys subject areas where we found we always spoke to men. so for instance outside source covers iraq and syria most days and almost always we have been turning to men so we sat down and went, there are many brilliant women offering an analysis in these countries, let's contact them and see when they would be available, let's involve them in our coverage. if you watch outside source now and see us cover iraq if you watch outside source now and see us cover iraq and syria more times than not you'll see a woman. so there was work in terms of diversified our contacts but i wouldn't say the hike in workload tough. the benefit of diversified

and contacts is that you don'tjust benefit on that day when you find someone new, you go benefit on that day when you find someone new, you go back to them time after time. so you did get to 50-50 time after time. so you did get to 50—50 quad quickly. the idea is now being rolled out across bbc news and some high profile programmes including the one show. how will it work. how it works as i've been having lots of conversations with programmes saying we've got a system based around did a collection which is effective. but if you try it. we don't count the presenters because the networks control them and we don't count people connected to that day's story. so if i run a clip of theresa may on the programme we don't count it because we have no control over who the prime minister is. beyond that we have seen the numbers of women going on to the numbers of women going on to the numbers of women going on to the numbers of programmes on this 50—50 project changing markedly and that change is real, just because we not counting the small number of people over whom the bbc has no control, an

eyewitness, a police spokesperson, prime minister, the bulk of these programmes are made up of experts and reporters and all those people are being counted so when we show that there are shifts, the real shifts. —— when we say that a shifts, these are real shifts. some say there obsession with numbers, there could be in compromise. the golden rule is that the best guest a lwa ys golden rule is that the best guest always goes on air. so there's no on quality. and if on any given day the best guest would mean that there we re best guest would mean that there were 65% man, that's fine. we have noissue were 65% man, that's fine. we have no issue with that. there's no pressure to hit a quota. not a good. we say we will measure across one month, reasonably long time allowing for the ebb and flow of news and the availability of guests, and we say it is reasonable, over a month for a lot of programmes to which a balance of men and women. because surely we are not saying that there are more men informed in the world than women, that there are more men

expert in things that matter than women. i don't think we accept that. across the reasonably long period like a reasonable expectation to aspire to have an equally or reasonably equally close and above man and woman. ros atkins, thank you. finally last sunday's newspaper review and cup next breakfast included this. a great story about how you can choose your emerging post—brexit. the british bulldog is on one side and the eu flag with starry eyes, what did you make of this. i love this story, the minute i saw this i thought we have to do this. i loved it that at the end of the story and says government sources indicated the gibraltar —based company go ahead with the launch the government might look up posing a post—brexit tariff on emerges. a few minutes later a slightly sheepish rogerjohnson returned to the subject. a couple of

people have pointed this out that todayis people have pointed this out that today is of course the ist of april. this story in the observer about the emerges that we were discussing, as someone emerges that we were discussing, as someone said very enthusiastically here, is written by, if you come across here, thejournalist who wrote it is called primavera which meansjoke of wrote it is called primavera which means joke of spring. why did we wrote it is called primavera which meansjoke of spring. why did we not get that! and number of viewers asked that question but mark had a more sympathetic response pointing out that it is increasingly difficult to tell which news is aprilfool difficult to tell which news is april fool related and which is simply fall related! thank you for all your comments. to share your opinions on bbc news and current affairs or appear on the programme, called us, or e—mail us. find us on twitter and look at our website, the address is bbc .co .uk slash

newswatch. we'll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage once more next week. goodbye. despite the cloudy weather today, more cloudy than yesterday, it was actually the warmest day of the year so actually the warmest day of the year so far, temperatures reaching 17 degrees in london but that'sjust london, for most of us it was fresher than that, as the forecast for tonight, some rain in north—west scotland, otherwise for most of us it is dry at least her time on saturday morning, we are expecting rain to move through bristol, cardiff, perhaps to manchester into newcastle, so there will be a spell of rain moving across the west of the uk during the day, still reaching 1617 in the south, around the teams in the north, a look at the teams in the north, a look at the weather on sunday, there will be

another spell hasn't across south—western areas. for most of us they will be a fair bit of dry weather during the and mild. —— doing this is bbc news. the headlines at 8pm. richard osborn—brooks — arrested on suspicion of murdering a suspected burglar — has been released without charge. sergei skripal, the former russian spy, is no longer in a critical condition and is responding well to treatment. the foreign office has refused his niece a visa to come to the uk and visit her relatives in hospital. the met police commissioner offers reassurance to londoners, after a string of murders. we have not lost control of the streets. i understand why some people are worried. in particularly in some areas of london. palestinian sources say israeli troops have killed at least six people and wounded more than 400, in renewed violence on gaza's border with israel. campaigners have hailed

the introduction of a tax on sugary soft drinks. also in the next hour, controversy at the sumo wrestling.