and a suggestion the ballot result might not be accepted, are at the heart of a particularly acrimonious campaign with strongly held and entrenched views on both sides of the political divide. british journalists‘ commitment to impartiality has been under more scrutiny than ever and on that count, some newswatch viewers feel the bbc has been lacking. here is john paterson. but a twitter user with the name 1001 instruments had this to say.

well, the bbc‘s north american editorjon sopel has to navigate those demands for impartiality, and to explain this election to a uk audience. he has been in thejob since 2014 and joins me now from washington, dc. john, thank you for coming on newswatch. great pleasure. the coronavirus pandemic has clearly changed so much. has it made it easier or harder to cover the selection? well, i think that what i would have been doing in normal circumstances is that i would have been hurtling round the country going going from rally to rally, campaign bus campaign bus, ghastly regional airport to ghastly regional airport and trying to keep up with the campaigns and what they were doing. and that is obviously impossible. partly becausejoe biden isn't doing that campaigning, donald trump is doing that campaigning but there is no social—distancing within his venues, very few people wearing masks and so a lot of the journalists are staying outside. so that's the downside of it. the upside is that i'm actually seeing far more of donald trump because he is also holding regular

briefings at the white house than you would ever do in normal circumstances and we have got good contacts with the democrats too, so we are able to speak to an awful lot of people and we are not spending the same amount of time expending shoe leather trying to get from place to place. so it is a very, very different election. hopefully we're still doing it as effectively. donald trump's critics say that he gets disproportionate news media coverage by saying outrageous things. and some viewers feel that the bbc‘s journalists make that mistake too. what is your response? i think that's a reasonable point and i think it's a really interesting area of debate. we are not governed by the representation of the people act like you are when you are covering an election in the uk where you are trying to give equal time to all the candidates. also, joe biden is desperate to make this election about trump versus trump. he wants it to be

a referendum on donald trump. and if he thinks that donald trump is doing things that are counter—productive, he is happy to leave the stage to donald trump. joe biden is very deliberately keeping a very low profile. it would be almost impossible to give equal time tojoe biden and donald trump whenjoe biden is doing so little. there is this thing called the pool, we have pool reporters covering biden, covering trump from all the news organisations mainly in the united states. joe biden called a lid, ie there will be no further activity at about 10am the other day. so what is that a report on? whereas, donald trump is fiercely energetic, he loves the rallies, he loves giving news conferences, he loves speaking in front of the helicopter, he loves opening his mouth. and so inevitably you're going to get more donald trump. there are other viewers, jon, who feel that you are too negative and sneering about donald trump. i don't buy that.

i think we are there to speak truth to power, to hold people to account. as i say, when i see things that are stated that are not true. for example i was in the white house briefing on donald trump talked about, you could inject yourself with bleach as a means of treating the coronavirus. and the following morning, you have the main manufacturers of bleach assuring, having to issue a statement saying, "whatever of bleach assuring, having to issue a statement saying, "whatever you do, don't do that!" now, you cover that, you have to cover that with an arched eyebrow. this is an exceptional president, an exceptional presidency and i don't think you sneer, i don't think we ever sneer. but i think we hold, we say, "this is pretty extraordinary, isn't it?" and i think that is justified. there is that famous exchange in a news conference with donald trump, not long after he became president, when it seemed pretty obvious that he wasn't a huge fan of the bbc. i think he talked about it as a thing of beauty, or a fan of you. has that given you problems?

do you know what? we have fantastic access. i am regularly in the very small briefings of only a dozen people in the white house. we get far more access than any other foreign broadcaster. the president regularly takes my questions, often says that's a brilliant question, don't know whether that's helpful or hindering my career, frankly. sometimes he doesn't like the questions. donald trump has hisjob to do and i have myjob to do. i am determined that we're not going to get into bunkers and silos where i think some of the cable channels in the us have either become so slavishly for donald trump or so vehemently against donald trump that they have lost all sight of whatever the story is. i think the bbc is a unique position where we are and we are impartial and we give the president a fair crack. we hold him to account. sometimes he likes questions, sometimes he doesn't, but i think we get amazing access. and looking ahead, if the election

result is disputed, do you think that the stability of american democracy is, as some commentators claim, genuinely at stake in the selection? look, it's going to be a tense period and it may be that november the 3rd is just the first act in the presidential election and the second act starts on november 4 with legal battles and maybe street protests. one just cannot envisage quite how this unfolds. it's going to be very uncertain. i hoped to get a holiday at the end of november with my family. that is looking incredibly unlikely. jon sopel, thank you so much. this was the week of the labour party conference, though you might be forgiven for not noticing that. as the normal gathering of politicians, journalists and lobbyists took place not in liverpool as planned but online.

that blunted the impact of tuesday's speech by the party's leader leader keir starmer, as did the fact that it took place on the same day as a major parliamentary statement by the prime minister on new measures for tackling coronavirus. from thursday, all pubs, bars, and restaurants must operate a table service only, mr speaker, except for takeaways. together with all the hospitality venues, they must close at 10pm. no surprise that that statement led the 1pm news. but malcolm green felt the balance of airtime in the bulletin was misjudged.

that night, the prime minister's address to the nation was watched by around 10 million viewers on bbc one and it was followed 2a hours later by a response from the leader of the opposition, shown on the same channel. while these resections are now necessary, they were not inevitable. the return of this virus and the return of restrictions are not an act of god. they are a failure of government. the british people have done everything asked of them, but i'm that in turn led peter scoffham to ask...

well, we put that point to bbc news and they told us... thanks 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 us at... you can find us on twitter at... or use the hashtag newswatchbbc. you can call us on... and do have a look at our website. that's all from us, we will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc new coverage again next week. goodbye. hello. for most of us, the weekend isn't looking too bad. it's still going to be fairly chilly, particularly across eastern areas of the uk, with the wind blowing off the north sea. not a completely dry weekend, because there are 1—2 showers in the forecast as well, but for the vast majority of the country, it should be dry. now, this is the more recent satellite picture. here's that nasty low pressure in the southern north sea that sent gale force winds along

the north sea coast. we had gusts up to 67 mph near grimsby. now, the winds will still blow very hard during the course of the evening and night, and, actually, throughout the weekend, not as strong, but still very strong. elsewhere across the uk, the winds will be lighter and in fact, across scotland and northern ireland, light winds here and clearer skies. so temperatures will dip down to close to freezing, especially outside of town. so, this is what it looks like on saturday then. the vast majority of the country wakes up to sunshine, pretty chilly conditions, but there is still that breeze blowing out of the north. however, towards the west, the winds will be lighter here, so with temperatures of around 15 in plymouth, it shouldn't feel too bad at all. 13 in belfast, 14 there expected in sunny glasgow. but towards the east, there is still that strong, very strong wind blowing down to the north sea. gales possible at least in exposed areas along that lincolnshire coastline and also the north norfolk coast. here's sunday's weather map.

we are in between weather systems, so one in the atlantic here, this is the jet stream driving that area of low pressure with the fronts. some bad weather there out into the mediterranean. we are in between all of this, so the weather here is actually looking pretty good for many western areas. you will notice there is a change in the wind direction here. it's coming in from the south. so that's a hint that things will be warming up a little bit for the second half of the weekend and into next week. in fact, 17 quite possible in cardiff on sunday with some sunshine. now, that should feel pleasant. eventually, next week, we are going to lose that cold air from the north. the milder atlantic westerlies or south—westerlies will set in, so it won't feel quite so cold. but, unfortunately, with that also comes more unsettled weather. so, i think sometime next week, certainly from wednesday onwards, it does look as though things are going to turn wetter and windier for all of us. that's it for me. bye.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm lewis vaughan jones. the number of coronavirus cases in the us hasjust passed seven million — 20% of the world's total number of cases. tributes are paid to a police officer — sergeant matiu ratana — shot dead at a custody centre in south london by a man who was being detained. this service will never be forgotten and we are deeply grateful for it, and we are deeply grateful for it, and it is a really distinguished service, a lovely, lovely, much respected police officer.