not easy discussing the finer points of corporation tax while the match of the day theme tune is blaring out behind you, and alison beaumont considered it very much not worth the effort. the budget was preceded as usual by days of previews, leaks and educated guesses as to what might be in it, including on tuesday's news at ten. the chancellor, jeremy hunt, is expected to announce measures to encourage more people, including younger parents, back to work in england. the current 30 hours of free childcare for three and four—year—olds will be extended. it's thought to one and two—year—olds in what's been called the centrepiece of the budget. for ted, it was all too much, too soon, he wrote.

if the budget is one staple of the news calendar, so, too, the oscars. at this year's ceremony on sunday night, there was no such drama as last year's infamous slap by will smith. but the awards still received plenty of attention across bbc news, including on monday's news at one. now the sci—fi epic everything everywhere all at once was the big winner at the oscars in los angeles with seven awards, including best director and best picture. again, the charge of not news was levelled byjohn stokes, who asked... many people will have been affected this week by industrial action, with hundreds of thousands of workers going on strike, including teachers, nurses, junior doctors, civil servants and rail workers. wednesday saw the most disruption. but if you wanted to hear about the effect this was having in your area by listening to bbc local radio or watching bbc regional news bulletins on tv,

you might have struggled. the reason — some of the staff on those services were also on a 24—hour strike over the corporation's plans to cut local local radio budgets, increase the sharing of programmes across different stations and move more resources to online content. as a result, many radio stations broadcast reduced prerecorded or syndicated programming. and those switching on bbc one in almost all of the english regions at 6:30pm on wednesday, expecting a local news bulletin, instead saw this. now on bbc one, a change to the schedule. _ we're unable to show your regional news due to industrial action. - instead, garden rescue. the garden rescue team are on a mission. look at that! some viewers didn't hear that announcement, and so we're confused about the absence

of regional news bulletins. others were more concerned about the absence, apart from a mention on the website of bbc coverage of the strike action by its own staff. someone tweeting as mr apple asked... and jane phillips wondered... although we have discussed before on this programme the changes the bbc is making, we asked again for someone to interview on this subject and on the strike action. we were told no—one was available. and given this statement.

do let us know your thoughts on anything we're covering on this programme or on any aspect of bbc news. details of how to contact us at the end of the programme. now for some of your other comments this week. a week and a half on from that tweet about the government's refugee policy posted by gary lineker, the shockwaves are still being felt around broadcasting house. and while the rights or wrongs of a sports presenter�*s social media activity don't fall into the territory of a programme called newswatch, the priority given

to discussing it on news outlets certainly does. again, this week, we had complaints after bbc one�*s evening bulletins led on the story last friday, saturday and sunday, and the news at one did so on monday. good evening. gary lineker has been pulled - by the bbc from presenting match of the day following his tweets criticising the government's - latest immigration policy. good afternoon. the bbc has apologised to viewers after severe disruption to its sports programming. it follows the corporation's decision to force gary lineker to step back from presenting match of the day. the bbc�*s sports programming is hit again in the fallout over gary lineker and impartiality. can't say anything at the moment. sorry. no comment from the presenter today as the government says the bbc�*s credibility is on the line. today at one, gary lineker back on air as the bbc- resolves its dispute with him over

what he says on social media. - all of that prompted jacqui douglas to e—mail on saturday. that was echoed on monday by colin boon. and john silcock added... there was another storm about comments made by another bbc presenter, too, the comments fiona bruce made on last week's question time about boris johnson's father.

he was a wife—beater, stanleyjohnson, on record. ok, let mejust let mejust intervene. i'm not disputing what you're saying, butjust so everyone knows what this is referring to. so stanleyjohnson�*s wife spoke to a journalist, tom bower, and she said that stanleyjohnson had broken her nose and she had ended up in hospital as a result. stanleyjohnson has not commented publicly on that. friends of his have said it did happen. it was a one—off. yes, but it did happen anyway. that reference to the incident being described as a one off infuriated merlin reader. and samantha bush... the following day, the bbc issued a statement backing fiona bruce. it read...

on monday, fiona bruce said she would step back from her role as an ambassador for the domestic violence charity refuge, saying that her words had been mischaracterised in a social media storm. and there was some sympathy for her, including from deborah mckenzie, who wrote... 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 newswatch@bbc.co.uk or you can find us on twitter @newswatchbbc. you can call us on 3700106676, and do have a look at 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 there. spring daffodils in full bloom now right across the country, but what we could do with is some spring like weather. well, for some, we had that today. in fact, in northeast england it was a mild and often quite sunny day as depicted by this weather watch watcher in northumberland. it was a different story, though, elsewhere. we did have some sharp thundery downpours, a rainbow in the sky across falkirk with some threatening looking skies here. now, if we take a look back at the cloud and the rain radar from recent hours, you can see just how widespread those showers have been today,

but at the same time, there's also been some sunny spells as well. and that's the story as we go through the night, tonight and into tomorrow. with low pressure anchored out to the west, feeding in plenty of showers from the west through the night. so, we keep quite a lot of cloud around. that's going to prevent those temperatures from falling too far, but it does mean a messy mixture of showers as we go through the night. those temperatures will hold up at around 5—9 degrees for most. we start off tomorrow on a rather cloudy note for many, a mild note and once again it's going to be a case of sunny spells and scattered showers. light winds as well on saturday, so i suspect if you catch a shower, they could linger for quite some time. they should be fairly interspersed. top temperatures around 14—15 degrees not out of the question. but, yes, some of those showers once again could be heavy and thundery. more persistent rain into northern ireland and western scotland by the latter stages of the afternoon.

here we'll look at around 9—10 degrees, but noticeably colder in the northern isles. and as that area of low pressure gradually starts to ease away, the winds will pick up through the evening and overnight and swing back around to a northerly. and that means on the back edge, we could see a little bit of snow across the northern isles. temperatures to greet us first thing on sunday morning, a little bit lower. so, a chillier start, but hopefully a crystal clear, blue sky, sunshine morning on sunday. very nice indeed. gradually, we'll see cloud developing out to the west as rain will start to push in by the end of the afternoon. but not a bad mothering sunday in prospect. temperatures generally between 8—11; degrees, once again a little bit cooler in the northern isles. so, just to sum up this weekend, saturday will be a case of sunny spells and scattered showers, better on sunday.

i'm david willis in washington, and this is bbc world news america. wanted: russian president, for alleged war crimes. the international criminal court issues an arrest warrant for vladmir putin, for his alleged role in deporting ukrainian children to russia. president biden hosts ireland's prime minister at the white house to mark saint patrick's day, and ahead of the 25th anniversary of the good friday accord. revisiting the war in iraq, 20 years later. we have the personal story of a 12—year—old who lost his arms, and found a new life in the uk. plus, the benefits of early exposure to peanut butter.

why a spoonful for babies may help prevent allergic reactions.