welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is lewis vaughanjones. on an annual budget of £32 million. our top stories: amid the usual mix of entertainment, the child of shamima begum, the british teenager who joined sports and documentaries, the islamic state group, has died in syria. each weekday at 9pm, the nine promises a mix of national new satellite images of a facility near pyongyang and international news presented by rebecca karen and martin geissler, suggests north korea may be promising a global view of the news preparing to launch a missile — while maintaining or a satellite. the american actor, jussie smollett, faces new charges following claims he falsely reported that he was a distinct scottish voice. a victim of a hate crime. venezuela's power cut crisis continues and leaves crucial services paralysed. the nine appealed to some journalism the government says its sabotage students we consulted from glasgow's clyde college. i think the hour—long format is much carried out by the oppostion. better for putting across a truly scottish personality and the more the government says it's sabotage carried out by the oppostion. and international women's day ends informal presenting style, in a face—off in istanbul. keeping it conversational with guests, more informal dress, all of that comes together and makes it a much, much more attractive package. i think it's really good

for scotland to have their own news because a lot of young people can be able to relate to it. they're coming home from school or college or university and flipping through the channels, and they'll see something on news they will be able to relate to. it's a lot more personal and the presenters are much more relaxed and it feels like they're talking to you. and the way it's marketed and advertised is very clearly a lot more towards millenials and generation 2. the show itself has started to go through some growing pains. it is figuring itself out but so far, it's delivered the news that scotland deserves, with international reporting, it's integrated those stories so well, it's talked about stuff outside of scotland, but always goes back into scotland. there's been a campaign for many years for scotland to have its own news programme. and that was given a kick—start by a perception during the 2014 independence referendum campaign that the bbc showed a bias towards england and neglected

the rest of the uk. now the nine is here, the balance of stories from scotland with those from further afield has proved controversial from some viewers. for one person, there wasn't enough specific scottish content. and this viewer who wanted to remain anonymous made a different point. well, i'm joined now from the set of the nine in glasgow by gary smith, head of news and current affairs for bbc scotland. gary, at a time of massive budget cuts to bbc news overall, is £5 million on one new news show,

just for scotland, money well spent? i think it is. you probably won't be surprised to hear, i think, there's been a sense in the bbc for a number of years that a lot of production is centred in london and there has been a move over the past years to move production of various sorts including news out of london, so a few years ago, a number of programmes, breakfast bews and 5 live and sports moved up to salford, and more recently, there has been an investment in tv production and wales and digital services in northern ireland, and in the new channel for scotland. which has a range of content on it, comedy and entertainment and sports and the news programme and the make an hour—long programme at 9pm. already a report in scotland which is the back half hour to the next in a six o'clock bulletin. so why the need for this? they are very different

kinds of programmes. the report in scotland, as you said, is part of the news hour on bbc one at six o'clock. it will remain that so the network news at six o'clock news for the first half hour and the news from scotland in the second half hour. what we are doing on the night is reporting international news, national news and scottish news. in a way that is relevant for scottish viewers. that is our principal aim for this new programme here. so both programmes, one doesn't replace the other. report in scotland are still a crucial part of our news offering in scotland. very popular programme against figures. but the nine is doing something different in a different time. there is what some people might say. parochial stories at length, mixed up with the uk and international news. is there a danger of satisfying nobody, especially scottish viewers who want a full round up of the news? i don't think it is an odd mix.

i think it is a very interesting mix. the feedback we've had in the first two weeks of the channel and the news being on the air has been largely positive. it is doing, i suppose, what radio programmes in scotland have been doing for some years, which is having a running order, which is relevant to people in scotland, some days it might be a foreign story at the top and it's got local stories afterwards, some days it might be the other way around and some days we might be starting with a political story based at westminster, it depends on the news of the day. and within the space of an hour, we have time to get into the kind of stories that people are not going to see elsewhere, either our network news or on reporting in scotland. shouldn't you, at the bbc, have been pushing for more scottish news in the national network offering, instead of creating what might be seen by some people as a bit of a ghetto? i think we do a lot of news

from scotland into the network programme, we have our scotland editor and team here and glasgow who report scotland to the rest of the uk. this is a different proposition to come of this programme. this is reporting scotland and the world to viewers in scotland, it will do different stories and do them in more depth than that we have the space to get into our network programme. so far we understand there is an average of about 28,000 viewers, 1.2% audience share. out of a population of more than 5 million. it doesn't suggest that there is a scottish audience who's been crying out for the show, does it? we are starting with an audience of zero. 0ur task over the coming weeks is to build up an audience. the latest numbers, the average audience for the nine since it has been on the air is 40,000 for a programme, that isjust over 2% share of the audience, which is kind of in line with the expectations that we had going into launching the channel.

so we are pretty pleased with how it has gone in terms of the numbers and numbers are not the only thing that we just success on. the appreciation of the audience that are watching is really important to us and that has been going pretty well so far. you never get unanimous praise for a programme, but a lot of people have responded to it well, they like the tone of it, they like the kind of stories they're getting, they recognise that they're getting more coverage of different parts of scotland, and a more international coverage through a scottish lens. there's a sense that the bbc has come under pressure in scotland forfailing to represent issues there well enough, going back to the independence referendum, when there were mass protests outside a bbc headquarters in glasgow, as you know, is this programme and channel an admission that they were right? no, it is not. the reason for this channel

is because we have listened to our audience and scotland about what they want from the news that comes out of bbc scotland. and they have said to us and the research we have done and sessions we have had with members of the audience, they want more depth and analysis, they want the bbc to be the home of an impartial reporting, to be fair and accurate and balanced, and we are trying to provide that for them and this new programme. thank you, gary smith. finally, in this studio, we do have one real—life camera operator. hello, james. but the other cameras are operated remotely like this one, in other bbc studios, all the cameras are robotic. and asjoanna golsing found out, that can lead to problems. —— and asjoanna gosling found out, that can lead to problems. welcome to bbc news... i'm joanna gosling. hello... i'm still here. laughter the european union... i'm not sure if i can, i will walk around and pick you up

on another camera. i apologise for these technical issues. let's start talking about brexit. because... i wish we can start again, but that is all happening live on air. we'll start the story again. doctor brian wilkinson not impressed. others on twitter saw the funny side. 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. 0re—mail. you can find us on twitter. do have a look at our website for previous discussions. that's all from us. we'll be back to you hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello. there is lots of weather

coming our way this weekend, some rain at times, some snow too. it'll be windy throughout the weekend. remember when high pressure was in control? it was all quiet? it's well to the south of us now. it's low pressure, the atlantic in charge of our weather. weather disturbances coming through. briefly milderfor some across southern parts of the uk during saturday, then we're all back into the colder air on sunday on a strong and cold wind. so the weather elements this weekend, it is going to be windy, widely gusts around 40—50 miles an hour. it will feel chilly in the wind. some wet weather at times — notjust rain but snow too — but also, we'll all get to see sunshine at some stage of the weekend. this is how we're starting the weekend. temperatures at their lowest across northern england, northern ireland and scotland. close to freezing in places. wintry showers in scotland. an area of rain and hill snow coming out of northern ireland and running through northern england first thing, so a bit of snow to the pennines out of that. further showers running into northern ireland, across northern england, northern and western scotland

on through the day. again, wintry on the hills but there'll also be some decent sunshine. let's take a look at things at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. very strong gusty winds across the far north of scotland and northern isles. a bit of wet weather on and off during the day into 0rkney. these are the showers running into scotland. again, wintry on the hills. not too many to the east of scotland. they're there in northern ireland, they should be starting to ease from northern england at this stage of the afternoon. strong gusty winds right across the uk and actually, a fair amount of fine and occasionally sunny weather across the bulk of england and wales, bar the odd passing shower. look at this, though. 0n through saturday evening, some rain pushing north through a large part of england and wales. a bit of snow in snowdonia, into the peak district. and temperatures will be at their lowest the further north you are away from that, and a frost setting in, particularly into scotland, as sunday begins. but it's not a cold night further south where you're seeing the rain. all of that has to clear away on sunday. it'll be a slow process as well. that will take an area of rain and hill snow across the uk during sunday, and that snow

in scotland particularly will be falling to relatively low levels, so don't be surprised by that. but the chance of seeing some significant snow piling up in the hills in scotland on sunday, but elsewhere, you could see some some sleet and hail out of these showers, but there'll also be some sunny spells around too, on what will be a windier and colder feeling day on sunday. low pressure‘s still in charge. briefly quiet on monday. then tuesday into wednesday, a deep area of low pressure passing just to the north of the uk, making it very windy once again. so a brief lull on monday. it clearly isn't going to last very long. that's your forecast.