key policy targets he expects ministers to meet as part of what he is calling a "plan for change". and the georgian prime minister denies suspending talks on eu accession as thousands of protesters clash with riot police in a third night of unrest. demonstrators also dispute the outcome of october's parliamentary election, which kept the governing party in office. now on bbc news... the media show. hello, i'm ros atkins. and i'm katie razzall. this week on the media show, a high—profile presenter defection from the bbc. also, drake and kendrick lamar�*s hip—hop feud is heading to court. and how christmas became the british equivalent of the super bowl when it comes to advertising. that's all coming up on the media show.

we're going to start by talking about someone who i'm sure is familiar to many of you. good evening. welcome to the bbc news at ten. mishal husain is one of bbc news�* biggest stars. she's one of the presenters of the today programme radio show. she also presented one of the election debates earlier in the summer on the bbc. and she's leaving. yeah. she has been hired by bloomberg to present a new global interview series. alex farber is the times�*s media correspondent. he's been reporting on her career plans, and hejoined us. so it's a story that i had been following for some time. over the summer, mishal had made some comments to the sunday times in which she had alluded to the fact that she was thinking about what might come next for her when her time on the today programme came to an end. and, really, ahead of that and as a result of that, i had been looking into how long she had left on the programme, fundamentally,

and i got to a position where it was clear that we were getting to the sharp end of those conversations. and, yeah, as you point out, ran a story that set out the expectation that she was going to be stepping down from the today programme. and whilst i had heard some noises that there was concerns that she may well be leaving the bbc wholesale, i was also aware that there was a lot of work under way to try and get her to stay, and so wasn't confident enough to run a story along those lines. and, alex, i know you're not going to reveal your sources, but when i read your story on friday, it reminded me that one of the key decisions the bbc is taking is who's going to replace huw edwards on the flagship news at ten, and since that scandal, the bbc has been thinking about what it wants to do about the high—profile evening news bulletin. mishal husain has presented it. she would have been

considered a contender. and your piece, if i'm honest, i mean, it could've been read as a throwing down the gauntlet, a sort of "sort this out." and you said talks were under way at that point to find a new role for mishal. and just a few years later — a few days later, we find out that she's leaving. yeah, that's right. i mean, you know, mishal has presented the flagship bulletins, the six and ten. she's been one of a number of individuals that has done so. i mean, it feels really as if clive myrie has been the de facto, the default, replacement following huw's resignation. and talks have been under way for some time, which doesn't necessarily — around 18 months or so, i understand, potentially with tim davie, the bbc director general, involved as well, which doesn't necessarily bode well insofar as them being able to find a place for mishal, which has, you know, upset some staff because i think she is very, very highly regarded within the corporation.

and, you know, i've had lots of messages this afternoon from people within the bbc who consider her departure to be quite a loss. you know... who do they...? alex, i'm interested. who do they blame for that loss? well, you know, ithink there is a sense... you know, they would have liked greater effort to have been put in to attempting to keep mishal to stay. now, we don't know the kinds of offers that were made, and what was put on the table for her~ — ultimately, she obviously decided that whatever was being offered wasn't quite right for her. there is the issue after such a prominent show as the today programme, as to where do you go next? she'd done it for ten years, more than ten years, which is a long time. previous hosts of the today programme, presenters, have gone on to newsnight and to the world at one. and while, you know, mishal has done a bit of tv work, she hasn't necessarily,

one could argue, been offered, you know, the general election. she maybe could have done... filled inm _ ..replaced andrew marr on a sunday morning. you know, she could've done... been first choice for the leaders' debates. so there is some question marks as to whether perhaps she could've been offered higher profile opportunities that may well have existed, some could argue. alex, thank you. and, katie, as i'm listening to alex, i'm thinking about the broader strategic situation that bbc news is in. recently, there were cuts announced. also, we know there's a shift in emphasis away from programmes towards digital. and in the middle of this, you have these very high—profile presenters who still have these very important connections with millions of people. and are also paid an awful lot of money. and i suppose... i don't think, i don't imagine that the decisions taken here, from the bbc�*s perspective, would've been about money. and if alex is right, mishal husain, we don't know why she chose to leave

and we don't know what she was offered, but, you know, it looks as if perhaps the bbc was offering her something but she chose to leave. but there is this question swirling, isn't there, about the cuts that need to be made? bbc news is in the process of making these big cuts. it's looking to save a huge amount of money, and i suppose now i don't know whether alex, the next thing you'll be writing is, you know, the questions about the replacement for mishal, obviously, but also, you know, are there bigger questions? does the today programme need another presenter or do you move somebody in who's already paid a lot of money, so therefore, you know, you can close their post somewhere else and thereby save some money, because the bbc is certainly looking to make some cuts? yeah, the bbc is looking to make cuts and, you know, for a variety of reasons, actually, it's lost some of its highest profile, highest paid, presenters in the last couple... over the recent period. huw edwards, zoe ball, gary lineker, all for a variety of reasons. mishal, i think she was paid up to £350,000 or thereabouts last year. so, look, there may well be some savings to be made

there, but i don't think they will be seeing that as a win, because she is such a great talent. in terms of replacements, you know, there is... katya adler is the bbc's european editor. i understand that she's been lined up to fill in for mishal while she was away. rachel burden is another name that's potentially been mentioned. and anushka asthana from itv is another person that people have been talking about as a potential candidate. but, you know, there's lots of... people or agents? i always wonder, is it the people talking about it, or is itjust the agents throwing the names around? well, everyone likes to speculate. it's such a high—profile position that there's a lot of people that would like to do it, and one thing i think it does need to be will be a woman because i think following the departure of martha kearney, who was replaced by emma barnett, she joined a trio of men — amol rajan, nick robinson, justin webb — they do need to have another presenter, because i don't think

that those, that four, that core group of four, can carry what is a very intense show. so they will be looking to replace her. alex, if you hear who the replacement is, you know where the media show is. thank you very much indeed forjoining us. that's alex, and you can read alex's reporting on this issue and lots of other media issues on the times website. now, the rappers drake and kendrick lamar have long been rivals. in fact, we should probably put it more strongly than that. they've been having an ongoing feud. yes, throughout 2024, they have been releasing diss tracks directed at each other, and now their beef is heading to court. yes, drake's taking legal action against his record label. he's accusing it of boosting the streams of kendrick lamar�*s most recent track, and we've been speaking to the bbc�*s mark savage about this. so a diss track is a test of lyrical skill. it is two emcees pitted against each other, vying to see who can lobby the best insult to take their opponent

down, and it goes right back to the start of hip—hop. you know, there's 2pac songs like hit em up and jay—2's takeover. eminem started off doing rap battles. this is part of the metier of rap music. and when it comes to the metier of rap music, there is a very particular diss track at the centre of this lawsuit. yes. so this is kendrick lamar's song not like us. this came as the sort of culmination of two months of back and forth between drake, the biggest selling rapper in the world, and kendrick lamar, the most critically acclaimed rapper in the world. and they had been nipping at each other for years. but it all blew up at the start of this year with a series of tracks where drake, first of all, called kendrick a "midget" and lots of other insults. he said he had abused his wife, something that is not proven and has been denied.

and kendrick hit back with other tracks, saying that drake was not respected by the rap fraternity, that he was an impostor, and then eventually, on not like us, some of the most serious insults, primarily saying that drake was a sexual predator who had a preference for young girls. obviously denied. these are obviously things drake has denied since, on record, and also in these legal papers that have been filed this week in new york and texas. and this filing, it isn't a full lawsuit at the moment, but what are they... what are they saying? so it's called a pre—action paper. and it is... essentially, it's almost fact—finding. drake and his lawyers are saying that they want to sue universal records. that is the label that distributes his music, but also distributes kendrick lamar's music. he says that they artificially inflated the success of kendrick's song by paying radio stations to play it, by paying streaming services

like spotify to promote it, and by paying influencers online to say how good the song was, generating over 100 billion streams, four grammy nominations, all sorts of success for kendrick, who up until that point had been less commercially successful than drake. and people listening to this might wonder, "is this how the record industry works? "is this what happens — that you pay?" i mean, to a certain extent, yes. so there is part of drake's first court paper in new york, where he accuses universal of taking a 30% cut in their royalties to have kendrick lamar's song promoted on spotify. now, actually, that is a known thing. there is something on spotify called discovery mode where any artist, whether they're on a big label or they're independent, can have a reduced rate of royalties in order to have their song seeded into people's playlists more frequently, or to appear on artist mixes more frequently. that isjust part of how the record industry works.

and of course this all ties back to the idea of payola — that was a big, big scandal in the early days of rock—and—roll radio. there was a congressional hearing into it in 1959, where some djs testified that they'd been paid $22,000, and this is in the '505, just to give a record one play on their station, because it was so commercially important to get your music heard. and that's illegal in the states, isn't it? it is now illegal. it was made illegal after those hearings. you have to disclose it if... you have to disclose it, yes. it would count as sponsored airplay if you had paid to have a song promoted. there are some perceived loopholes. if the payment is made through a third party, then it technically doesn't count. but essentially the practice is outlawed. and is that, payola, as you call it, as it's known, is that relevant to this story? that is certainly what drake and his lawyers are alleging, that there were financial transactions made in

order to get not like us played on radio. one of the stations that he cites is iheartradio — that is the biggest media company in america. they have more than 800 stations in every market, and not like us was definitely a big hit on a lot of those stations. however, in the papers filed in texas, they say they don't actually have proof that any money changed hands. and that's what these legal filings are actually about, because it's not litigation yet. it's discovery. they want the court to order universal music, iheartradio, spotify to retain any documents that might prove this and to give oral evidence that might support the arguments that drake's team are making. so it's interesting. what you seem to be saying is that the allegations are serious, but actually they don't have the evidence as yet? they've cited whistle—blowers, people talking online about receiving money or paying money in order to have these songs played. they cite a few things that we do know to be fact,

such as a very strange situation where not like us was whitelisted on youtube, which meant anybody who was making a video discussing the song could play it in the background without having a copyright notice that would take down the song. they wouldn't have to pay any royalties for it. that is really unusual, and it certainly suggests that there was an effort from kendrick lamar's side, or from universal music's side, to have his song dominate the conversation. whether or not that's illegal, that's a different question. and i think what's really happening here is we're seeing a huge breakdown in relations between drake and universal music, which distributes his records and has done for 14 years. in the papers filed in new york, he said that he had tried to have meetings with the company and they refused. he said that drake loyalists within universal music were fired. these are all accusations, of course, that universal denies. yes, because what are universal

saying about this court case, this potential court case? so they issued a statement after the first legal papers were filed on monday. and then i think the real killer blow was they said, "the reason this song was popular is fans played it," and that, you know, i think there is a little touch of this story where it feels like there are some sour grapes from drake's side because he lost the battle. ok, let's take it... let's look at it the other way and think, "well, if he doesn't lose this battle, this court legal battle, what impact might it have on the music industry?" i mean, i suppose especially regarding ethical practices in marketing and the future of streaming services. i mean, listen, artists talk all the time about how unfair streaming is, notjust in terms of royalties but in terms of discoverability, how you find new artists, how new artists break through,

how artists on smaller labels or who release their own music are sometimes put at a disadvantage. those are huge discussions within the industry, and i think this case does have the potential to blow that open. we already heard quite a bit about that when the uk culture select committee held an inquiry into streaming a couple of years ago. so it could expose things that people assume to be true, as fact. but we will wait to see what the lawyers say and whether the judges side with drake's lawyers on whether or not this case can even proceed. and, more broadly, if you are, you know, a big rap star or a big music star, what does your company do to get your tracks out there? well, here's the interesting thing. drake has benefited from this himself. in 2018 he released an album called scorpion, and along with his record label, he orchestrated something called a spotify takeover. now, i don't know if money

changed hands for that, but certainly it was a huge promotional tie—up between the two companies, where drake's face appeared on every single playlist on the front page of spotify, including things that seemingly were unrelated to his music like the best of british playlist, and his songs were promoted higher. that album had record—breaking streams in its first week, so it's not unusual forartists, particularly artists with clout, to get bigger promotion than smaller ones, but it will be interesting to see how this then changes the music industry should a case come to trial. mark savage, i think we'll have to have you back. thank you! thank you so much. we're going to talk about advertising because here in the uk at this time of year it is a big moment in the calendar for the industry. yes, we might hesitate to call this a tradition, but it's definitely become a thing in the last 20 years for some of the biggest retailers in the uk to release

christmas adverts, and sometimes they can be watched millions of times. in fact, some people compare this moment for the advertising industry in the uk with the super bowl in the us. your turn. brace yourself! and now the grub. ta—da! franki goodwin is chief creative officer at saatchi & saatchi. she and her team are behind the newjohn lewis ad, and that's where our conversation began. ultimately, it's the story of sally, who has left it a little bit too late to find a gift for her sister, who is difficult to buy for, and she runs intojohn lewis in a right old panic and then is attracted to a beautiful rack of dresses, and then navigates through those dresses into her memories... music: sonnet by the verve ..to find her sister aged seven and then finding her aged 14.

# my friend and me...# what are you looking for? something for you. and it's nonlinear in that way that memories are. and that's why it's kind of dreamy, and you have to kind of go with the flow for a while to find out what she's doing, and she's basically trying to find inspiration through these highs and lows of memories with her little sister, and she eventually does. she eventually does. and how did you come upon the idea? i mean, how do you brainstorm something like that? and when did you know that you'd found the idea? well, i mean, we start pretty early in the year and we get lots of people together and we brainstorm lots of ideas and we put lots of teams on it. we knew this year that we wanted to focus on a real relationship, the real relationships that our customers have with their family and loved ones and friends. so that was where we started. but then we also wanted to inject some magic because it's christmas. and so i think that's where we got to this sort of merging of a real story and real people rather than characters this year, whichjohn lewis has been famous for in the past,

but then taking it into a fantastical, dreamy space. and, franki, hi — it's ros here with katie. hi. - hi there. to be reasonably blunt about it, you — saatchi & saatchi will get an awful lot of money from john lewis for coming up with this ad and making it. what do they hope for in return? what are you supposed to be delivering with this advert? what are the outcomes they want? well, the john lewis ad is one of the most exciting and anticipated adverts of the whole year. so ultimately i think the public are waiting to be moved and entertained and for it to feel like christmas is kicking off, and then beyond that, the metrics are multiple and diverse in terms of engagement, sentiment. you know, we're running a tiktok competition this year because we want the audience to kind of get involved in a way that they never have done before. and then ultimately, of course, it's about the performance of the store. but you got to the performance of the store at the end. i was just wondering how central that is forjohn lewis.

are these adverts designed to drive big sales in the weeks after it comes out, or is it more complex than that? i think it's more complex than that, and obviously we're working at a brand level. so we are about developing a real sense of love for the brand and a reinvigoration of how people feel about john lewis, that then definitely... you know, the expectation is that translates against many other activations and activities that john lewis are doing to... is there a nerve—racking moment where you all sit down in a room and someone presses play and you wait to see if they're happy with it or not? i mean, yes, there is. there is quite literally a bunker. and, you know, we gather very early in the morning to see how everyone's reacting and what the sentiment is. and it's... it is nerve—racking. the night before, i will tell you, is very nervous. i bet it is. we're going to talk a bit more about the significance of christmas ads with maisie mccabe, who's the uk editor of the advertising magazine campaign. hello, maisie. you're here in the studio with us. just lay it out for us.

is it still a big media event, the christmas ad season? definitely. i think there's, you know, i i think some of the views are maybe down on previous years. we've had basically sort of 15 years of christmas ads, | and it's been such a part| of kind of british culture. people still get really excited. i i mean, it's the only time that people who, say, - don't work in advertising think about advertising, often. - people are genuinely... i loved last year'sjohn lewis one with the foster child and the skateboard. i mean, that wasjust brilliant. i think that was two years ago. i thought it was last year. goodness. it stayed with you, katie. stayed with me. but no, it's good. sojohn lewis is the one that arguably kind of - started this whole kindl of super bowl moment. obviously we don't actually - have a game in which for these ads to play, it'sjust kind of an invented thing. - and it started with, i i think the biggest one was the long wait in 2011 | and sort of over a decade, i think the christmas ads, advertising, there was... | what was the long wait? the long wait was the little boy who was wrapping up i a present, so he was excited about christmas, _ and you thought it was to get his presents, i and he was actually wrapping it... -

yes. ..for his parents. that's the kind of ethos we want. yeah. but you said that they're going, you know, they're slightly less popular this year. is there a sense of christmas ad fatigue, do you think, this year? not necessarily. ijust think, you know, it's difficult to kind - of keep that momentum. as i say, the super bowl has| the actual game of the super bowl in which for the ads to drop, you know. - people are still really excited. i i think we've had... the media landscape has l become more fragmented, but these ads really do drive sales. - the reason, you know, i to your earlier point, ros, the reason retailers spend money on advertising, - they're not, you know, - retailers don't spend money on things they don't believe i are going to deliver for them. but i'm interested, are they still willing to spend the big bucks on tv advertising when, you know, iwas watching some earlier christmas ads in the office, and i was watching them all on youtube because all the brands are putting those adverts there. they could not spend all that money on tv ads, just put them out in the digital ether and let the ad do the work. i think it's quite hard, i actually, for something, for a commercial film to go viral without lots of money| being spent towards it. i was speaking to people this i week trying to get an estimate of how much people are spending

and, you know, the big _ retailers obviously, - probably wouldn't tell us, you know, can still spend in the region of 750,000| to £2 million in production - for these ads, and then they'll spend maybe another £8 million or so with media on tv. - and then you've probably got another similaramount- on digital and other platforms as well. i and is the christmas ad specifically british, or is it a tradition in other countries as well? have you got any good examples? i imagine it is. it is quite a british. tradition, but it is... you do get christmas ads elsewhere. - there was a really great one from australia this year. - it was actually a mobile platform called telstra, and in it it's got a donkey. i suggest everyone i goes and watches it. the donkey swallows a phone and then becomes famous i for being a singing donkey. # have a hollyjolly christmas.# # oh, by golly, have a holly jolly christmas this year.# and then eventually - comes back to his owner. it's, you know, it's— a heart—warming christmas tale. but are you saying, in terms

of our ads here in the uk... you know, how do you judge this year's? because there's quite a lot of returning characters, aren't there? people that we've seen before. yeah, i mean, ithink... i as i say, the christmas ads were built sort of over| a decade, then we had the pandemic, which obviously made, you know, just- the production of these things. really complicated, the working around them really complicated. and i think we had a couple of safe years, and actuallyl this year, i think there's been quite a lot of bravery- in some of the ads. they've got, as you mentionedl earlier, some quite complicated stories in some of them — . lots of post, you've got big, you know, the big characters, there's turning everything - into a gingerbread — - that all costs a lot of money. there's a lot of people working quite hard toi make that look special. there'5~~ _ i think we call them trails rather than adverts. there is a media show trail which does run on bbc news. no christmas theme to it, but you might see it from time to time. and it is the equivalent for us of the super bowl or christmas, isn't it? it is. it's the only advert we're going to get and we're very happy with it. very happy. and we're very happy that you joined us today. thank you so much for your company. goodbye.

bye—bye. and if you'd like to hear a longer version of today's show, search "bbc the media show" wherever you get your bbc podcasts. hello. today, the 1st of december, marks the start of winter, meteorologically speaking — but, actually, things aren't feeling particularly wintry because we've still got mild air with us, so we are looking at another mild day ahead, and there's some outbreaks of rain at times. won't be raining all day — the rain is moving its way through on this cold front, which is tracking gradually from west to east, not moving particularly quickly — just lingering longest in the far south east of england, east anglia, parts of lincolnshire, as well. looking wet in the middle part of the day here. but once that eventually gets out of the way towards the east, we see a return to sunnier skies for the rest of the uk. some scattered showers moving in, mainly for western parts

of scotland, northern ireland, western england and wales as well. top temperatures, though — 13, 14, perhaps 15 somewhere where we do see that sunshine coming through later on. fairly breezy conditions — the winds coming in from the south—southwest — but a change in wind direction through this evening and overnight across parts of scotland and northern ireland — colder air moving in here — even some snow showers across the highest ground of scotland. could be a bit of frost around in the north, still mild towards the south on monday, but that colder air will slowly sink south through the day as this area of low pressure clears towards the east. so higher pressure building from the west for a time, and that means that we're going to be seeing these northerly winds bringing this colder air mass right across the chart into tuesday as well. for monday, though, we've got this area of cloud and rain pushing out of scotland, in across northern and central parts of england. some gusty winds — a0 or 50 mile per hour gusts — around these north sea coasts, with some showers, and around some irish sea coasts as well. still reasonably mild in the south — nine to 11 degrees — that rain lingering around the london area later in the afternoon. but colder — low—to—mid single figures — across parts of scotland. and then you can see the blue colours extending more widely across the map —

monday night — it's going to be quite a chilly night, with temperatures a few degrees either side of freezing as we start the day on tuesday. so a chilly start, some frost and some fog around on tuesday, i think. that'll gradually clear. quite a lot of dry weather, but we've got this area of rain moving in from the west. across scotland, as that bumps into the colder air, we could see for a time a little bit of snow over the hills. so only four orfive degrees for some of us. even further south, we're looking at mid single figures. so a colder—feeling day monday into tuesday, and then things gradually turn milder again through the rest of the week, and staying pretty unsettled, really, throughout your first week of december.

live from london. this is bbc news. the un agency supporting palestinians says it's suspending aid deliveries through a key gaza—israel crossing. the syrian army says it's preparing to counterattack the rebel forces that captured the city of aleppo. masterchef presenter gregg wallace responds to complaints about his behaviour on the bbc show saying they've come from "a handful of middle—class women of a certain age". the georgian prime minister denies suspending eu membership talks, as protesters clash with riot police for a third night.

iam i am live in dublin where vote counting is continuing in ireland's general election although it remains unclear who will form the next government. hello, welcome to the programme. the united nations is pausing the delivery of aid to palestinian refugees in gaza through a key crossing after more food trucks were looted by armed gangs. the relief agency unrwa has used the kerem shalom crossing as the main way of bringing in aid for the 2.3 million palestinians inside the gaza strip. but the head of unrwa philippe lazzarini says the route has not been safe for months and recent attempts to bring in food have failed. he says five food trucks were stolen on saturday, a couple of weeks after an entire convoy of lorries was looted.