[InternationalDesk]

Yup. Weirdly now they have three BBC News-branded business bulletins between 5-8a BST and Lukwesa actually appeared for only an hour during her 2-hour 7-9a shift... why not merging 5-7a and 7-9a to a single shift while having 6-hour shifts from Washington every weekend?

The 7-9a presenter is also responsible for the UK breaking news opt (and the 1345-1400 UK opt) for the rest of the day until 2300. Presumably the shift is reduced to 2 hours so that they won't overwork....

I suppose you think that I meant 5-9 presenter does the UK opt out all day? That would be wayyyyyy too much, even for someone who's a workaholic.

They could reduce the amount of work by leaving one presenter handling the full 5-9 block, the UK opt presenter could be around from 9 when the ability to opt-out is on. They could do the One on the UK feed only and no other blocks for them if there is no domestic stories breaking. That way they would have less work.

One other option is to leave the One and the UK breaking opt to the 9-12 block presenter. That block is usually domestic-lead (World's dead hours) so no need to opt out. Besides, the World feed has HARDtalk for the 1030 half-hour while the UK feed does domestic stories. I don't think it would impact the channel that bad, editorially.