very good. if i were a juror, i would give these guys points. that was a very good rendition. enjoy the show. spain one of the strong possibilities were doing well in this. italy also, which is hosting it. could it win for a second year running with his very nice ballad between two singers, seeing about shivers of a love song between two men? all this fanfare of music, we will see us tomorrow night, the first time... europe has been at war, but tomorrow night the mines will be on the music. mark war, but tomorrow night the mines will be on the music.— will be on the music. mark lowen. let's hepe — will be on the music. mark lowen. let's hepe that — will be on the music. mark lowen. let's hope that eurovision - will be on the music. mark lowen. let's hope that eurovision does i will be on the music. mark lowen. | let's hope that eurovision does not feature on next week's addition of newswatch. here's this week �*s edition. hello and welcome to newswatch with me, samira ahmed. as the votes came in at

last week's local elections, did bbc news provide an accurate picture of how the conservatives and labour performed? and it's the return of wagatha christie. is the libel case between coleen rooney and rebekah vardy suitable fare for news bulletins? some elections produce a clear winner and a clear loser, but the results of last week's polls across the uk were much more complex and therefore harder to analyse and summarise. votes were cast for local councils and some mayoralties in england, councils in scotland and wales and for the northern ireland assembly, but what would constitute success or failure for the two main parties, taking into account politicians' tendency to try and manage expectations in advance? this is how things looked to the bbc news channel on friday morning. this is bbc news with the latest headlines. in local elections in england, the conservatives suffer a series of significant losses in london, but across the country, labour are only making modest gains.

results continued to come in during the day and into saturday, and as they did, the overall picture evolved. by the end of friday, it was clear that the conservatives had lost nearly 500 council seats, as was mentioned in an online article, headlined like this, which drew the ire ofjac freeman...

we asked bbc news for a response to that point, and they told us... it's fair to say not everyone is so concerned about the outcome of local elections, which often it's fair to say not everyone is so concerned about the outcome of local elections, which often struggle to enthuse large parts of the electorate. those who are politically engaged were well—served by bbc news, which ran through—the—night programmes on both television and radio, as well as extensive coverage through the day on friday. it was all too much for dawn cannell...

one way of trying to attract audiences to a topic like local elections is to go beyond those well—worn shots of ballot papers being counted and use visual metaphors, pictures which can be linked to the subject in question through a deft script line. that was the approach used for a report from wales on friday's news at six. steeped in labour history, the south wales' valleys relationship with the party has wavered in recent years... cheering ..but today, vows were renewed. voters who may have flirted with other parties have returned to the fold. while some taste success, the picture is still

mixed for most of wales. david bussey was unimpressed with that approach and recorded this video to explain why. i've become convinced that there's a new batch of reporters and producers out there, recently released from university, with a brief to find new and innovative ways of telling old or recurring stories. that's great. i'd encourage that. but, hey, hang on a minute. on the news last week, i saw the picture of a councillor underan umbrella, sheltering from a storm. this was to do with the local electioneering. and at the same time, "vows were being renewed, "voters may have flirted with other parties," alongside a video of a couple getting married. and then there was the barman mixing cocktails, alongside the line, "while some taste success..." come on! innovation is great, but please treat us like adults. politics was centre—stage again on tuesday for the state opening of parliament, with the government's new programme of legislature being

read out this time not by the queen, but by prince charles. the pomp and ritual remained, but not all of it was seen or heard on the bbc�*s special programme, as huw edwards had some guests to talk to. and i do not feel any sense, in what i've heard in the previews, that this is the speech that is going to have anyone at home going, "i think the government have got "this and they understand the pressures we're under." hold the thought because there's some more ceremonial activity happening. this is inside the royal gallery, where we have all the military and diplomatic guests. and here we have the yeomen of the guard, who have done that search of the cellars earlier. in a very familiar newswatch complaint, some viewers told us they could have done with less chat and more of the ceremonial. as laurie palmer put it...

does the term wagatha christie mean anything to you? if not, suffice it to say that it refers to a dispute between rebekah vardy and coleen rooney, the wives of two footballers, which this week came to trial in the high court in london. here's a bit more background on the case from colin paterson, on tuesday's news at one. once, they were friends, cheering on england together from the stands at the 2016 euros, but everything changed in october 2019, when coleen rooney did some online detective work to investigate who was leaking information about her to the press. she wrote three fictitious tales, including returning to tv and their basement flooding, on her instagram stories to see if they would end up in the papers — and they did. only then, after the use of ten dots to ramp up the tension, did coleen reveal that the one account she'd allowed to read them was rebekah vardy�*s. mrs vardy denies being the source of the leak. as we found a couple of weeks ago with actress amber heard's

defamation trial against her former partnerjohnny depp, bbc coverage of stories featuring celebrities from the world of entertainment can really exasperate newswatch viewers, particularly when they're juxtaposed with more obviously weighty subjects. here's claire bath. i watched the one o'clock news on the bbc on thursday. i listened to the harrowing report of russian military slaughtering civilians. i saw the cctv of the brutal and cowardly murder of leonid. therefore, i was appalled that immediately afterwards, the bbc reported on the so—called wagatha case. that was so crass! this is fit for gossip columns, certainly not national news. there are so many issues happening nationally and worldwide that this has no place on a news programme. it's a grubby little case that

should be confined to the trash. while that sentiment certainly represents the majority of our feedback on this subject, there is another side to the story. when we featured complaints recently about that trial involving amber heard and johnny depp, we received this response from denise... we've also had some reaction to an item we ran last week about the practice of occasionally broadcasting bbc one news bulletins from locations around the uk. some viewers thought this was a waste of money, but allane hay disagreed...

finally, a documentary on bbc two on monday featured bbc news special correspondent fergal keane and the struggles he's had with post—traumatic stress disorder — or ptsd. for over 30 years, i've covered conflict for the bbc from across the world. archive: murder, mutilation, rape - it all happened here in freetown - as the rebel army swept into the city. saddam hussein and his regime have finally been destroyed. in that time, i've seen the best of humanity and the worst — too often, i'm afraid, the worst.

archive: the second suicide bomber detonated his explosives _ in the middle of a crowd. people were blasted and burned. even those familiar with such horror were moved. you can hear the shelling here behind me. there is no cease—fire. it's an illusion. it's taken a heavy toll. i have a condition called post—traumatic stress disorder. there's a set of symptoms, whether it's twitching and having nightmares or flashbacks. it's a place of extreme fear, is how i would ultimately define it. fergal keane featured on a number of bbc news outlets on monday, talking about how he'd been affected by ptsd, and his account resonated with many viewers, such as gail mcconnell, who described the documentary as... and jill mansfield agreed...

consider it done. thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions about what you see or hear on bbc news, on tv, radio, online and social media, e—mail... or you can find us on twitter... 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. pretty quiet on the weather front out there right now. and i think most of us are in for a fine saturday. not much happening on the weather front over the coming hours. clear spells, a bit of mist and murk forming outside of town, maybe a few showers in the western isles. that is pretty much it. and the morning temperatures

will range from around 6 in newcastle to ii in cardiff. so, sunshine for most of us right from the word go, then scattered fair weather clouds through the course of the afternoon, lighter winds in the north or so, and the temperatures will range from, say, 18 in aberdeen and belfast up to around 22 in birmingham and london. but saturday night into sunday, we think thundering showers will sweep into the south of the uk, but the risk of thunder and lightning is actually higher the further east you are. and those showers could rumble into the morning on sunday as well. but i think eventually, the sun should come out.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. israeli police have beaten mourners at the funeral of the aljazeera reporter shireen abu aqla. we speak to a journalist who was with her when she was killed. the us defense secretary calls for an immediate ceasefire in ukraine in his first conversation with his russian counterpart since the invasion. explosions. a bbc crew runs for cover as russian forces bombard an area near the south—eastern ukrainian city of zaporizhzhia. and drought and devasatation across east africa — the un says more must be done to save lives.