so, why isn't there a bit more balance? others thought those benefits were mentioned sufficiently. this user of social media tweeting as kiril picked out the bbc�*s economics editor for praise. the other big story of the week was hurricane ian, which hit the united states, causing widespread destruction, as well as loss of life. there's been plenty of coverage on bbc news of its impact in the united states, including reports on the national bulletins. rather less, though, of the damage and deaths it had caused in cuba, where it struck earlier. liesbeth heit wrote on wednesday that this lacked balance.

now, it's hard to remember a time when sunday morning television didn't feature a live political interview programme. come the new year, there'll have been one on bbc one for 30 years. the late sir david frost was host for 12 years, andrew marr for 16. and at the start of september, laura kuenssberg inherited the mantle. it's one of the most high—profilejobs in television news. and like her predecessors, she's hooked some important guests. hello, and a very warm welcome to a new show and a new political era. tomorrow, one of these two will be chosen

as our new prime minister. thank you so much for coming in. and whatever happens, do come back. applause well, i was going to say going for some reaction from our panel, because listening to that interview at the desk and seeming to applaud joe lycett, the comedian. i love it! this morning, we'll bejoined by two prime ministers — new zealand's jacinda ardern and by the prime minister of bangladesh, sheikh hasina. the key issue at the moment is who is going to pay for this. the key issue for many people listening to you this morning, i think might be that the government's promise to freeze my bills for two years. the labour leader is promising to free them for six months and then, after that, we'll have a look. people need to know about that. that interview last sunday with sir keir starmer prompted the sort of complaint that's been made many times about different interview programmes and different interviewers, including me, articulated here by kevin o'meara.

in previous incarnations, the sunday morning show started with a couple of guests reviewing the newspapers who then disappeared. but on sunday with laura kuenssberg, a panel of three pop up at a number of points during the programme, commenting on the interviews that laura'sjust done, as well as on other stories of the week — hence the appearance on the first programme of comedianjoe lycett, with that presumably sarcastic response to liz truss, not appreciated by tony webb, who wrote: liz o'donnell had a wider objection: but there have been fans too, including kenneth ferguson:

so, what does laura herself have to say? here she is. laura, first thing to ask — what are you trying to do with the programme? well, i think the legacy of the sunday morning slot is massive, but i think we were excited to have an opportunity to make something that both respected the heritage of the programme, but also moved into the 21st century. and i think both in the way that i wanted to do the programme, we wanted to make it feel very open, very transparent, maybe a bit more conversational. you know, we've all lived through many years of politicians, where it feels like they've been screaming and shouting at each other. and i think we're trying to make a bit more space to hear arguments. absolutely do the

core centraljob of the show, which is to ask questions that the audience want answered, to ask questions that the audience need to be answered. but, you know, that's not necessarily done with a kind of 60—minute shouting match on a sunday morning. one of the things you are doing differently is you've got rid of the paper review and some of our contributors don't like that. what's the thinking is that you just don't think the sunday papers are as important? well, i think the sunday papers are still massively important, of course they are, and i don't really think that we've got rid of the paper review, as it were. so, what we're doing is a bit different. so, we are talking about the newspapers at different points throughout the programme. so, we might refer to the front pages and particular stories at the beginning of the programme, or we might talk about lots of different stories and different treatments of them in one of our longer panel discussions in the middle of the programme. so, what we've done is changed how we talk about the newspapers. we don't have at the very top that sort of ten minutes review

and people sitting, holding up bits of the newspapers. but they are still very much part of our conversation and part of our discussion. but i think there is also a changing role and a changing media landscape, because the papers certainly aren't the only place that people get their information on a sunday morning anymore. i'm glad you mentioned the panel. mixed views from our contributors on that decision. there was, of course, the controversy over having the comedianjoe lycett on the first programme. what have you and the team learnt from the reaction to his sarcastic comments about liz truss? one of the things that me and the programme editor and the team wanted to do in the show is to try and open up our conversations a bit more. and maybe that might mean hearing new voices, hearing people who haven't been traditionally part of the political conversation. and the other reason to bring the panel in is to bring other expertise, to bring other reactions. and i think also to try to help the audience

sometimes make sense of what they've just heard. and one of the things people might have noticed is that the main interview in the show, we're tending to do that at the beginning of the programme rather than waiting to the end. and that means then there's more time to digest, to chew over what you've heard, to think about it in different ways, and to to think about what it might mean. i mean, i know you'll know there, shaun, that on that one of the biggest enemies for any political broadcaster is the clock. and if you have the main interview at the very end of the programme and you're running out of time, i think sometimes the audience — and i knew this as a viewer myself — you're left kind of, a, wanting more, but also thinking, "oh, what did ijust hear?" or, "itjust cut off the best bit. "what was that all about?" so, one of the reasons we're having the panel, go, ok, what did that all mean? what did you make of that? so, often, members of the public are looking at what happened in westminster and thinking like, why are they on a boat? right?

what does it all mean for me? and i want the show on a sunday morning, particularly if people are at home, got the coffee on, got the kids running around to think that they've watched the programme and they've got something useful to take away from it. notjust for those people, myself included, who love the political argy bargy that maybe is more traditional. barely a month in, you've already had three former prime ministers, two serving prime ministers — of course, the current prime minister before she took up the job — 2a hours after you had interviewed her, she became conservative party leader. let me ask you the perennial question — why interrupt your guests? our contributors say they'd like to hear more of them, maybe a bit less of you. are you going to interrupt me when i try and answer? they laugh um, so... well, here's the thing — we've made a decision actually to make our big interviews, in most cases, they will be a bit longer. so, actually, to answer that direct point, we are trying deliberately, in terms of our duration,

to give politicians a bit more time to make their arguments. however, when a politician is trying to avoid answering a question or when they're not answering it directly, it's not the job to sit there and let them keep on doing that repeatedly. you know, if somebody is obviously trying to divert or you say, "what are you going to do about energy bills?" and they start talking about food security. or if you ask a question about the bank of england and they start talking about, you know, something that's off—topic. part of the job as a political interviewer is to try to hold the politician to the question that you've asked them. sometimes, in order to try to get politicians to stay on the topic and to try to get them to answer the question — and i'm afraid, although i'm a very polite person — the only answer is to interrupt them. laura kuenssberg, thank you very much. my thanks to laura and to all

of you who've contacted us this week. if you want to share your opinions about what you see or hear on bbc news, do email newswatch at bbc.co.uk, or you can find us on twitter at newswatch bbc. you can call us on 037010676. do have a look at us on the web — bbc.co.uk/newswatch. samira will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again at the same time next week. from me, goodbye. an atlantic weather front has swept across the uk. most of us had a spell of steady rain and gusty winds and now, in the wake of that weather front, we've sunshine and showers for this weekend and quite brisk winds as well, particularly around western areas. now, that low pressure will still drive our weather through the course of saturday and sunday. but here's that weather front, it's now moving into scandinavia through germany and also through france. let's look at the early hours.

quite a few isobars here because the low pressure is still close by. well, just to the north—west of us, that means gusty winds pushing in the showers in scotland and northern ireland and there will be a few elsewhere, but predominantly clear spells early on saturday. temperatures will range from 7 in aberdeen to around 12 in the south. here's the forecast for saturday itself, and the picture remains more or less the same. brisk winds out towards the west, occasional showers, some of them quite heavy in scotland and northern ireland, best of the weather the further east and south you are. temperatures will be around 19 in london for a time, but for many of us in the north—west, closer to 13 or 14. now, sunday, another weather front is expected to brush southern parts of the uk, and why�*s that important? well, we've got the london marathon on sunday, and here's the thinking — the rain will probably reach south—western parts of the uk early in the morning, and then it should reach london, it looks as though the rain will clear by the time we get

to the afternoon. so, we will call it a wet start to the marathon and through the afternoon, things should dry out, but there is uncertainty with regards to how quickly that will happen. the rest of the country should have a fine day on sunday. if you're wondering about monday, high pressure is expected to build across england and wales, so fine weather here with light winds, really very pleasant conditions and turning a bit warmer, but in the north—west, we'll be closer to atlantic weather fronts. some rain expected possibly northern ireland and quite likely there in the western isles of scotland. here are the temperatures, high teens and in scotland and northern ireland mid teens. and here's the outlook — next week it looks as though at times, the weather will be unsettled but those temperatures for a time could reach 20 degrees in the south of the uk. have a good weekend.

this is bbc news. our top stories: international outcry as president putin declares that four areas of ukraine, seized illegally, are now russian. it came after a lavish signing ceremony translation: people in luhansk and donetsk, kherson _ and zaporizhzhia are becoming our citizens, forever. making landfall in the us for a second time: hurricane ian strikes south carolina. residents in three states are warned of life—threatening floods. pressure on the tech giants as a coroner rules social media did play a part in the suicide of british teenager molly russell.