with ken sturt asking... but other viewers last week had the opposite perspective. here is stephen sterling and, first, mel st pier. it's a pity that during a recent break in reporting the brexit chaos, the bbc did not divert more of its tv resources to covering the significant protests going on around the world, in particular near london, concerning the far more important problem facing us — climate change. was it because the bbc, like donald trump, does not think climate change is significant enough to bother about? i was surprised to see the minimal coverage of the first day of the extinction rebellion's climate change protest on monday's bbc news at ten. thousands of people blocked london's streets, but this was ignored in the headlines. and later in the programme, i think it got less than 30 seconds coverage, leaving people rather poorly informed. by contrast, itv dealt with it

in about two minutes, while channel 4 had proper coverage. the fact that protesters were initiating a campaign on the biggest issue of our time, with the implications for our politics and society, seems to have been missed by the editors. it raises the question how media should cover something which is notjust contained but is a long emergency. that question exorcised other viewers, too. the subject was explored last week's bbc one documentary climate change — the facts, presented by david attenborough, was marked by monday's earth day and highlighted by the visit to the uk on tuesday of the 16—year—old swedish activist greta thunberg, who spoke to mps and appeared on a number of bbc outlets. what was this media focus on what the teenager called "an existential crisis" a one—off, and has bbc news failed to give the subject sufficient attention up to now? ian price also recorded a video for us.

in the light of the united nations climate report, that we only have 12 years to change our lifestyles to avoid climate catastrophe, dare i suggest that bbc news and current affairs' attitude on the matter is fairly relaxed? one might expect that the prospect of imminent climate change would lead to frequent reports about small changes we could make to our lifestyles. ian price there. and sarah cooper echoed that sentiment, writing... and jack lewis agreed... well, to respond to that charge, i'm joined now from coventry by roger harrabin, the bbc‘s environment analyst. thank you for coming on newswatch. the extinction rebellion protests, have a huge amount of coverage in the last fortnight on bbc news.

is it proof the bbc should have been doing much more about climate change before? i am an environment correspondent, so obviously, i would like to have seen the bbc doing much more on the environment, in all its shades and flavours. to be fair, though, editors have had some difficulty with climate change. a while ago, commissioning editors were saying that they wouldn't commission documentaries because it was a bit of a turn—off. now there is a massive interest in climate change, but that has not always been the case. the other problem with importing on climate change, one of many problems, actually, is that things move so slowly, so your pictures always appeared to be the same. it's always melting glaciers, it's always rising sea levels, it's always floods and droughts. editors get rather weary of that. you've absolutely summed up the kind of questions that come in from audiences.

i wonder as well... a year ago, the bbc was found to breach ofcam rules about climate deniers. how far has the bbc change the way it covers the whole issue now? until that ruling, i would get phoned up regularly by a junior producer on the programme who had jumped into him or her the bbc‘s absolutely sacred duty of impartiality. so if they had somebody on television or radio, or even local radio saying, "climate change is a problem," they felt obliged to put on someone saying, "actually, climate change is not a problem." that has evaporated. now climate sceptics say, "we cannot get on air at all, and we still have some important things to say from time to time." so the conversation on how we cover climate change is really not absolutely conclusively closed. if overall, as you seem to have said, the bbc is accepting that climate change is a burning priority and audiences want more coverage,

should it not be leading news bulletins all the time? i think you've put your finger on it there. nothing leads news bulletins all the time. news has to be new. news involves conflict and drama and personality. often, climate change doesn't have much of that. it's had an awful lot over the past few weeks thanks to extinction rebellion. that's one of the reasons why they've been so successful. they've been so inventive. they've been dancing on the streets and drumming... and that absolutely incredible pink boat in the middle of oxford circus. how on earth did they get that into the middle of oxford circus with all the police standing by? goodness only knows. by using all those tricks, that novelty, with the passion of greta thunberg and her extraordinary ability to rebuke us in our own language, aged 16. i think there's new things happening here, the attenborough documentary. you are seeing an awful avalanche of opinion and concern that, frankly, i haven't seen it on this issue in a long time.

how do you personally see your role in covering climate change for bbc news? we are constantly looking for new things to say, but within the broader truth of what's happening with the climates. next week, for instance, i'm doing some reporting on soil. most people no idea that soil holds more carbon then there is in the atmosphere. soil holds more carbon than there is in trees. we have to keep looking for new angles and just keep stressing that this is an ongoing problem. roger harrabin, thank you so much. at least 250 people are now known to have died in the horrific bombings in sri lanka last sunday of the attacks and their aftermath have been widely reported on bbc news. but there were some reservations about some of that coverage. like most people, i was appalled by the acts of terrorism on easter sunday in sri lanka

and the devastating loss of life. the close—up camera shots of women screaming for their children and grandchildren, the raw and visceral emotion was deeply unsettling, and ifelt i was intruding on private acts of grief. i appreciate how difficult it is to reports on horrific incidents like this, but on this occasion, i feel you overstepped the decency line. last thursday, robert mueller‘s investigation into alleged russian interference in the last us presidential election was finally released. president trump welcomed the report as a complete exoneration, as jon sopel describes from washington. it describes the follow from the firing of the fbi directorjames comey. the then—attorney general, jeff sessions, goes in to see

the president to tell him that he's decided to appoint a special counsel to investigate russian collusion and obstruction of justice. donald trump is furious and uses very strong language. the news at ten — and newsnight after it — then proceeded to broadcast some of that very strong language, including a particular explicit verb. and that provoked some angry reactions from viewers, including denise eassom echoed that. well, we asked bbc news for their response to those complaints, and this is what they told us.

as well as reporting on the mueller investigation, another ofjon sopel‘s recent activities has come under the spotlight since we were last on—air. buzzfeed news revealed the bbc north america editor addressed executives of the tobacco giant philip morris at a staff conference in miami.

jon sopel declined to respond to buzzfeed, and a bbc spokesperson declined to say how much he had been paid to speak at the event, adding... 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, do e—mail... you can find us on twitter...

hello. it will be a stormy start to the weekend for many parts of the uk. in fact, storm hannah has already brought power outages to parts of ireland. the winds have been escalating through the night and evere gales are expected quite widely around the coast and the hills in the west. this is a deep area of low pressure so late into the season, of course, when the trees are now in full leaf in many areas so we do expect some damage to trees, buildings, power lines and that disruption to transport. there are warnings out there on the website for this storm, mostly for the winds but not entirely because it looks pretty wet as well. we've had one band of rain moving through the night. this next one coming in becomes a slow—moving feature, so with all the cloud around, it's not going to to be a cold start to this saturday morning, but it will be a very windy one. particularly for england and wales where we're expecting severe gales around the coast and over the hills, but inland we're expecting gales,

gusts up to 55 miles per hour, which is pretty unusual anyway, and remember, we are very late in the season now. as well as that we've got this rain which will be persistent across parts of northern ireland, south—west scotland, into northern england, north wales, the midlands, across towards the humber and, with that rain and the wind combined, it is really going to feel quite chilly. temperatures barely reaching nine or 10 celsius. to the south, showery, and to north as well with some good spells of sunshine potentially for western scotland. but some heavy thundery showers around too. and the afternoon may bring a strong wind to northern ireland, south—west scotland and the isle of man as well as north—west england and north wales. it will still continue to blow a gale or severe gale further south. a very windy day, certainly not a day for the outdoors. but the winds do ease through the night, and that's because storm hannah starts to blow out to the north sea. and we get a ridge of high pressure building for the second part of the weekend. it's not plain sailing but i think for the london marathon probably the day of the two and almost great conditions for the runners

because it will stay cool, we think, quite a bit of cloud around, i think there will be some brightness coming through, and temperatures will be doing a little better than saturday. however, you can still see this weather front draped into western parts, so northern ireland and wales and south—west seeing further dank weather. a cool northerly breeze will be much lighter. 12—15 looking like our highs. could be a little bit of mist and fog around, but as the day wears on, we'll start to see this next weather system winding inself to bring some rain into the west. generally we keep an unsettled picture into early next week.

welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is reged ahmad. our top stories: a race against time: president trump urges people to get vaccinated after measles outbreaks force two universities to quarantine staff and students. they have to get the shot, the vaccinations are so important. it's really going around now, they have to get their shots. tension in sri lanka as large amounts of bomb—making equipment are found in the hunt for those behind the easter sunday attacks. the prime minister tells the bbc he wasn't aware of the early warnings. driving further inland — cyclone kenneth hits mozambique with strong winds, threatening more floods. and a new exhibition opens exploring the life and work of maverick