but at the same time, absolutely going on to try and tell the stories of those people as individuals. some people — and including the home secretary, it seems — are apparently saying that bbc�*s language is dehumanising. i don't think so. and i think we need to be a little careful here. the term "migrant" is about a person on the move — and a person on the move, often, for very good reasons — to avoid war, persecution, to get a better life for themselves. and we work really hard with our reporting to humanise the story, to speak to people who are making those perilousjourneys, often. i don't know if you saw the report from dunkirk on the six and ten o'clock news where he spoke to one of the people in the migrant camp to it actually spoken to two people

who are on that boat. it was so moving. i think that's really incumbent upon us to really work hard to tell the stories of these individuals, thejourneys they've made, the pressures on them. i should say as well that there are some viewers who contacted us to say that they should all be called illegal immigrants. what is the bbc�*s position? again, i think it's about being accurate. i don't think that is accurate. if you look at the un's description on this, anybody has the right to claim asylum in another country. we don't know what the status of all those people who died on the boats were, but some may well have been seeking asylum, might�*ve had refugee status. so it wouldn't be accurate to describe them as illegal. how does the bbc decide what each word to use? you know, there's the word refugee, there's the term asylum—seeker, and then the term migrant. how do you decide when to use which one? we use migrants in this case because often it's not clear the reasons why somebody is travelling. as i say, they could be seeking asylum, they may already have refugee

status, they may be on the move for a better life for themselves and their families. i think it's about us being as accurate as we can. as we get more information on people, we get more accurate. in this case we've talked about men, women, pregnant women on the boat, children, so as you get more information, you get names, back stories, and i think that's a really important part of a journalism. when a tragedy happens like in the past week with a 27 people who drowned in the channel, it does create a huge emotional response from the public, and i wonder if it's a challenge particularly at those moments for the bbc to get the terminology right in reporting such a story. absolutely. and, you know, journalists within the bbc feel that emotion as well. i think it's about being accurate, as i say, but i think it's about telling stories, but also trying to get to the issues that obviously relate to this matter. so whether that's political issues, diplomatic issues, issues for locals community, the bigger geopolitical issues around wars around the world. so it's important that we try to put these things into context, it's important we try

and tell the human stories, and get our terminology right. richard burgess, thank you. another country where migration is high on the agenda is belarus. last friday, its leader alexandra lukashenko granted a rare interview to the bbc�*s steve rosenberg. it was a combative encounter. translation: since julyl 270 ngos have been shut down in belarus? translation: i'll answer your question with no bother. - we will massacre all scum that you the west have been financing. oh, you're upset that we destroyed all your structures? your ngos and all that you've been paying for. europe doesn't see mister lukashenko is a legitimate president. he claims not to care. many viewers praise steve rosenberg's interview, but in addition to that lack of recognition he mentioned

from the eu, the uk government has also said it considers last year's presidential election in belarus to be fraudulent and it does not accept the results. which gave mister lukashenko 80% of the vote. so some viewers were surprised that he was described on bbc news online as president lukashenko and on tv headlines like this. in an exclusive bbc interview, the man known as europe's last dictator, president lukashenko of belarus, says he won't stop the flow of migrants through his country. one viewer, nordeast, posted this plea. we put that point to bbc news and they gave us this statement.

closer to home, on monday, the news at six reported that the brits, the biggest award ceremony in british music, was scrapping separate categories for men and women. here is sophie rayworth. it will no longer give out prizes for best male or best female but instead choose one artist of the year. the brit award—winning singer sam smith who identifies as non— binary has campaigned for the change. he says he felt unable to enter last year because of the gender—based nature of the categories. that use of the pronoun "he" in relation to sam smith who is asked to be referred to as they are them rather than he or him infuriated some members of the audience including grace davies.

and george aylett wrote: well, bbc news told us: finally, the power of the mute button. last thursday morning, the day the government announced it was scrapping the leeds leg of the hs2 rail line victoria derbyshire interviewed the conservative mp. i would say we don't know the detail but what's important is we have deliverability and we have better transport, fast transport and we get that in the best way.

with respect, wouldn't voters say actually, what's most important is a prime minister keeping his promises? our promise is to level up. no, no, the promise was, excuse me, let's be accurate here. the promise was to build a high—speed rail line between nottingham and leeds, that's now not happening. keith shepard spotted that she had continued speaking but could not be heard. he emailed. but mike wilson had a different perspective. we wondered why when mary kate

and victoria derbyshire seemed to be speaking simultaneously it was the presenter�*s voice that could be heard, not the guest's. so we asked what had happened and were told. thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions about what you see hear or read on bbc news on tv, radio, online, orsocial media, email newswatch. or you can find us on twitter — @newswatchbbc. you can call us. and do have a look at her website for previous interviews. that's all from us. we will be back to hear your thoughts about news coverage again next week. goodbye. storm arwen has been buffeting the uk over recent hours. so far, the strongest wind gusts i've seen have been

across coastal regions of aberdeenshire. inverbervie picking up a top gust of 78mph. not too far behind, northumberland — 74mph gust of wind here. those wind gusts strong enough to bring down some trees, no doubt some transport disruption out and about as we head into saturday. the peak red weather warning lapses, though, during the early hours of saturday and, as our low pressure moves southward, we'll be left with two regions of strong winds — one affecting eastern areas of scotland and north—east england, and another for wales and south—west england. both of these areas will see gusts of wind around about 60—70mph, so still strong enough to bring down some trees. we could see some further disruption — and, as well as that, we've got some rain, some heavy snow over high ground, particularly the southern uplands and into the high highlands and over the high parts of the pennines, the cheviots, as well. could see some disruptive falls of snow high up. even low down, you might see a little bit of snowjust for a time as we head into the first parts

of saturday morning. and, of course, it will be a very blustery and cold start to the day on saturday, as well, with those gusts well up, even inland, very blustery, indeed. now through the rest of saturday, we will have this zone of rain, still a bit of sleet and snow mixed in with that, although anything accumulating — well, that's not really likely to happen — anything that falls willjust melt back to rain, really, as the day goes by. but we'll keep those strong winds all day, and it will feel very, very cold — temperatures around 3—4 degrees celsius quite widely, but factor in those winds, it will feel bitter. now, for the second half of the weekend, arwen continues to work away from the uk, it's dying. but we've still got these fairly strong northerly winds, and those northerly winds won't be feeling any warmer at all. sunday will be a day, really, of sunshine and showers. these showers 0k, most frequent across northern and eastern areas, but i think there'll be a whole raft of showers working into the north—west, as well. so nowhere's immune from seeing an odd downpour. and those showers still having a wintry flavour, a bit of hail and sleet mixed in with some of those — temperatures around 2 degrees celsius or so in newcastle, maybe a 4 in london,

but again, feeling cold. now into next week, we'll see a sharpjump upwards in temperatures. turns much, much milder by tuesday, but rain and some strong winds in the week ahead. that's your latest weather.

this is bbc news. i'm simon pusey. our top stories: a new covid strain found in southern africa is classed a "variant of concern" by the world health organization countries to slow the spread, over fears it may be more infectious and more resistant to vaccines. this variant has a large number of mutations, and some of these mutations have some worrying characteristics. the us is the latest country to impose travel restrictions

to affected southern african