i'll be putting those questions and more to the bbc‘s head of news output, gavin allen. in the early stages of covid—19, we became used to the daily sight of boris johnson appearing at a lectern at number ten flanked by chris whitty and sir patrick vallance. he was back there on wednesday for the first time sincejuly to imprint this message in the nations‘ minds. in england from monday, we are introducing the rule of six. you must not meet socially in groups of more than six, and if you do, you will be breaking the law. press conferences like that took place daily untiljune and have been broadcast live on bbc television as have nicola sturgeon‘s daily briefings on bbc scotland. but that's led to criticisms that the broadcasts have handed both the uk and the scottish governments a

political advantage. a twitter user called ‘crystal moth' commented in may... and helen greig from edinburgh wrote to us... well, on thursday bbc scotland said it will no longer be providing live coverage of every coronavirus briefing from the scottish government but there was a backlash to that decision too summed up by this caller to our phone line. we are in the middle of an epidemic. we have to be told on the bbc one what has been happening, it is not good enough to say you can see it online. a lot of people do not have access to online facilities and rely on bbc scotland

to give them straightforward, daily briefings from nicola sturgeon, and i object most strongly to this as a licence payer. well, that divide between the view that those in power have been given too easy a time byjournalists and the opposite opinion that they should have been challenged more has been apparent more widely as we reported last week. criticisms from both sides have continued to come in with peter noble e—mailing... ..whereas anthony painter tweeted. ..

well, the challenge of keeping both those constituencies happy is of course only one of many that bbc news has faced over the past few months. there have been many changes to the way it has gone about its business of newsgathering and broadcasting — one of the most obvious being the use of masks by some, but not all, reporters. again, public opinion is divided on that with ann best asking... ..but andrew gold wrote... well, plenty to discuss

there with gavin allen, the bbc‘s head of news output whojoins me now. gavin, let's start with operations. so, you're in the newsroom instead of in the studio with me, one of the obvious changes put in because of covid. could you sum up some of the other key ones in how you are gathering and putting out news? well, it's been an absolutely transformative time for us in bbc news and bbc general and of course, the uk and beyond. so, everything has changed. from the programmes we put on—air — that we've had to take some off, we've had to streamline others, we've had to merge some output. obviously, we've put into place a lot of safety measures for our own staff, and there's been a huge amount of stresses and strains that we've had to overcome. the staff have been amazing, i would say, both on—air and off—air in terms of creatively working from home. but i also pay tribute to the audiences who have come to us in enormous numbers and have accepted the fact that, look, things aren't as usual but have still come to ask for sort

of trusted news. one other practical issue, gavin. if you're watching output from bbc reporters around the world doing very similar pieces to camera on public streets, some are wearing face masks, some aren't and as we heard, people are questioning, "well, what's the policy on masks?" well, the policy, obviously, is going to differ as we have seen not just nation to nation within the uk but across the world. what we have to do is abide by those regulations and at the same time make sure we are reporting clearly and openly and honestly. there are some locations in train stations, underground, etc where you have to wear a mask. there's others where you don't — there's more open—air and you are able not to wear a mask. so, we're mindful of that but we certainly abide by it as and when we can and pretty much at all times. there are some exceptions but you have to get specific permission for that. let's talk about editorial now. should the bbc still be running government news conferences live and in full?

i think we have to make editorial decisions based on what the news is. they are vital moments for a lot of our audiences to find out what's going on, the big announcements coming up. but i think it's equally important that journalists are there scrutinising not just the politicians but the scientists who often accompany them as well. so, so long as we are making thosejudgements, so long as we are notjust bbc news but other broadcasters as well, asking those questions, probing on behalf of audiences, i think we keep that constantly under review. what about nicola sturgeon‘s news c0 nfe re nces 7 no other scottish party leader got that amount of airtime. well, i think obviously if you're in government, you are in a different circumstance that you are making policy, you are leading policy in any one of the four nations. so, clearly, there is a slightly different level of scrutiny but it's not different in terms of the impartiality of how we cover that. so, we'll still be inviting other politicians on for interviews, still looking

at their pronouncements and theirjudgements on what the government policies are. one very specific question that has been aggravating many viewers all summer about those news conferences is why bbc reporters don't sometimes just ask one, short simple question? "it would be so much more effective." i think the nature of this crisis, this pandemic, is it is incredibly complicated and it may well be tidy and neat to ask one question. but of course it's likely to be the question that you didn't want asked, you wanted something else asked. now, we can't ask every question but there are often one, two, three things that are pretty crucial to get across for a range of audiences. and i think it's right that we try to keep that as brief as possible, as straight as possible but all to try and get both answers to both questions. a question about a dilemma now.

viewers, as we've made clear, are very divided on whether they think the bbc‘s too soft on government or too panic inducing going on about u—turns all the time. do you think there is a problem for news here? i don't think it's about panicking and i don't think it's about criticising government. it is about scrutinising, and it is a difficult line to draw, i'll be honest with you. we have discussions all the time about, "have we covered this enough? "have we explained this?" but i think — the prime minister himself earlier this week acknowledged at the fact that this is complicated, it is confusing, that people are sometimes baffled by the rules, and it's ourjob to make that as clear as possible. now, clearly, we have to pose questions in order to get that clarity and we shouldn't apologise for doing that but we have to do so in a very calm, informative way. because in a time of national crisis, it feels quite a unique time for bbc news, don't you have a dilemma about how far the bbc should be a public information service or be challenging the government's version of things? as you know, i don't

think that is a dilemma, and it's not a unique time for bbc news. it's a unique time for everybody — everybody watching this programme has never been through something like this before. and i think that what our role is is to desperately try to get clarity and it is a changing story, it is a developing story — there is back and forth that we have to try and make sense of, and it's a public service but were not a public information service in the sense of we are not a government service. it's important that what the government announces and opines upon or the scientific data, we explain that clearly to audiences but we're not there to sell that message. where there so that people can sort of understand the message. that is important in our role of being a responsible broadcaster. one more question. the new director—general tim davie has implied that bbc news needs to win back a reputation for impartiality. what do you think needs to change? i think i'm not sure we have to win it back. we are by far and away viewed as the most trusted

and impartial source of news — not just broadcast source but source of news. i think what we all have to do is acknowledge that is central to what makes us a broadcaster of use to audiences. impartiality is pivotal to what we do. it is about the perspectives that we get and give to audiences, it's about our own staff making sure we're having the input that's impartial as well, but it is about remembering that every single time we come to a story and how we treat it and how we broadcast that to audiences. gavin allen, thank you. thanks. thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions about what you see or hear on bbc news, including its social media and online output e—mail... or you can find us on twitter at... you can call us on...

and do have a look at our website... that's all from us. we'll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello. the weekend is upon us and the weather's looking a bit mixed. it's something of a north—south split. across much of england and wales, we've got a fairly decent weekend ahead. it's looking largely dry, pretty warm as well with some sunshine on offer. but for scotland and northern ireland, a different story. here, things will be turning increasingly windy, particularly through saturday, and there'll be some rain at times. heaviest for the north—west of scotland on sunday. but for the here and now, we've got this weak weather front that's been slipping its way slowly south of the past 2a hours or so. but a more active weather front waiting out in the atlantic. that is what will bring the rain to the north—west. but for saturday morning,

we just got a band of cloud on this weak weather front pushing south. could be the odd spot of drizzle for southern england first thing, but that clears away. much of the uk looking dry with some long spells of sunshine, but there will be more of those blustery showers for scotland and for northern ireland, with more persistent rain arriving by the evening. temperatures on saturday will move to about 13—21 degrees. as we move through saturday overnight, that's where we see that more persistent rain arriving across northern ireland and scotland too, really heavy around those hills in the west in particular. whereas further south, you should stay dry overnight. and for all of us, it is going to be mild. for most places, temperatures are in the low teens to start sunday morning. now, through the day on sunday, high pressure sits to the south, keeping things settled, but we've got this weather front, this warm front which is going to be quite slow—moving through the day. so on sunday, more heavy persistent rain which could lead to some flooding and disruption across the northern highlands

in particular, we've got a weather warning for that. elsewhere, a lot of dry weather. the best of the sunshine towards the south and east, when temperatures will be up to about 2k degrees on sunday. that warming trend is going to continue into the working week too. moving on to monday, as that warm front pushes its way further north, it is pulling in this warmer airfrom spain and france. it is going to feel quite warm for many of us on monday with long spells of sunshine. could be more cloud and perhaps the odd shower along some north—western part of the uk. most places are avoiding it. for the sunshine, those temperatures in the south—east, 29, possibly 30 degrees. many of us in the low to mid 20s on monday. stays warm to the middle part of the week, gradually things turn a bit cooler and fresher as we head towards the end of the coming week. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. i'm maryam moshiri. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. our top stories: dozens of people are reported missing in a wave of deadly wildfires in the us state of oregon. many more evacuation orders have been put in place, including right here, such that now more than half a million people in this state have been told to leave their homes. bahrainjoins the united arab emirates in normalising relations with israel, a move which further erodes the arab world's boycott of the jewish state. shouting and chanting protests in lesbos against conditions on the greek island, with migrants demanding