that, though, was not what the new rule said, as borisjohnson swiftly acknowledged with an apology for misspeaking. his error and gillian keegan‘s earlier inability to clarify the issue were reported prominently on bbc news, which elicited this response from peter partington. and doctor saijal sent us this video on the same theme. i think it's high time the bbc stops trying to trip up government ministers by asking them to clarify a particular covid guidance, and when they can't answer,

they ridicule them later in the programme. i think the whole process is distracting, it serves no public interest purpose and i think it's harmful as well, because it makes people less trusting of the government guidance, and therefore less likely to follow it. well, we put those points to bbc news, and they told us... before friday's news that president trump and his wife had contracted coronavirus, keen followers of american politics were up late on tuesday night watching

the first debate between the president and joe biden ahead of next month's presidential election. it was a raucous affair. the radical left... will you shut up, man? listen. 0h, give me a break. you know what? there's nothing smart about you. well, it's hard to get any word in with this clown. excuse me, this person. crosstalk it was clearly a rancorous and argumentative evening, but was that all there was to it? not for brian watson, who wrote...

and they told us... last weekend saw the latest in a series of protests against mass vaccination, the compulsory wearing of facemasks, lockdowns and other coronavirus restrictions. crowds in london were addressed by david ike and piers corbyn, but pauline pauley watching saturday's bbc one bulletin was prompted to ask...

the protest was covered elsewhere on the bbc, including on the news channel, but events like it have prompted similar complaints in recent weeks. demonstrations across the country have seen claims that coronavirus does not exist or is not fatal, and also posters promoting qanon, a bizarre theory that president trump is waging a secret war against elite paedophiles. bbc trending has been looking at the role of social media in news for some years, but earlier this year, the bbc set up an anti—disinformation unit specifically to examine conspiracy theories and the propaganda being spread on online forums such as facebook. its establishment concerned joanne dean, who tweeted... and neil h also dismissed what he called the "soviet style, pravda" disinformation unit.

well, one of the editors of that unit, mike wendling, joins me now. and mike, you wrote a book about the online rise of the alt—right in the run up to the election of donald trump and had been reporting on conspiracy theories, as have bbc trending as well, so, thanks for coming on. why did the bbc feel the need to set up this separate unit? because basically, in the world of social media, we find that conspiracy theories, disinformation, misinformation, often from individuals, groups, even nations spread faster even nations spreads faster and farther than ever before. it's systematic unless we need a systematic way to look at this and report on it, and to help people sift fact from fiction. one of the correspondence that you mentioned said that we are wrong to police what people think. that's not true at all. we don't want to make people think a particular way. we want to give them the facts, we want to equip them with the facts so that they know what they think. coronavirus has obviously sparked a lot of conspiracy theories.

we saw it in that protest in london last week. what sorts of work has the unit done on that issue? the world health organisation called what happened in the wake of the pandemic an infodemic. basically, a flood of information. not all of it was accurate, in fact, a lot of it was not accurate or unproven or scientifically unsound. what we've been doing is we been trying to help listeners and viewers and readers navigate some of this stuff, and to find out who is driving a lot of the viral misinformation, as well as the disinformation that's been sparked by individuals or groups, and we've even traced it back to some governments. people have died because they have gotten bad information, they've gotten wrong information about the virus. they've taken drugs that were fatal, they've taken treatments that didn't work, they've sought treatment because they heard things online

about the virus that were untrue, and a whole range of things have happened to people with negative consequences because of things that they read online. with something like the qanon conspiracy theory, is there a danger of giving that the very attention it craves? absolutely, and we always think carefully before we amplify any particular conspiracy theory or any particular influencer who's pushing a conspiracy theory. we have a pretty simple task, and one of the things that is involved in that task is whether it meets a certain sort of threshold. is it going viral across platforms, or not hundreds, but thousands, tens of thousands, millions of people seeing it? once it gets to a particular level where it's that widespread, and also when it's causing real—world harm, because we know people linked

to the qanon movement and with qanon beliefs have been either accused or convicted of violent acts. when it reaches that sort of level where there of level where there is actual harm involved, it's kind of our duty to take a look and do some responsible reporting around that. take a recent example, there were all kinds of slanderous conspiracies being spread around ahead of the presidential debate particularly aboutjoe biden. what did the unit do about those? well, yeah, that's very interesting. i mean, the specific rumour that we're talking about is thatjoe biden was wearing an earpiece and somehow being fed what was being said in his ear. we broke that down, we looked at the claims. we consider that actually, the earpiece conspiracy theory has been leveled at presidential candidates from both us

political parties for the last 20 years. we found no basis in facts for this when we reported on it. we reported it on bbc online and on our tv and radio outlets. we look at things from a variety of perspectives. it's not as if we're only knocking down the things that might look atjoe biden, might makejoe biden look bad. obviously, the president has been diagnosed has been diagnosed with coronavirus just in the last few hours. we have seen an explosion online of conspiracy theories and unfounded rumours related to that, and we're busy reporting on that right now. mike wendling, thanks so much. thank you. finally, some good news. last year, the bbc announced it was getting rid of its red button tv tech service to save money, but after a campaign on behalf of the

text service to save money, but after a campaign on behalf of the elderly and those without online access, as featured on newswatch, this week, it suspended the plan. basic key news services will stay on the red button after all, though some elements like the lottery results and some sport stories will no longer appear there. this phone call from a viewer called wendy summed up the response of many. thank you, bbc, for reversing the decision to keep the red button service. this will certainly be welcomed by people who do not have access to the internet or those with foresight or those with learning difficulties. that's all from us. we'll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello again. it was a lovely day today across scotland where we had the blue skies. tomorrow, the skies are going

to look very different, and that's because the wet and windy weather that we've had further south is going to develop more widely this weekend. it's the rain that's going to be the issue. there's likely to be some flooding, some travel disruption, although there will be strong winds at times. and earlier today, this morning, we had some very windy weather through the english channel from storm alex. that has weakened and is getting consumed by a larger area of low pressure that will move northwards into the uk and spread that rain and the stronger winds to more areas. so, we've got more rain at the moment across parts of england in particular. it stays wet for central and eastern areas. maybe just a bit drier through wales, the south west later on, but still windy here. and the winds will blow in more rain into eastern parts of scotland. western scotland, though, and northern ireland largely dry, some clearer skies, but chilly here. maybe some early sunshine tomorrow. but generally it's cloud and rain on the way as the rain sets in for more of england and wales. we've got gales still in the south west. it turns wetter across scotland. largely dry for northern ireland, and after the rain clears, we could get sunshine in the afternoon for the south east of england, giving temperatures a boost.

but underneath the cloud and rain, it's a chilly 11—13 degrees. and that rain is going to be heavy at times, especially over the hills. we do have amber rain warnings from the met office for later on saturday into saturday night. there could be more than two inches of rain actually over the higher ground here. and further north, as well, another area that's likely to have some flooding, the north east of scotland. a lot of rain especially over the hills blown in off the north sea around our area of low pressure. and as we move into the second half of the weekend, the centre of the low is going to be sitting slap bang over the uk. so, we've got the stronger winds probably around the edges where we have this rain. that rain should move away from the north east of scotland in the morning. the wetter weather not far away from northern ireland, heading into south wales, the south west of england. not as windy for many central parts of the uk, but there will be some sunshine and some heavy showers around as well. and it's still a cool day, typically 13—14 degrees. those temperatures aren't really

going to change as we look ahead into at least the early part of next week. the winds won't be quite as strong perhaps, but there will be sunshine and some heavy showers.

this is bbc news. an october surprise like no other, the trump campaign clears the president's schedule after he tests positive for coronavirus. butjoe biden, the man he's repeatedly mocked for being frail and over cautious about his health, will continue on the trail. with just over a month until election day, president trump and his wife melania are now isolating in the white house. in a cruel twist of fate, the president's positive test came only hours after he delivered this upbeat message about the pandemic. ijust want to say that the end of the pandemic is in sight and next year will be one of the greatest years in the history of our country.