it isn't. this is not right. appearances like that prompted this call to our phone line. you are giving too much time to andy burnham and labour up north. they obviously want to have a north—south divide and you are stirring this up in their favour. try to be a little more impartial if you can. that sense that too much airtime has been devoted to criticism of the government's handling of the pandemic has been expressed to us more widely over the past few weeks. linda bryce recorded this video for us summing up the thoughts of many viewers. i'm heartbroken with your continual negative coverage of the covid—19 crisis. the latest news has been very difficult to accept, that we are all going to have six months of quite severe restrictions, but every time we have a broadcast, the bbc

line up a series of people to criticise and condemn everything that this government or the scientists have tried to do. if you were more supportive as well as critical, we would become more confident. i've got to a stage now where i never watch your news unless absolutely necessary, and i've resorted to other channels. not that they are a lot better, but they don't continually try and upset a whole nation. linda bryce there. and geoff cooling e—mailed us this week with this. but julie coyne had a different perspective writing on thursday...

well, the health editor for bbc news, hugh pym, has scarcely been off our screens over the past few months and a couple of weeks ago he won this year's charles wheeler award for outstanding contribution to broadcastjournalism. and hejoins me now. the public mood around covid has really changed since march, hasn't it? genuine disagreement nationwide about lockdown measures and i wonder if you think there are dangers for the bbc in putting those views on air as they might discourage

compliance. there did seem to be much more national consensus about lockdown measures in march, april and may. and that seems very different now understandably when people have lostjobs and their businesses have been affected, and they are getting pretty fed up with the situation. i think we have a duty to reflect different shades of opinion on bbc news, and we are certainly not shy of using interviewees who might be critical of aspects of government policy, if they are credible witnesses. for example, the great barrington declaration, those were academics who challenged lockdown. doctor gupta and doctor hennigan from oxford university were among those who signed them, and carl hennigan, we have used on challenging some of the government figures. it is a big debate here, and we are reflecting all shades of opinion in what can be quite a polarised situation.

i want to ask a bit more about that, because, with the debate so polarised, the bbc is in a really tricky position. if you portray the official policy you run the risk of being seen as a mouthpiece for the government, and if you highlight the opposite view, the audience complain, and they do complain, that they are becoming confused and cynical. can you give an insight into your approach as a bbc journalist and how much coverage to give each side? boris johnson himself said at his most recent press briefing that there were two ends of this debate in the spectrum. one was that we had to go for tougher lockdown measures than what the government was proposing at the moment in england, that is, and the other end of the spectrum is that any form of restrictions even now, never mind more, was unacceptable because it was damaging people's liberties and damaging people's well—being. so, the whole debate is extremely complex.

i think we have a duty to report what experts are saying, including the chief medical officers and chief scientific adviser. look at the data that's presented and say this is what the experts are saying. and then to provide as much analysis and context as possible. the most, kind of, common complaint that we have received about the bbc‘s coverage of covid is that it seems too relentlessly negative. and it's always emphasising what has gone wrong with government response. is it inevitable with such a grim story, or given that we all know there are real worries about people's mental health and well—being, do you have a responsibility to seek out more positive news stories around covid 7 well, i think we have a duty to present the facts and the statistics as they are. and some of our audiences are telling us they like to have the data presented and analysed, even if that can

make rather gloomy reading, the daily reported death figures going up, the daily cases going up and so on. even if every night people might, in some quarters, get a little tired of it. we are doing positive stories as well about advances being made slowly towards a vaccine and towards more drug therapies. and also what the nhs is now doing in terms of non—covid work, bringing patients back into hospitals for treatment that has been postponed. there's obviously a large backlog. so, i think we are trying to show what is happening both gloomy and maybe a bit more optimistic. you talked about the importance of facts and statistics. they are inevitably a big part of reporting covid, but again we get a lot of complaints from viewers who feel they are bombarded with statistics and numbers. not always put into the context of more testing. when you say, look at the number of positive covid tests, how do you approach reporting statistics like that? i think every time we have

reported tests and cases we have made the point that you can test more and get more positive cases, but there's a positivity rate. so, if the rate of infections as a percentage of all tests goes up, you know there's a problem. so we have tried very hard to give that context with both live interviews on news bulletins and analysis pieces, as well as here are the latest stats. we appreciate it's difficult. sometimes people may feel there's just too much of it. we are trying to take that on board, but equally there are others who, if we stopped doing it, would say you are trying to hide something, it's always been there all the way through this pandemic. now, you have been health editorfor i think, about six years, but you have been injournalism for about 30. more than 30 i think. have you ever had a story quite like this covid pandemic? well, i was involved in covering the banking crisis back in 2007 to 2009, and that was the most extraordinarily huge story at the time. i thought there would never

be anything like that. this is much, much bigger because this is global, it affects lives, literally, it affects nations' health in all different countries. so, nothing quite like this before, but i always have to remind myself that we are observers as journalists. there is astonishing work being done by the nhs and social care, and i can only take my hat off to them and many others in key worker sectors. and many others who have had a very difficult time. so, i think ourjob is comparatively easy with regard to all of those people who are having a difficult time sometimes. hugh pym, thank you so much. finally, let's return to the north of england where we started. this week saw the retirement of harry gration, who started on bbc radio leeds in 1978. and presented his last edition of look north on wednesday. the day before his

70th birthday. this yorkshire institution spoke to simon mccoy on the news channel. people tune into us because they trust us, and it's that trusted news service that we give every single day, and the figures have been remarkable as a result of that. i'm so proud, and i mean it genuinely, iam privileged to have presented regional news programmes for so many years. later, he revealed to viewers that he had prepared for his broadcasts by listening to opera, and he brought an example along with him. this is my ditty. forgive the singing, but i'm going to do my best. # ey—up, welcome to look north, we've got tha' news and sport. # throw in some weather too. # that's the cheapest we can do. among those paying tribute was rory stanbridge who posted this... and jon maxwell added...

thank you for all your comments this week, if you want to share your opinions about what you see or hear on the bbc news on tv, radio, online and social media, e—mail... or you can find us on twitter... and use the hashtag #newswatchbbc. you can call us... and do have a look at our website. that's all from us, we will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello. if you are hoping to get out and about this weekend, the weather may have an impact on your plans. it is looking decidedly unsettled. it will be windy, some heavy rain at times but not all the time. some drier and brighter

moments as well. low pressure in charge of the weather at the moment. quite a big low and deep low as well. a lot of white lines and isobars squashing together. it shows we will have strong winds and the strongest of those will always be in association with this band of rain. the wettest and windiest weather to start saturday across the western side of the uk, the rain band will push eastwards through the day and you can see the bright green and yellow colours showing up, a short and sharp burst of really intense rainfall accompanied by really squally winds pushing eastwards as we go through the day. largely dry in the south east. sunshine and showers from the west. windy for all and strong winds along the lines of the rain band. and temperatures 17 degrees across the south east. turning cooler and fresher from the north west as the rain band clears its way through. the rain will persist across east anglia and the south east for a good part of saturday night. clear spells and showers follow

on from the west and don't forget, the clocks go back an hour through the early hours of sunday. the end of the british summertime and as far as the weather goes, summer has long since left us, and it's an autumnal weather chart that takes us into sunday. low pressure again up to the north west of the uk. pretty brisk winds on sunday, not quite as windy and it will have been on saturday. some spells of sunshine and showers as well and the most frequent and plentiful across the western areas. i think we will also see quite a few run in across the english channel coast. as i mentioned it will be windy, strongest winds across the west of scotland. these are the average wind speeds. quite a cool feel as well, with temperatures between 11 and 14 degrees. we head into the new working week, low pressure still with us. it will lose some of its intensity as we go into the monday. the winds will ease a little but still some showers and rain around. and it is looking like a very unsettled week ahead.

that is it from me for now. enjoy your weekend.

this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm aaron safir. our top stories: sudan is to normalise diplomatic relations with israel. the third arab state to do so in two months. protests spread across poland after a court ruling bans virtually all abortions. the demonstrations take place despite tight coronavirus restrictions. as coronavirus infections surge in europe again, the world health organization issues a new warning. and how one london company is determined to change