yesterday morning was the same line. yesterday morning was the same thing we have had for 2.5 years now, people expressing their opinions on brussels, brexit and what's going to happen and what might happen, doom and gloom, it went on and on. it is people's fears and hopes, but mainly fears, the most depressing thing of all. please, try to get away and tell us actual facts on what the agreements are or are not. before the trip to salzburg this week, theresa may gave special access to her routine at number ten and today presenter and former political editor with nick robinson all on monday night's panorama. the deadline's looming. theresa may has just got weeks left to secure a brexit deal with the eu and to get it through parliament. for the last

fortnight, we have been filming with her behind—the—scenes. fortnight, we have been filming with her behind-the-scenes. good morning, nick. good morning, prime minister. thank you for the lift. rare access to the prime minister, but was there an ethical cost? some thought so, describing the programme as a —— cypriots and a puff piece for theresa may —— cypriots. i am joined by nick robinson in the westminster studio. thank you for coming on newswatch. you spend quite a bit of time with the prime minister last week, travelling in her car, you eavesdropped on the meeting, you even sat with her and her husband watching tv. when you say a deal it is no different to any interview with a senior politician. we say we wa nt with a senior politician. we say we wantan with a senior politician. we say we want an interview and they say we are prepared to be in an interview on the estate and in these circumstances. obviously in this case we circumstances. obviously in this case we said, could we have some

access case we said, could we have some a ccess as case we said, could we have some access as well, behind—the—scenes access, and we got more access as well, behind—the—scenes access, and we got more access access as well, behind—the—scenes access, and we got more access than you would normally get. we were explicit in the script and i was explicit in the script and i was explicit in the script and i was explicit in writing when i wrote about this and i have thought about it that obviously access is really what they want to give you. and indeed we showed in panorama at one stage how we were filming the beginning of a cabinet meeting on the no deal preparation and we were thrown out and the door was closed. my thrown out and the door was closed. my feeling always is that access is fine to do on tv provided you are explicit with the audience about what you are seeing and what you are not. presumably, though the prime minister's director of communications at robbie diack would have played a part in arranging this, he once ran bbc westminster, some are very uncomfortable about this, you are effectively doing the prime minister's pr fodder. frankly it is an absurd criticism. any politician who comes to do the interview is doing it because they have a purpose and they want to communicate a message. they are doing it at a time of their choosing

otherwise they wouldn't agree to do it in the first place. they are doing it because they want to get the message across. they choose what they say when their mouth open. any arrangement to do any programme is of course partly on the terms of the politician and their spin doctors, press officers, director of communications, call them what you will. what we as journalists have to decide is the interest for viewers, listeners, is their interest for those who want to see these people, andi those who want to see these people, and i think to see the prime minister questioned on the criticisms of the chequers deal that she had, from remainers and coming from leavers, from within her own party which might deny her the majority, those are questions worth putting, and i did put them and therefore i thought it was a programme worth doing. therefore i thought it was a programme worth doingm therefore i thought it was a programme worth doing. it was all also interesting seeing other journalists directly answering viewer questions about brexit. what was the thinking behind that? the thinking was that wherever you go

around if you do my sort ofjob, the job of senior editors at the bbc, people will stop you on the street and say we don't understand this. and this particular set of items came from a conversation i did, i was eyeing a cheap plug when it was about to close down and a guy came and said, nick, why haven't we left? i don't understand it. and ifound myself explaining to him and enjoying the process of saying to him, look, you are not hearing this on air, are we not explaining this on air, are we not explaining this on air? is said to me you have been clearer in this conversation than anything i have seen. 50 i went to the 10pm news and said, how about i make this conversation as a peace? and every so often we need to correct ourselves and say, we are in too deep, we know too much details pull back and try to explain it in a way that people will follow more easily. with all these questions,

some viewers feel that the bbc has focused too much on the potential problems and pitfalls, and that can seem anti— brexit. problems and pitfalls, and that can seem anti- brexit. well, certainly people say that, why do you follow this forecast, that warning, or that projection, are you not being sort of anti— brexit as a result? the a nswer to of anti— brexit as a result? the answer to that is, that is ourjob, it is ourjob to report on the warnings made by authorities, whether it is the imf or the bank of england, the warning from the biggest companies in the land, for example jaguar land rover, which i put to the prime minister and others this week. it is ourjob to warn about it. clearly in the process we have to also said to people there is a difference between a worry, are concerned, a forecast, at a fact. forecasts are not facts. that's not what they are. but i think to say that we ought to be positive about brexit, to say we should be cheerleaders for brexit, to say we

should be patriotic, which sometimes people do, is to misunderstand the role of a journalist. it is not the role of a journalist. it is not the role of a journalist. it is not the role of a journalist to be on one tea m role of a journalist to be on one team or another. we don't wear the scarf, we don't sing the songs, it is ourjob to report on the match, to do it fairly and if you hear things you don't like i am afraid thatis things you don't like i am afraid that is the nature of bbc journalism. you will hear people you don't like saying things you don't agree with. the political pressure for another referendum is getting more and more airtime. can you see why some viewers feel it is effectively supporting it?|j why some viewers feel it is effectively supporting it? i can't see that at all. that is to misunderstand how reporting on something is advocating something. if we report there are calls for a second referendum it is not the bbc taking a position on whether they should —— there up should or should not be another vote. it is reporting. that is what reporting is. the truth is there is now a highly organised campaign for what they call people's vote. there is evidence in the opinion polls be picking up some support. there are prominent politicians, justine

greening for example, former education secretary, supporting it. it is ourjob to report it. it is not ourjob to say that because it might offend people who don't want a second referendum, or who voted to do is, while reporting calls for a second referendum, report on the objections to it. nick robinson, thank you. we featured complaints last week about what was seen as the excessive emphasis given to the buildup to hurricane florence when florence was downgraded to a tropical storm and hit the east coast of the united states on friday. chris buckler was in the eye of the storm. people might have been briefly relieved, but the truth is the wind is still strong enough to knock you over and it is going to remain like that for some time. there are concerns of course about

the rainfall and the flooding as the storm surges continue. the problem with hurricane florence is that it is hovering over this area and will continue throughout the weekend. and that means people need to be continued to be aware of florence and aware of the damage she could do. in case you couldn't hear that, the message was that the wind was strong enough to knock you over which led some viewers to wonder, as newswatch do every us hurricane season, whether the risks presented to chris buckler by broadcasting live well worth taking. helen webb wrote... and rosemary millican called the broadcast sensationalism. .. well, bbc news told us...

finally, sometimes things even go wrong on newswatch. if you are watching last friday night's transmission on the news channel you would have seen me rudely interrupted while reading out an e—mail. interrupted while reading out an e-mail. get off my set. get your gravitas back and report proper news. philip cox spotted that and tweeted. .. sorry to disappoint you, phillip, that wasn't me reading the autocue,

it was an unplanned short of what was happening in the studio while the recording of our programme, which isn't live, was played. let's hope you get the full version this week. thank you for all 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... or you the programme, you can call us on... oryou can e—mail... the programme, you can call us on... or you can e—mail... you can find us on twitter... and have a look at our website... that is all from us. we will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello. very mixed weather for this weekend, some improvements on the way for next week. storm bronagh swept away and following that we had a cold blustery wind on friday with some showers and plenty of rainbows. but for this weekend, it's going to be wettest across southern parts of the uk, but cool for all of us. we've seen bronaghjust heading up

towards scandinavia, battering here with gales and severe gales, the cool showery airflow now being replaced by all this cloud that's coming in from the atlantic. so, very quickly, that cloud is coming into england and wales and into northern ireland. thickest cloud in the south—west. outbreaks of rain here into wales, perhaps into the south midlands and later into the south—east of england as well. sunny spells and a few showers for scotland, but not very warm anywhere, really. 13—14 degrees at best. under that rain in the south—west, it's going to be a miserable day, could get more rain through the midlands, east anglia during the evening before it fades away. and then more rain returns from the atlantic and this time it moves further north. still in the colder air to scotland and northern ireland, temperatures in scotland easily down to two or three degrees. now, into sunday, sunshine and showers to scotland, improving weather for northern ireland, but we've got this rain for england and wales, quite heavy rain,

a miserable sort of day. as it clears away we get the sunshine, watch out for the strengthening winds on the back edge of that rain, it could well be gale force, and of course it is going to be a cold day. maybe only 11—12 degrees in some places. now, that area of low pressure deepens as it leaves our shores, takes the wind and rain away with it, and it allows high pressure to build in quickly from the atlantic. and that means the weather is going to be settling down. there will be a few showers across northern scotland, where it could be quite windy still on monday, and there will be some stronger winds down these north sea coasts. but away from here, we'll have light winds, a fair bit of sunshine around. pleasant enough on monday, but still not that warm, 16 degrees at very best. now, we are getting high pressure building on across the uk because the jetstream is moving further north. as we saw over the past week, jetstreams pickup areas of low as we saw over the past week, jetstreams pick up areas of low pressure and these areas of low pressure are going to be to the north—west of the uk. so that's where the wind and rain is. on tuesday, the winds will be lighter everywhere, plenty of sunshine.

after a chilly start, temperatures just beginning to rise a little in the south. we may see some rain arriving in the north—west later on tuesday and beyond tuesday as well. that's because the centre of the high—pressure drifts further south, allowing temperatures to rise in the southern parts of the uk, but towards north and northern scotland in particular we could get some wind and rain. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is lewis vaughanjones. our top stories: senators' ultimatum to the accuser of supreme court nominee — reach a deal to appear, or we vote without you. after the british prime minister's defiant speech on brexit, the european council chief says we can still find a compromise. and angela merkel agrees to reconsider the controversial promotion given to an ex—intelligence chief. and new research suggests one in 20 deaths globally are caused by drinking alcohol.