hello this is breakfast, with rachel burden and steph mcgovern. 300 extra officers are being deployed on the streets of london this weekend to tackle a rise in violent crime. more than 50 people have been killed since the start of the year — today there are calls for police to make more use of stop and search powers. good morning, it's saturday the 7th of april. also this morning: how holiday makers are losing out — new figures show booking scams cost over £6.5 million last year. russia warns of a "tough response" after the us imposes sanctions on oligarchs and government officials. predicting trouble prisoners — the ministry ofjustice announces it is gathering digital data on the behaviour of inmates. in sport, all the action from the commonwealth games

here on the gold coast where the medals are pouring for team england this morning — nile wilson took gold in gymnastics manchester city could win the title if they beat manchester united this evening. ben has the weather. temperatures yesterday hit 17 degrees making it the warmest day of the year so far. there is some more warmth in the forecast for today, but, located bill. some rain to come as well. i will have the details 15 minutes. good morning. first, our main story. 300 extra police officers are being deployed in areas of london worst affected by a recent increase in violent crime good morning. six people have been killed in the last week alone, and more than 50 have died

since the start of the year. the move comes as the chair of the national police chiefs‘ council says officers are reluctant to use their powers to stop and search suspects. questions are being asked why violence has increased so rapidly. 0ne claim is that officers are relu cta nt to 0ne claim is that officers are reluctant to use their powers of stop and search. the number has fallen by about three quarters in the last six years. sara thornton, chair of the national police chief counsel, says such services were not a silver bullet but they were an important tool in helping to protect the public from violent crime. waiting in the daily telegraph, she said, this power may have been used to freely in the past but the pentagon has now swung too far in the opposite direction. london's police chief says she was a complete supporter of stop and search but said it needed to be done in a way

that was targeted and intelligence led. you will see that we are receiving more weapons through a stop and search and we continuously doing more stop and search for weapons so doing more stop and search for weapons so although the overall number has come down, the weapons searches are going up and are continuing to go up and the public should expect us to do that. the home office says stop and search is a vital policing tool and reforms are working with the highest ever stop to arrest rate on record. meanwhile, in scotland the number of exclusions from schools for assaults using weapons is the highest it has been for five years. latest figures show there were more than 300 instances of a pupil being excluded for using a weapon to assault another pupil or member of staff. the scottish government says it is working with schools to address the issue. the mother of the murdered black teenager, stephen lawrence, has suggested the police inquiry into his death should be closed. in an interview with the daily mail, lady lawrence, said she wanted to "draw a line" after a memorial service

and concert to mark the 25th anniversary of the killing, on april the 22nd. two men were jailed for murder in 2012. holidaymakers are being warned about fraudsters who place false adverts on accommodation websites, russia's foreign ministry has warned there will be a "tough response" to new us sanctions on businessmen, companies and government officials close to president putin. the white house has imposed sanctions on seven russian oligarchs and 17 senior government officials, accusing them of "malign activity around the globe". 0ur correspondent chris buckler reports. the wealth of russian oligarchs does lie in business. 0leg deripaska became a billionaire from his dealings in aluminium,

but like many of russia's super rich, he's benefited from a relationship with the kremlin. he's just one of a long list of individuals close to vladimir putin targeted by these us sanctions, actions intended to financially punish them and intended to send a message to moscow. in a statement, mr deripaska said: but the white house insists russia has been abusing its power internationally, as well as meddling inside america. as the president has said, he wants to have a good relationship with russia, but that's going to depend on some of the actions by the russians. however, at the same time, the president is going to continue to be tough until we see that change take place. the sanctions are in response to claims that russia interfered in america's presidential election, and in retaliation for the way the country has used its influence

in syria and ukraine. but despite the tough actions, some observers believe donald trump has been relatively quiet, perhaps protecting his own relationship with the russian president. these sanctions were used by america to deliberately target vladimir putin's inner circle. after days of tit—for—tat expulsions and diplomatic disputes, the kremlin will once again be considering its response. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. the texas national guard has begun deploying a team of 250 troops to the us border with mexico. the state of arizona is planning to deploy a further 150. president trump wants up to four—thousand military personnel stationed on the border until his proposed wall is built. lawyers for the former president lula of brazil, are said to be in talks with the authorities over the demand

for him to surrender to police. the left—wing politician has defied a court order to hand himself over by friday afternoon to start a prison sentence for corruption. he's currently holed up in a union building outside sao paulo. canadian police says people have been killed after a collision between a bus carrying junior hockey players and a truck. it happened in the province of saskatchewan. there is no word on the number of deaths. canadian prime minister, justin trudeau tweeted to say his thoughts were "with everyone affected by the terrible tragedy". thousands of prisoners are being rated according to their chances of being involved in violence in an attempt to tackle safety in jails. staff can then use the data to inform decisions — such as which wing an individual is placed in. the system is being piloted at 16 prisons in england and wales. here's our home affairs correspondent tom symonds. the new system has beenjokingly nicknamed "i predict a riot"

by data experts. each time an incident like this happens, it's logged by prison staff. the number—crunching software produces a score of each inmate's likelihood of becoming violent. as well as informing prison governors under pressure to maintain order, it can also be linked to the system of privileges which reward prisoners for good behaviour. the data can that gang affiliations and it can also spot those at risk of self—harm. violence in prison is growing. there were 28,000 assaults in the year to last september, that's up 12%. self—harm is up also 12% to nearly 43,000 incidents. the ministry ofjustice said it will do whatever it can to help hard—pressed governors. it's not collecting more data than before, just using it in clever ways, and the government says monitoring prisoners is vital to protecting them. the plan is to roll out the system

across england and wales after talks with prison unions. tom symonds, bbc news. plans to improve the flying experience for airline passengers have been revealed by the government. measures to make fees more transparent, ease journeys for wheelchair users have been included. another key part of the idea is making it easierfor passengers to claim compensation after delays and cancellations. we're looking at every stage of their journey. there are we're looking at every stage of theirjourney. there are lots of issues, greater constituency of price, greater transparency at the airport, making sure they have a better flying experience and all the way through their journey to arrival. now, meet two best friends who share a love for hiking and the great outdoors. the pair's signature look is ‘the cat hat‘ which has made

henry and baloo a big hit on social media. they travel with their owners across the beautiful landscapes of colorado. the pair, who are both rescue pets, are inseparable. baloo the cat is best known for his unusual sleeping position — on top of henry's head. and you've been sending us in your cat and dog photos. jude hanner emailed this one of her pets maisie, charlie and gertie catching a0 winks together. jayne pickard says if you loook closely you can see her pets arthur and poppy are even holding hands. ok so this doesn't quite meet the brief of cat and dog but it's too cute to leave out. jeff mccrory‘s sent in this photo of his cockapoo puppy jamie with his teddy.

keep sending your pictures in. booking a holiday should be an exciting time, but for thousands it's the start of a nightmare when they realise they've been scammed. last year there was a 25% increase in holiday booking fraud, with the average person losing £1,500 on fake airline tickets and accommodation. our business correspondent nina warhurst has been looking into this. when georgia was looking to take her boyfriend to amsterdam, she thought she'd seemed the perfect apartment online. after transferring more than £900, she realised there was no record of payment and no apartment. your heartjust drops and it's like this panicjust comes over you, it completely takes over your body.

it's, like, "what have i done?" iran out from my desk and i called my mum and i was, like, "what do i do, what do i do? i've made this payment, it's all my fault." she's not the only one. last year, georgia was one of 11,700 holiday—makers who reported fraud, losing an average of £1500. fake flights are the most common trick with fraudsters targeting peak periods when travellers are trying to see friends and family. a lot of the statistics from the report shows a big spike around september, and what does that say to you? it's people going home for christmas. that's certainly our experience from people phoning us saying just that. something they've been looking forward to for quite some time just isn't going to happen. it can be extremely, extremely disappointing. losing a holiday hurts. more than a tenth of those who made complaints said the impact was so severe they'd had to receive medical treatment or were at risk of bankruptcy. the advice for holiday—makers is to thoroughly research websites before booking and check they're part of a recognised trading body.

nina warhurst, bbc news. detective chief inspector alex hayman, from city of london police's national fraud intelligence bureau joins us now. we heard about this problem, it's obviously a problem that is growing. how other fraudsters doing it? often what happens is, they will send unsolicited e—mails and embedded within that is a link that looks to be illegitimate holiday site. if you click on the link it will take you to that holiday site and from there, the fraudster will elicit the money from you, so the advice around that is do not respond to unsolicited e—mails. if you're interested in the offer, do some independent research and check you are dealing with a judgment company. that is one straightway advice protecting

yourself. i have heard of people booking accommodation and finding at some stage during the process, their money has been filtered off to a hamster, how does that happen? 0ften, hamster, how does that happen? often, if this can all fraudster has managed to get access to the site and sometimes they will request payment directly to a bank account as opposed to going through the company involved. that is potentially a legitimate business transaction, i would suggest if anybody asks for that, that is indication you may want to make additional checks because you do get security using a credit card. sometimes it can be so hard to spot if something is fake because they are getting more and more sophisticated with how they are convincing us of how these are real fights, so how can we stop this?”

totally agree. earlier this year i was putting my holiday to a far—flung place and because of the range of holiday providers, i was immediately suspicious when i started to see these names of companies i don't know. doing some additional checks on the internet around the company, you may get an indication that that company has had issues reported against it and also maybe using the telephone number to check the company to check. the problem is, at this time of year, people are desperate to bug that family holiday and it is not only a financial investment, it is an emotional investment. that moment of vulnerability you have when you're just about to click to see if,, just ta ke just about to click to see if,, just take a step back from that moment and say, does this feel right? is this offer too good to be true? if it is, but should indicate their art other tricks you should be doing. if you come across a site which you

believe is a scam, please report it to action fraud because then we can use our team to try and take down websites. that is also an issue because a lot of people are embarrassed that they have been caught out. a lot of the time, these are people who are internet savvy. you think you're doing a great deal and when you discover you have been had, having to confess to that or put your hand up to it, you might be more reluctant to do so.” put your hand up to it, you might be more reluctant to do so. i totally understand that but i guarantee you, everybody in this building could become a victim of these frauds, myself into that. it is just having that moment where you see, does this feel right? that is properly our biggest weapon to use against the fraudsters. anybody could become a victim of this so do not be a

marathon vote reporting it and at least we can protect other victims. what do you do in the first case, is that the first thing you do if you find out you have lost money through a fraudster, is that contact you quys a fraudster, is that contact you guys straightaway or is there anything else people should be doing? i would contact action fraud immediately. the report will come through to the intelligence bureau and there is work we can do to try to protect other victims. how long does that take, before people get their money back? getting the money backis their money back? getting the money back is a tough one because it depends on the whole circumstances of the case. there is no guarantee about people returning their money and we have to focus really on protecting people in the future because we get about 43,000 counts of fraud every single month. every month? 43,000 reports involving fraud every month reported to us and

the national fraud fraud every month reported to us and the nationalfraud intelligence bureau has the assembly all that information and try and target our resources of the police forces against fraud as best we can. you're watching breakfast from bbc news. the main stories this morning: 300 extra police officers are being deployed in parts of london after six people were killed in the city over the past seven days. thousands of holidaymakers are being defrauded, with booking scams on the increase. people lost almost £7 million on fake airline tickets and accommodation last year. the weather was loud when we were in

the car yesterday, so that was my eusebio sacristan. some sunshine and some warmth, more of those things to come today. our weather watchers have been out already. it is not quite as straightforward as that. yes, it will be milder this weekend. we will see some sunshine but generally large amounts of cloud and we have to add into the mix from outbreaks of rain at times. the satellite picture shows is a pipeline of cloud test slung out across the british isles and along this pipeline of cloud, we will see rain running from the south to the north. this is the recent radar picture. another batch of heavy rain across the south—west into wales. as we go through the

day, all of these areas of wet weather will drift further northwards but in between, a fair amount of dry weather. large areas of cloud but spells of sunshine and in the best of the brightness is will feel pretty mild, even one in places. aberdeen for example, up to 14 degrees. large to try for scotla nd 14 degrees. large to try for scotland through the afternoon. some are bricks of heavy rain pushing into northern ireland and southern scotla nd into northern ireland and southern scotland and some really heavy downpours through the abdomen. to the south of that, we're into dry weather through the end of the day. where we get some breaks and holes in the cloud, you see some sunshine and that is where temperatures could once again get up to 17 degrees. during this evening and tonight, we push the rain across northern england, northern ireland and scotla nd england, northern ireland and scotland further northwards. behind it, lots of dry weather. you will see some patchy mist and fog and low cloud developing. temperatures are

not dipping too far, five to 8 degrees. remember the pipeline of cloud i should you, that is as easy asa cloud i should you, that is as easy as a front that will wriggle close to us as we go through the day tomorrow. most likely that whether front will bring rain in towards the south east. pretty showery rain, not reading all the time. everywhere else, largely dry conditions tomorrow. large areas of cloud but that should break up to give some sunny spells here and there. equally, a gathering of hefty showers in northern ireland and parts of scotland. that mild feel continues and it stays mild as we go into the start of the new week. an easterly wind but despite that, it will not be particularly cold stop for most of us, some rain at times in the south but dry weather as well, so a real mixed bag over the next few days but at least it'll be mild. police in london are blaming social media for fuelling a recent

surge of violence in the capital. it's led to questions over the responsibilities of the sites in taking offensive and violent material down, before it can influence activity on the streets. tolu adeoye reports. it's been suggested online that the fight in this video which was shared on social media may have set off a chain of events that led to the death of 17—year—old on monday night. it comes as the government called today for internet companies to do more to read their platforms of co nte nt to do more to read their platforms of content that fuelled youth violence. this is a typical type of video? this video has been viewed nearly 65,000 times. they will get ten or so guys in the video, sometimes more, covering theirfaces to make them look more scary, so the

point is to show, we've got guns. this will spill out into violence? definitely. these guys are going into postcode areas and trying to kick the postcode down and if you listen to the lyrics, is talking about, if you do this, this is what we will do to you. it doesn't even have to be somebody you have beef with, they just want to start have to be somebody you have beef with, theyjust want to start beef because remember, they earn their respect by the violence they create. bobby is a former gang member. football, he now helps young men. he says social media has made things far worse than when he was a teenager. things go viral really quickly. news spreads and when you we re quickly. news spreads and when you were younger, you wouldn't even know that somebody went into a fight. whereas now you hear of a tough person in a certain area and you wouldn't know what they look like. now because everyone has seen, they think, maybe we will embarrass him.

they want to get a reputation for themselves and it goes everywhere and that is how it spreads. but what you are seeing now? definitely, it isa you are seeing now? definitely, it is a lot to do with money. everyone lives wa nts is a lot to do with money. everyone lives wants to live in luxury life but it is just the way everyone is going about it which is wrong. but it is just the way everyone is going about it which is wrongm but it is just the way everyone is going about it which is wrong. it is already an offence to assist violence online. the government says it is finalising plans begin to a new strategy to tackle serious violence. it will examine how social media drive set. it says it will build on its relationships with social media providers as well as the police to see what preventative action can be taken. there is a whole raft of reasons why young people are getting into violence. we have to tackle police cuts, cuts to education. we cannot arrest are ways out of this but social media companies have a role to play. there are not acting and i think therefore

is the role of government and parliament to put in place legislation. snap chad told us it has a zero tolerance policy towards content that threatens or intimidate. youtube says it has developed policy to tackle knife crime. two more families mourn the teenage children, there are questions again for our society about what can be done to save young lives. this butterfly you can see behind us was one of sir winston churchill's favourites, but it became extinct in the uk in the mid—19205. now a wildlife charity says the changing climate means the black—veined white butterfly could make a return. joining us now from southampton is professor tom brereton, head of monitoring at ‘butterfly conservation‘. this is to do with warmer weather,

isn‘t it? tell us where you think this is coming from? butterfly became extinct in the 1920s so over a period of recent decades with climate change, the climate has got warmer and we have done some research that suggests the climate is now suitable for the butterfly. how will it work? will suddenly appear? has somebody seen them? what happens? we think the average climate is now suitable sill what we have done is gone to the nearest parts of europe where the butterfly still survives and study its ecology there to see if the habitat conditions could be replicated in the uk. this is, as we said, one that was particularly associated with winston churchill, so tell us about that. yes, he was fascinated by the butterfly am not surprisingly. it is a spectacular

butterfly. it has a wingspan of seven centimetres. it is one of the biggest butterfly is ever to have lived in britain and he probably saw it on his travels through europe. it is quite a common species and then he was so excited, he made a reintroduction attempt for this butterfly in kent in the 1940s. given your role, assessing the whole butterfly population, how are we doing across the uk at the moment? we‘re not doing so well, i‘m afraid. seven out of ten butterfly species that are either declining in range 01’ that are either declining in range or abundance so it is they gimme picture, i‘m afraid. or abundance so it is they gimme picture, i'm afraid. what can be done about that? we need to tackle the white spread problems that butterflies have thrived the countryside. the main problems seemed to be pollution and climate change so there is a lot of policy work we need to do to try and make

the countryside a less hospitable, a more hospitable environment butterflies. is there anything people can do at home in terms of their garden, to entice them as mike absolutely, gardens are important habitats of butterflies so we can all begina habitats of butterflies so we can all begin a contribution by doing things in the garden. a good tip is to plant a patch of ivy along a wall. that is a good place for butterflies and also a good nectar source but also having wishes and if you need trees and shrubs and allowing trees and shrubs to flower right through the season will benefit butterflies as well. as well as leaving some of your lawn and cut toa as leaving some of your lawn and cut to a wild flowers as leaving some of your lawn and cut to a wildflowers and grasses to flourish. do you have a favourite butterfly? i studied the griddle skipper so that is my favourite. what does it look like? it is very

small, a black and white butterfly. from about now and a couple of months in the spring.” from about now and a couple of months in the spring. i will look out for that! i love gardening when it is basically, just let it grow. coming up in the next half hour: we‘ll get a round up of the action from the commonwealth games with mike who‘s in the gold coast. stay with us, headlines coming up. hello, this is breakfast

with rachel burden and steph mcgovern. here‘s a summary of today‘s main stories from bbc news. 300 extra police officers are being deployed in areas of london worst affected by a recent increase in violent crime among young people. six people have been killed in the last week, and more than 50 have died since the start of the year. the move comes as the chair of the national police chiefs‘ council says officers are reluctant to use their powers to stop and search suspects because of political correctness. meanwhile, in scotland the number of exclusions from schools for assaults using weapons, is the highest it has been for five years. latest figures show there were more than 300 instances of a pupil being excluded for using a weapon to assault another pupil or member of staff.

the scottish government says it is working with schools to address the issue. the mother of the murdered black teenager, stephen lawrence, has suggested the police inquiry into his death should be closed. in an interview with the daily mail, lady lawrence, said she wanted to "draw a line" after a memorial service and concert to mark the 25th anniversary of the killing, on april the 22nd. two men were jailed for murder in 2012. scotland yard says a pensioner arrested on suspicion of murdering a burglar in his home will not face criminal charges. richard osborn—brooks, who‘s 78, discovered two intruders at his home in south—east london on wednesday. one of them, 37—year—old henry vincent from kent, was stabbed and died nearby. detectives dropped the investigation after consulting the crown prosecution service. lawyers for the former president lula of brazil are said to be in talks with the authorities over the demand

for him to surrender to police. the left—wing politician has defied a court order to hand himself over by friday afternoon, to start a prison sentence for corruption. he‘s currently holed up in a union building outside sao paulo. holidaymakers are being warned about fraudsters who place false adverts on accommodation websites, conning them out of £1,500 each on average. last year, there was a 25 % increase in the scams, which included fake airline tickets. the national fraud intelligence bureau suggest this is having a significant impact on the health of many victims. the texas national guard has begun deploying a team of 250 troops to the us border with mexico. president trump wants up to 4,000 military personnel stationed on the border until his proposed wall is built. thousands of prisoners are being rated according to their chances of being involved in violence, in an attempt to tackle safety in jails. staff can then use the data

to inform decisions, such as what wing an individual is placed in. the system is being piloted at 16 prisons in england and wales. there has been a gold rush on the gold coast. it was another busy night for uk teams in the commonwealth games, with australia‘s gold coast living up to its name for team england. mike is there with all the latest from the games and the rest of your sport. he is ona he is on a beach looking rather fabulous. keep your clothes on, mike! don't worry! is cooling down a bit now. the sun is going behind the skyscrapers. it is the busiest day on the beach i have seen so far. it is the weekend. schools are out. lots of families playing in the sea. it is the busiest day so far in the commonwealth games. 22 medals up for

grabs. three have been won bike team england. first we need to concentrate on matters back on. a huge stay ahead in manchester, where manchester city can win the premier league title if they can beat their neighbours and rivals manchester united. if they can do it, they would be the team to do it with most games left than any the team in history. david 0rnstein reports. for so many years, manchester‘s footballing landscape was ruled by the red of united, but the rise of their neighbours has been unrelating and now blue is the colour, city the dominant force. their local and national superiority poised to be confirmed with the premier league title. i‘m so happy with what we have done so far. at home, the people can come, like, all the season, full stadiums, support the guys because they deserve it. they deserve all the credit, they deserve... because we defend that badge, that club the best way as possible. it‘s here at the etihad stadium that city will hope to celebrate an historic achievement.

never before has the premier league been won as early as the seventh of april, nor have the champions of england been crowned with as many as six games to spare. this side is something... i've never seen anything like before, the football that's played is quite amazing and every player has got the confidence and the ability to play the way that pep guardiola wants them to play. this is probably the best manchester city side there's ever been. with their dazzling style of play, guardiola‘s men have drawn comparisons with some of the greatest teams from down the years. beaten only once in the league, 16 points clear of second place united. to understand that, the number of points we have we would normally be in the fight for the title. and we are not because city has a very good number of points. that makes very, very difficult to the second to be fighting

for the title, which we are not in this moment. defeat by liverpool in midweek dented city‘s european aspirations, but they‘ll have a second chance on tuesday, and will approach that game in the highest of spirits if they can clinch the title with victory over their arch rivals. david 0rnstein, bbc news, manchester. wales manager jayne ludlow said their goalless draw againt england in their women‘s world cup qualifier in southampton, was probably the best result in their history. they‘re a side still in development — and it could have been even better for them, had natasha harding‘s effort not been cleared of the line. wales still top the group, but england can overtake them if they beat bosnia on tuesday. what a weekend it is of sport. we‘re at the halfway stage in the masters golf.

tiger woods made the cut, but, not surprisingly, defending champion sergio garcia missed it. he was way off the mark. he had an awful first round. rory mcilroy is still in contention, as he chases the only major title he‘s yet to win. he‘s five shots behind the leader patrick reed of the united states, who shot a six under par round of 66, to fly to the top of the leaderboard. mcilroy picked up just one shot and let some birdie chances slip by, but he was happy to have gone round under par. i‘m right there, you know, i‘ve given myself a chance. it‘s now a 36—hole golf tournament. i don‘t know where i‘ll quite be at the end of the day, i might be a couple back going into the weekend but i‘m in a good position. back to the commonwealth games. what a busy day it has been already so

far, especially for england, who have picked up three more gold medals. in the para triathlon and the gymnastics. the gold rush on the gold coast continues. in the gymnastics hall, nile wilson‘s fans were out in force and their man delivered. the all—around title, six apparatus to contend with... commentator: he is so aware in the air. ..and he worked his way to the top of the leaderboard on the final one. commentator: nile wilson, you might as well smile and come on. a gold medal and a proud moment for his family. the emotion of where he was in the competition, the start of the competition, the middle of the competition, versus where he finished on the high bar wasjust awesome, just incredible. cheering hang on, you're gate—crashing our interview, son. my family are the reason i‘m out here today doing what i do and i want to thank everyone at home supporting, if you stayed up to watch, thank you so much, have a drink for me. he‘ll be celebrating alongside

team—mate james hall, just pipped by wilson into second to make it an england 1—2. and the medals didn‘t stop coming, former royal marinejoe townsend lost both of his legs in afghanistan ten years ago. today he won the para—triathalon. commentator: and jade jones wins the women‘s. a golden double for england, now could the mixed relay team complete the full set? all four have to complete their own mini triathlons. vicky holland led england off and into the lead. australia were their rivals for the top spot as the lead switched between the two nations. but by the time alistair brownlee was in action, the gap was just too big to close. gold to australia, but for the home teams on the gold coast, there‘ll be plenty more opportunities to come. alex gulrajani, bbc news. in the last half hour or so, zoe smith has won a silver medal for england in the women‘s 63kg weightlifting. quite an achievement considering her

back injury and funding cuts. smith won gold in the 58k in glasgow four years ago, but was delighted with a silver this time round despite a back injury. earlierjack 0liver also claimed a silverfor england in the men‘s 77 kilogram category. a big shock in the squash tournament. top seed laura massaro is out after losing the tesni evans of wales. evans, who is the british champion, has now beaten massaro in their last three meetings, and faces another englishwoman, sarahjane—perry, in the last four. gareth evans might have been picking up a medal for gymnastics this morning, if his early ambitions had come to fruition. gareth, congratulations. thank you. talk us through what it has been like? you have been building up to this medalfor 20 like? you have been building up to this medal for 20 years? yes. the last 24 are as had been a blur, really. i didn‘t get much sleep last night. the body was knackered but my head was wide awake. you may win the

award for the best celebrations so far. what was going through your mind? you ran around the back of the crowd and picked up your coach. that is 16 years of hard work we are putting together to be here. 0ut is 16 years of hard work we are putting together to be here. out of 20 years i have worked with him 16. it was very special. so much hard work goes into this. you were a painter and decorator until 2011, and you still work full—time at bangor university. yeah. it is work five days a week. 38 hours. into the gym. spend time with my little girl and my partner. it is pretty action packed. what is the reaction been like from home and from friends and family? it has been crazy. my twitter broke yesterday. itjust froze. it wouldn‘t work. just trying

to get through everything. white to be wales‘ first gold medallist in this is special? definitely. it has been the aim to pick up a commonwealth medalfor been the aim to pick up a commonwealth medal for years. to been the aim to pick up a commonwealth medalfor years. to do it is special. zoe smith has won silver, despite all her problems. yeah, i watched snatch before i came down here. jack has had terrible luck with injuries. he had a bad dislocation. to see him back on the platform winning medals is fantastic as well. this is a stepping stone to the olympics may be? don't say that to me yet! i enjoy weightlifting, as you can probably tell. that was not expected! we will get back to mike 0regan. we have lost the line. we

will bejoining him added later in the programme. here‘s ben with a look at this morning‘s weather. it looks gorgeous on the gold coast but i don‘t think we can expect it here. i will try and inject a bit of excitement. it is nothing like it is on the gold coast, obviously. we have got some sunshine to come year through the weekend. not too much to be found in eastbourne. cloudy scenes. look at the picture in aberdeenshire. beautiful blue skies. it is that mixed bag of whether that ta kes it is that mixed bag of whether that takes us through the weekend. it will be mild. there will be spelt of sunshine. equally, outbreaks of ring. courtesy of this pipeline of cloud. you can see it quite clearly on the satellite picture. this area of cloud wriggling around, sitting in place across the british isles. at times it will bring outbreaks of

rain. this is the recent radar picture. rain moving across the far north of scotland. this next area of rain into the west midlands seems pretty heavy in places. showers pushing towards the south—east. as we go through the day we will take all these different areas of wet weather and push them further north. in between there will be a lot of cloud. but equally, some spells of sunshine. let‘s look at the weather for this afternoon. in northern scotla nd for this afternoon. in northern scotland it will be dry. some spells of sunshine. 14 degrees in aberdeen. white in southern scotland. hefty downpours in northern ireland, maybe some hail and thunder. further south things will be drying out. where you get some breaks in the cloud, perhaps across east anglia, for example, temperatures could get up to 17 degrees. during this evening and tonight, the area wet weather will drift across northern england,

northern ireland and scotland, eventually fizzling away. behind it, clear skies, but mist and fog patches. cabbage is not dropping to four, between five and 8 degrees. —— temperatures macro. the cold front will be in the south—east of the country. showery rain at times during sunday. elsewhere, a lot of dry weather. certainly as we start the day. mist and fog patches will tend to clear. large areas of cloud. that will break up at times to allow some sunshine through. hefty showers in the afternoon for a northern ireland and northern scotland. wherever you look across the map, temperatures macro into double digits. —— temperatures. a quick look ahead to the new working week. very changeable and unsubtle. rain towards the south. a keen breeze which will make a chilly close to

the east coast. generally speaking, we stick with the mild theme. as far as the weekend weather prospects go, it is mixed. sunshine and some rain at times. it will be fairly mild. that is all for now. thank you. you are off to the north—east. yes. what will it be like? it should be all right. by the time you get there this afternoon the rain will be moving in. the rain will be following you. not the time for flip—flops than? probably not! commonwealth games going on at the moment. we have golf as well, the masters. and a massive football game. manchester united versus manchester city today, to decide the premier league title. you could hear commentary of that at half past five.

loads to catch up on. we will get back to mike later. we‘ll be back wih the headlines at eight. now though on breakfast, it‘s time for newswatch. hello, and welcome to newswatch with 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. how bbc 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 were further criticisms this week over the labour leader‘s handling of abusive anti—jewish messages on facebook and on tuesday ben wright reported on his attendance at passover dinner

organised by the left wing group, jewdas. do you regret going to that dinner last night? not in the slightest. in politics every choice matters, decisions sent a signal, and jeremy corbyn‘s choice to organise a passover event celebrated by a left—wing group has brought about anger in the broader jewish 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: and susan parks agreed: 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 adina campbell. speaking exclusively to the bbc tanesha‘s brother says the family are devastated. i‘d just come up from 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? i saw her today. ray cornish was watching

and had this reaction. and susan bates found the item "disgusting". she wrote: now, it has long been the case that you are more likely to see or hear a man interviewed on a news programme than a woman. news editors might argue that most senior 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 city university

research find there were more male than female experts on programmes? things have changed since all male discussion panels were the norm, but audiences still detect a lack of balance when a special edition of newsnight recalled that a problem there was a panel with only three women on a panel of 17 people. 0utside source, shown daily on bbc world news has for more than a year been monitoring the gender of those featured on its programme. it has since been seen to have achieved an equal balance. more than 80 other bbc programmes are now taking part in what the bbc is calling the 50—50 challenge. and this week the corporation announced its aim to achieve

an equal gender split in what it called "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." others had reservations, several along these lines. or as this twitter user put it: this is the presenter of outside source, ros atkins. welcome to newswatch. how difficult was this when you started doing it? that was back in 2016. back in 2016 i was looking at what you have alluded to, that there are more men in news programmes than women. i should say the bbc doesn‘t particularly have a gender problem,

news media more broadly has an issue it needs to take on. my challenge was before talking about other programmes i needed to prove this was possible so i said to the team who make 0utside 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, we would share that data, and i was convinced that seeing that data 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 the next year 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 it, that made a difference.

we also studied the 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 0utside 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 diversifying our contacts but i wouldn‘t say the hike in workload tough. the benefit of diversifying your contacts is that you don‘tjust benefit on that day when you find someone new, you go back to them time after time. so you did get to 50—50 quite 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 is, i‘ve been having lots of conversations with programmes saying, look,

we‘ve got a system based around data collection which is effective. why don‘t 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 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, like 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 say there are shifts, these are real shifts. some viewers say there is an obsession with numbers, there could be a compromise. the golden rule is that the best guest always goes on air. so there‘s no compromise on quality.

and if on any given day the best guest means that there were 65% men, that‘s fine. we have no issue with that. there‘s no pressure to hit a quota. it‘s not a quota. 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 reach a balance of men and women. because surely we‘re not saying that there are more men informed in the world than women, that there are more men expert in things than women. i don‘t think we accept that. across a reasonably long period like a month, it‘s a reasonable expectation to aspire to have an equally or reasonably equally close number of men and women. ros atkins, thank you. finally last sunday‘s newspaper review on 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 it says government sources indicated the gibraltar—based company go ahead with the launch the government might look at imposing a post—brexit tariff on emojis. a few minutes later a slightly sheepish rogerjohnson returned to the subject. a couple of people have pointed this out that today is of course the 1st of april. this story in the observer about the emojis that we were discussing, as someone said "very enthusiastically" here, is written by, if you come across here, thejournalist who wrote it is called shirzo primavera which means ‘joke of spring.‘ why did we not get that! a number of viewers asked that

question but mark had a more sympathetic response: thank you for all your comments. to share your opinions on bbc news and current affairs or appear on the programme, call us, or e—mail us. find us on twitter and look at our website, the address is bbc.co.uk/newswatch. we‘ll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage once more next week. goodbye. hello this is breakfast, with rachel burden and steph mcgovern. 300 extra officers are being deployed on the streets of london this weekend to tackle a rise in violent crime. more than 50 people have been killed since the start of the year — today there are calls for police to make more use of stop and search powers. good morning it‘s

saturday 7th april. also this morning: russia warns of a "tough response" after the us imposes sanctions on oligarchs and government officials. predicting trouble prisoners — the ministry ofjustice announces it is gathering digital data on the behaviour of inmates. how holiday makers are losing out — new figures show booking scams cost over £65 million last year. good morning from australia, where