done based on predictions than we would have - saved with energy. i don't think anybody is arguing that we shouldn't have acted on energy. on radio kent. time is short. |we have seen the bank of england| intercede because of the measures that your government brought in on friday _ this doesn't normally happen. we are working very, very closely with the bank of england. the bank of england run an independent monetary policy. they are putting out fires. a rare moment in the national spotlight for bbc local radio and a reminder for many of its value. this week the corporation announced that there would be cuts to those services, with dedicated programming for each of england 239 local stations ending at 2pm every day, content after that being shared across regions.

this will mean 139 fewer roles in audio teams, though the bbc says there will be additional posts created in investigative and digital journalism. the plans have gone down badly, with the culture minister saying the government is disappointed and the national union ofjournalists describing them as the biggest threat ever to local radio. listeners also expressed their concern, with lynn mcadam writing,

well, the bbc�*s director of nations spoke to us injuly about cuts to local television news, and he joins us again to discuss these plans for local radio. greater sharing across regions. wouldn't that destroy the audience's connections to their very local stations? let remember what these proposals are. we are planning to keep all our local stations, all 39 local stations, completely local between 6am and 2pm. that is when most listeners tune in. and then during the rest of the afternoon, rather than 39 programmes, we will have 18 programmes across england, still much more local than local television news services. some of the bigger services will keep their local services in the afternoon and then at the smaller stations, we will pair them in twos or threes and share our programming during that part of the day. you were talking there about cuts. i must be really clear. no—one is pulling any wool over anyone�*s eyes.

we are not cutting, we are not reducing our spend on local services, but we are changing the way we spend it. and that is to really mirror what we're seeing in terms of the way audiences consume media. more and more people are turning online and expecting strong local content from the bbc. so we are reprioritising about 10% to strengthen local services towards strengthening local services and local audio services. localness is the big strength of bbc output. and as a viewer was saying, no—one can fund this kind of local radio commercially. so what is the point of the licence fee if the bbc doesn't do that? well, we are going to be more local than ever because we are going to be serving far more people in each local area across television, across local radio and increasingly across online. the plans will see 130 additional news journalists across our 39 local basis. that is significant strengthening of our news coverage in every part of england. if we can get this balancing act

right, we will keep local radio strong, we will keep the regional television news strong and we will strengthen significantly the local news we are able to offer communities. local radio is particularly valuable and a lifeline to many listeners, particularly older listeners, many of whom live alone and don't use digital services. and didn't covid really prove that? why would you throw that all away? local radio is an absolute jewel in the bbc�*s crown. we want to keep it strong. but we have to make some difficult choices about how we balance our spend across different platforms. if you take the population aged between 65 and 75, more of them today rely on online news than rely on radio news. so the idea that online and digital is somehow only a young persons' thing is changing fundamentally before our eyes. it is important that if the bbc is going to stay relevant to local communities that we get that balance right. but i do want to underline

local radio will mean a huge priority for us. we know it is a valuable service. we will continue to invest tens of millions of pounds into it. it is the best local radio network in the world and we are going to keep it that way. we know a lot of local radio presenters are potentially going to lose theirjobs. and a lot of the evening content, which is now no longer going to be local, it is going to be regional, a lot of that content on black and minority communities with presenters from those backgrounds. so you are going to lose a lot of those, potentially. how is that serving audience diversity? we will make sure as we make these changes that we stay absolutely focused on serving the full breadth of our communities and we will do that very, very carefully. but i want to stress, even with these changes across the day we will still remain much more local than our television news programmes in each region. and i do think local identity can be quite fluid. if you go to yorkshire, yes, of course there are rivalries

between bradford and leeds. there is still a very strong yorkshire identity. so this idea that local is defined by county boundaries isn't borne out by reality. what we need to make sure is that those afternoon programmes that we are sharing between two or three stations, they are as strong as they possibly can be. that is why we will be investing more money into those programmes than we do today. a lot of people listened in, and we had a few commenting on it that i read to you before, asking, why does the bbc insist this is all being done for positive editorial reasons? why notjust say it is to cope with very big budget cuts? because we are not cutting our budget for local services. yes, the bbc overall is facing a real constraint. the licence fee is frozen. but local is incredibly important to the bbc and we are protecting our spend. what we are doing is adapting our local services to reach out to audiences beyond local radio to make sure that they too get value from what we are doing locally.

we will do that by strengthening our local content on bbc sounds, strengthening local news on the bbc news app and the bbc website. everybody who lives locally has an interest in local issues, notjust those who listen to local radio, and ourjob is to make sure we give value to everybody. thank you very much. thank you. this year's cop climate conference starts on sunday in egypt, and that, along with the recent actions of thejust stop oil protest group, had led to an increased focus on the environment on bbc news. it was one of the subjects under discussion on last week two question time when the journalist and broadcasterjulia hartley brewer said this. the world is not on fire and the world is not going to die and we are not going to die. this catastrophising stuff is not actually in the scientific sections of the ipcc report. the woman here in the stripy t—shirt at the front. this summer should have shown everybody that we thought maybe

it is going to be in a few, 30 years' time, 2050, but it is happening right now and i think we really need to take action. it is called weather. julia, you know that the consensus i of scientists is that these things. are happening more often. i don't think that is in dispute. actually, the report... past five years hottest. on record, for example. actually there is not consensus on the idea that a lot of these extreme weather events are happening more often. ok, i will leave that with you. they are not. amongst the many people who objected to those comments was anthea, who sent us this e—mail.

why no disclaimer about such dangerous misinformation? well, we asked bbc news for a response and they told us, finally, breaking news, in case you missed it. bounty bars are going to be removed from some mixed tubs of chocolate after it was discovered that they were often left unwanted at the bottom of the box. the news, if that is what it was, featured on a number of bbc radio and television outlets and in this article on the website,

but christopher mcinally felt journalists had been duped into promoting a publicity stunt. 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 on tv, radio, online and social media, e—mail. or you can find us on twitter. you can call us on 0370 010 6676. and do have a look at previous interviews on our website. that is all from us. we will be back again next week. goodbye. hello there. for much of the country, today was a dry and sunny day, but it's turning quite cold right now, especially for

eastern parts of the uk. out to the west, things are changing. we've got a big area of low pressure in the atlantic, and swirling around it, this band of cloud on that weather front there. and that is moving its way in from the west, so we're seeing the cloud increasing and rain pushing in from the atlantic. but ahead of it, one or two showers coming in off the irish sea, and the showers in scotland retreating towards the northern isles. western areas sees the cloud thickening, that rain arriving. eastern areas still dry. these are the temperatures by the end of the night, but before then, we could see temperatures even in eastern england getting close to freezing once again. so, a chilly start for eastern areas where it may start dry first thing, but that rain moving very slowly eastwards, probably turning lighter and more patchy. we get some sunshine coming into northern ireland quickly, and in the afternoon, some sunshine across much of scotland. for many parts of england and wales, though, it may stay cloudy throughout the day. there may not be an awful lot of rain around at all, and temperatures may be a degree or so higher than today at 12—14 degrees. bonfire night tomorrow night, and we could see a bit more rain hanging around across south—eastern parts of england,

perhaps the midlands. and then we've got a few showers in the far north—west, but for many parts of the country, it will be dry and we'll have some clearer skies for a while as well. but those showers that are coming in towards the north—west are coming in around this area of low pressure that's getting a bit closer to the uk. that weather front, though, that's bringing rain into england and wales is going to hang around in the south—east, and overnight we could get some heavier rain actually. and that rain still around across south—eastern england on sunday morning. and then following on from that, we're going to find some more rain pushing its way eastwards across england and wales. further north, maybe the far north of england but certainly scotland and northern ireland, it's drier. there'll be some sunshine, and there'll be fewer showers. but it is turning quite windy, and those temperatures not changing much on sunday. stronger winds are coming in towards the far north—west of the uk, close to that area of low pressure. that then spins away. we get some more weather fronts trying to come in from the atlantic, mainly pushing wet weather northwards up the western side of the uk. and ahead of that, we're going to find the winds coming from a long way south. it'll be windy on monday,

but it's going to be very mild. we're likely to find temperatures widely getting up to 16—17 degrees in england and wales. once that rain moves through overnight, it's going to be a little cooler on tuesday with sunshine and some blustery showers.

i'm jane o'brien in washington and this is bbc world news america. the last weekend before the us midterms will see campaigning across key states. ahead of tuesday's vote we have a speial report on the christian right — a growing force in us politics. twitter�*s new boss elon musk fires thousands of staff via email

in a bid to cut costs.