and around the world. it's replacing the current news channel which operates domestically only and world news which is only shown abroad. there have been signs of this move approaching, such as the ending of dateline london, the film review and the paper review, all uk focused programmes on the news channel and the announcement of a reduced roster of presenters for the new channel. some output has been shared for a while across world news and the news channel, especially overnight and at weekends. but it still came as a surprise to some viewers of the latter tuning in on monday to find that all dedicated domestic news bulletins had ceased to exist during the day. apart from breakfast and the bulletins at one, six and 10:00, all still simulcast on bbc one and the news channel every hour began something like this. hello, this is bbc news broadcasting in the uk on pbs in the united states and around the globe.

i'm anita mcvey. our top stories. to all intents and purposes, then, the uk only news channel seems to have almost disappeared, although there's been no announcement to that effect. viewer chris sharman was already telling us a few weeks ago. and on monday, julian bray was surprised to observe, later in the week after watching some of the output, rick from manchester wondered, "will the news channel be aimed for the uk or american viewers? we asked again for someone from the bbc to talk to about the new channel, but our request was declined. instead, they gave us this statement.

well, instead, we're delighted to talk about this issue to richard eyre, who's a former controller of editorial policy, former deputy chief executive of bbc news. he's also been a member of the bbc trust and of the 0fcom content board. welcome to newswatch, richard. now there used to be two bbc news channels. now there's essentially one with the uk opt outs, is that right? that's right. let me give you a health warning first. i haven't spoken to anybody in the bbc about this. i'm as clueless as maybe some of the staff are about what the new channel will look like when it's launched in about four weeks�* time, i think. but you can get a pretty

good sense of it already because much of the change has already happened. and if you turn on — it's not quite true, as some of your viewers have suggested, that there's no longer a domestic bulletin. in fact, if you turn on not at the hour, but at the half hour, you'll find that the second half hour. the back half hour. the back half hour, that's technical lingo. the back half hour is domestic news because that's not being broadcast around the world. and the rest of the world will see documentaries, pre—filmed programmes for the back half hour. so it's the first half hour of the programme, which is now going to be a mixture of international and uk news, but frankly mostly international news. and the good thing about that is that it would give us a better service of international world news than the bbc has been able to provide for quite a long time. we'll see stories and people and correspondents from

south america, from africa, from parts of asia, other than china. part of the world that we hardly ever see on the domestic news bulletins or even on the existing bbc domestic news channel. is this the right solution to what's clearly a money problem? well, it's clearly a financial problem that has driven these changes. and that's no surprise because by this time next year, if you look back over 13 years, the bbc�*s licence fee has been frozen by successive governments on nine of those 13 years. so the bbc�*s income is falling and falling in real terms. so of course it's one of the measures the bbc is taking to try to eke out licence fee payers money. having said that, it's a change which i think would have come and actually, should come anyway because the world has changed.

i was one of the bosses around here when we launched news 2a, as it then was in 1997, nobody had hardly anybody had a mobile phone, nobody had invented a smartphone. there were no news apps. look at what's happening today. with all respect, people do not turn on the news channel or sit in front of it hour after hour, hoping to catch breaking news. because even people of my age, 25% of us get our breaking news from news apps on our mobile phones. so if one of the issues is people get their news primarily online, is there any need for a news channel at all? well, no, they don't get it primarily online, but they get it regularly online. when there's a really big breaking news the majority of people hear about it through their mobile phones and then what do they do? they turn on the television. and on those occasions, the audience to the news channel goes up from hundreds

of thousands to millions. one of the concerns of that political discourse in the uk has got so toxic now, social media has had a big effect. it feels to many like it's the worst time for the bbc to give up a dedicated uk news channel presence. won't people go to sky or to gb news or talk radio, if that's the only place they can get proper continuous news conversation about stuff that's going on in the uk. well, if you watch the bbc news channel, domestic channel over the last year it's been overwhelmingly domestic news on a cycle churned around every 15 minutes and very little world news other than big breaking stories, most obviously in ukraine. the bbc has been in danger, in my personal view, over the last decade of reporting less and less foreign news unless it involves wars or british interest abroad. the british people will,

after next month, be confident that if they turn on the news channel for the first half hour, they will get the biggest uk stories, but they'll also get stories from around the world. and i turned on yesterday and i saw coverage of georgia and this really important struggle which is going on between those who are pro—russian in georgia. those who want to become eventually part of the european union. i saw something like a six minute report, including live coverage. it was tremendous. and the new channel should bring us stories like that. richard eyre, thank you so much. the bbc celebrated 100 years in scotland this week with the anniversary on monday of the first broadcast from glasgow. the following night, alan little looked back on those early days. at the start, the audience was local and so was the content, bagpipes, scottish speech

and song glasgow talking to glasgow. but soon london would exert control over what it called its provincial stations, even determining what kind of voices were acceptable on scotland's airwaves. this is bbc television from scotland. that perception of london calling the shots persists to this day among some people, although the news at six and news at ten were broadcast from glasgow on tuesday to mark the anniversary. and although the bulletins featured contributors such as scotland editorjames cook, helen mcclelland wanted to see more home—grown talent on display. why have sophie raworth is presenter? could it not have been sally magnusson or laura miller? "i feel that would have been a better way of marking the anniversary." phil campbell agreed.

finally, we featured last week a viewer's opinion that a bbc report on the border checks for goods coming into northern ireland was condescending because emma vardy held up a packet of sausages and a parcel while talking about, well, sausages and parcels. another viewer called, matt, took issue with that critic asking what does he expect emma to be doing when presenting her piece to camera? emma vardy has self contributed to the debate online tweeting. 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 email newswatch

at bbc.co.uk or you can find us on twitter at newswatchbbc. you can call us on 0370106676. do have a look at previous interviews on our website bbc.co.uk newswatch. that's all from us. we'll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello. snow has been dominating the weather story over the past few days, and whilst it does turn milderfor many through the weekend, there is still snow in the forecast for some. and it's a cold, frosty, and icy start to saturday for a large swathe of the uk. the temperatures for some down to minus ten, minus 11 celsius, particularly where we have seen the snow. for many on saturday, it is mainly dry, particularly the further east you are. more snow moving into northern england and scotland, though, and for many, it will turn milder through sunday. so, this is how saturday shapes up, a good deal of sunshine

for many through the morning, but you will notice the cloud gathering through northern ireland, wales, and south—west england, some outbreaks of rain and hill snow here, maybe a few showers across the far north of england and into southern scotland, likely to be snow, particularly over the higher ground, but for many it's dry, the best of the sunshine the further east you are, temperatures generally between three and seven celsius, could see ten, 11, maybe 12 celsius across the far south—west of england. this band of rain then increasingly snow moves north and eastwards through northern england and into scotland overnight. behind it, we'll see some clearer skies, and also some milder air so actually frost and ice—free for a large swathe of northern ireland, england, and wales. as we head into sunday morning, still cold, and frosty, potentially icy for the north of scotland. so, this sunday, another atlantic system moving in, notice the squeeze in the isobars, so the winds will be strengthening through the day. once again, a good deal of sunshine to start but rain will soon move in to northern ireland, into northwest england and scotland, moving to northern scotland, likely to see some snow here, but once again, the further

east you are, mainly dry. but those winds strengthening all the while and feeling milderfor many, particularly for england and wales, we could even get into double figures but still on the cold side, particularly for the far north of scotland. so, through sunday into monday, here is our atlantic system sweeping its way across the uk. again those isobars really close together, and we could potentially see some gales across the southern half of the uk through monday, certainly an unsettled start to the week with bands of showers and longer spells of rain working their way north and eastwards, we could still see a little bit of snow over the highest ground of scotland, but it's a mild start, a much milder start to the new week, but it doesn't last for long because on tuesday some colder air starts to dig back in. further rain to come in the week ahead, bye—bye.

welcome to bbc news. us regulators have shut down silicon valley bank, the biggest banking failure since the 2008 financial crisis. the bbc�*s star football presenter gary lineker has been suspended over social media comments he made criticising the british government's asylum policy. as editor in chief of the bbc, i think one of our founding principles is impartiality — and that's what we're delivering on. asylum policy was centre stage in paris, where the uk promises france hundreds of millions of dollars to deal with illegal channel crossings. missing the warning signs, officials in germany say police spoke to the suspect in thursday's hamburg shooting a month before the attack.