Ecologists have criticised plans to move ancient woodland habitat in the warwickshire countryside to make way for hs2 describing the idea as fundamentally flawed. Developers of the high speed line want to relocate the woodland, as our environment and Rural Affairs correspondent Claire Marshal explains. This tree is from part of an ancient woodland near Leamington Spa thats being cut down because its in the way of h52. It belongs to penny. She takes us through a bit of south Cubbington Wood that isnt being affected by the high speed line. She says this is what it looked like in the spring. This is what its like now. Its a bit of a kick in the stomach. Its a bit. Alarming, yeah. Its alarming. But, you know, just got to keep calm and go along with it. Ancient woodlands are at least 400 years old. Theyre rich in life, but there are only fragments left about 2 of land in the uk. Hs2 said it would translocate ones in the way of the line, which essentially means moving the habitat. So the train will be coming from london, in that direction. Those trees will go and it will be running at top speed right in front of me and on up to birmingham. They showed us what translocation looks like six months after part of an ancient wood was cut down. These posts around us are marking self germinating and translocated tree species, so weve got hazel, weve got silver birch and weve got oak. This is where ancient Woodland Stores have been translocated from what we refer to as the donor site to the receptor site here, and theyve been stripped in layers, tra nslocated here and put back in exactly the same way. Parliament approved the scheme, but the problem is, tra nslocation has never really been done before with such a complex ecosystem. Well, i think an ancient woodland is sort of like a turner masterpiece, and then translocation is like ripping up that masterpiece and throwing little bits of it somewhere else, and there is some semblance of the ancient woodland there but its not really quite the ancient woodland we had before, with all its beautiful complexity. In fact, hs2 now acknowledge that the evidence is limited. They say theyre planting seven million new trees as part of a green corridor. The question is, does it make up for this loss . Claire marshall, bbc news, warwickshire. Now on bbc news how is tiktok changing us politics and what influence will it have on the us election . Tiktok one of the Fastest Growing social media platforms in the world, and downloaded over 2 billion times. Micro entertainment has a bottomless well of content and that means hours of engagement every day. Normally the home for lip syncing teens and out of control pets, its Phenomenal Growth means its starting to change the world. What we are seeing on tiktok, i think we know more about politics and about the latest news. And nowhere more than in the us election, where donald trump and joe biden supporters are fighting for the future of their country on tiktok. I am a conservative and i am a trump supporter. Hey, bunker boy. Any time he opens his mouth, its good for content creators. More than 800 million of us have downloaded tiktok. Im sophia smith galer, bbc reporter and tiktok creator, and have been following political content on the app for months, and its not all good. Theres clearly a huge amount of hate speech. Theres a huge amount of divisive rhetoric. Will the influence of tiktok on its millions of young voters have a say in who gets the keys to the white house . With polling day less than two weeks away, the 2020 us president ial election is racing to the finish line. For months, the candidates have been vying for votes with Online Platforms becoming more and more important. But theres a new app in town thats blurring the lines between comedy, entertainment and politics. Tiktok is the most dense content format known to man. Josh constine is a Technology Expert and investor in social platforms like tiktok. Content density is the measure of how many oohs, aahs and hahas per second are contained in a piece of content, and this is how addictive it feels, how quickly it gets to the point. Tiktok videos last from a few seconds to one minute. Its rapid rise in popularity means it now has over 800 million users worldwide and forjosh, thats all down to content density. Theres some amazing examples of content density like this one, where two creators recreate the harry potter theme song using their washing machine. And they spent hours figuring this out and then nailing the take, the exact button pushes. It has 100 million monthly users in the us and is transforming how we consume online content content thats increasingly becoming political. We cant let the left take over the country. And also, make sure they vote for democrats. Democrats, they founded the kkk. Because this format gets its point across so quickly, you can actually trick people into hearing your message, even if they were to normally be opposed. Someone can make you care about that issue with a very high quality, quick, succinct tiktok. Were looking at tiktok, we may be banning tiktok. In the run up to this election, President Trump had threatened to shut down tiktoks us operations, and joe bidens Campaign Squad were effectively barred from using the video sharing app. But this hasnt stopped their fans using it. Hey, my names zoe and i am your average teenage tiktok addict. As someone who is voting in this upcoming election as a first time voter, i definitely think the politics on social media platforms, and especially on tiktok, can be very influential. Thanks, and dont forget to vote under 20 and female, zoe is your average tiktok user. She is also classic gen z the cohort born from the mid 90s to early 2000s and, for the most part, first time voters. Unlike facebook and youtube, paid political ads on tiktok are banned, but that doesnt mean people arent using it to campaign, orsimply learn about politics. Us voters i report on tiktok. I made a tiktok to see what americans had to say. And i want to hearfrom you. Duet this video to answer my questions. One, what do you think about politicians using this app, and do you follow any . I think its a great vehicle for people to express, like, what they support. Two, do you follow people who post about politics on here . Are they reliable . Do you learn much from them . People i follow arent necessarily political but they do speak on issues. I like to think i do that too. Three, do you think tiktok and the content on here could influence how you vote in this election . 0h, forsure. Its definitely influenced the way im voting. And theres one tiktok moment that summed up the app and its potential impact on voting and the election. I took part in the infamous tulsa rally prank on donald trump. Sings to the theme of my favorite things fox news and breitbart, fascism for days. These are a few of trumps favourite things. Maya nepos is tiktok content creator. Shes famous for her freestyle raps and has about 200,000 followers, which she mobilised in june. Yells trump, trump, trump it was in that month that donald trump organised a rally in tulsa, oklahoma. For him, it was a huge event a comeback rally to kick start his re Election Campaign after lockdown. Massive shout out for this epic idea. Had to try it. Google tulsa rally. You can put in fake information. I made a really short video about how easy it was to go to Donald Trumps website and sign up to, like, reserve a seat. And youre all set. Just sit back and remember, dont actually go. He was very convinced that there was really a Million People that wanted to go to his tulsa rally. And inside, acres of empty seats. The arena has a capacity of 19,000. The fire marshal today confirmed there were only 6,200 present. That was a great one of my favourite forms of activism. Harnessing the power of tiktok may have felt great for tiktokers like maya, but for one person, it was anything but. Its notjust individuals who are trying to get their political messages across. Trump did nothing wrong. There are now organised political collectives on tiktok, and they are called hype houses. Today i want to show you one of the funniest political ads ive ever seen, and it comes from. My name is aidan. I am 16 years old. My Tiktok Username that i regret making every day is politicaljew. Im jewish ive gotten that question a few times. Theyre like are you jewish . Im like why would i why would ijoke about being jewish . Thats such a weird thing to joke about. And i post mainly political and comedic content. I am so excited for the president ial debate tonight i just cannot wait its going to be so entertaining. Its gonna be so good that was the worst 90 minutes of my life. Aidan is a prolific tiktok poster and knows all about the hype houses. Theyre basically group accounts. People dont live together necessarily, but all they have the account password and username and they post videos on there. So there is the republican hype house, the conservative hype house, the democratic hype house, which i am part of. Aidan, youre 16. You cant even vote yet. But why are you spending so much time, then, on tiktok, talking about political issues . I think that growing up in dc and having very political parents, growing up in such a political environment, inspired me to a certain degree. When i got tiktok, i was like what videos am i going to make . What do i talk about the most . Politics do you support the cancel. Not really. Culture, the cosmopolitan elites of nancy pelosi, Chuck Schumer and joe biden . Yes, i do. Do you believe in american greatness . Not really. Believe in yourself . No. In President Trump . Definitely not. In individual and personal responsibility . Yeah, but not in the way that you wouldve. A lot of people assume that gen z isnt politically engaged. So that is not my experience. What we are seeing on tiktok and what were seeing with 24 hour news and just this Constant Media storm all the time, i think we are learning and we know more about politics and about the latest news. Gen z is totally its totally passionate and totally and totally wants to be civically engaged. The Product Design of tiktok means that the first page you land on is called the for you page, and aidans will almost certainly serve him left leaning content because it brings you videos based on your viewing habits. Its one of the most powerful recommendation algorithms on the internet. But its not just liberals posting content. A study revealed 60 more videos are created by republican leaning users than democrat ones on the platform. Joie culin is definitely a republican leaning user, and creator. Pro choice or pro life . Anti Death Penalty or pro Death Penalty . Follow parts of the constitution or not follow parts of the constitution . Joie belongs to the republican girls, a hype house with a huge following on the platform. We are all about republican and conservativism, creating a movement associated with todays america, but also, these girls are like my sisters. I mean, we have each others backs and we want to show that girls our age, gen z, girls that you can be a republican, it is ok. Are you excited for dc . Im super excited for dc. Could you talk us through the growth of republican girls and where youre at now . So whenever i firstjoined republican girls, we had around 40. 5k followers. And from there, we just took off. I mean, we grew 200,000 followers in a matter of four months. Which is insanity. And i am officially a co owner of the account and i mean, i take so much pride in our account. Its just boomed. Good morning, my neighbours hey, bleep you videos that do best and definitely videos that have humour in them. Tiktok is a safe space for people that want to just take a break from reality and see humorous, fun videos. So we really try to incorporate humour in all of them, so we can get that full 15 seconds, full 60 seconds, so it counts for that view, but also it gives out the message that were trying to display to our viewer. Go home to mommy go home. Bye go home to mommy a number of Voter Registration initiatives have been partnering with content creators to persuade more young people to register to vote. Hey, benedict donald. So were kicking you out in 86 days. Maya collaborates with one of these initiatives. Raps got my snacks, lunch is packed, ready for the attack. 86 days left until we 86 you. Tok the vote is a tiktok account that creates content persuading gen z to register to vote. Now, lets all vote and help him brighten up our starless night. I dont know specifically how many people, like, gen z that i have, like, registered to vote, but i know, like, 8,000 people have clicked the link in my bio that takes them to register to vote. So speaking to gen z where they are is probably the best way to get them engaged in politics and just getting them registered to vote. Tomorrow is the first president ial debate mayas success with her politically charged videos has not gone unnoticed by some big hitters on the campaign trail, who want to use her Online Presence to garner more votes. Ive been working with big time creative for about a month, theyre a group that was created by several upper level leaders for different democratic primary campaigns. They sponsored one of my posts to inform gen z on why they should register to vote. I dont want to make everything political, but we have to vote. They want to pay me to post them, so thats awesome. Um. Some people might be surprised that content creators are paid to do some of these videos. It seems really easy, especially when its like a as second video, or a is second video, but it takes a lot of time and also things like your equipment, like a lot of creators have ring lights and microphones and things like that. Whenever someone is paid to create content on tiktok, they should, according to Us Government rules and regulations, disclose that payment in the video. But plenty of creators like maya dont always do this. The problem is if you promote or attack a political candidate in the same video, it might quickly be construed as a political ad, and tiktok completely bans these. Tiktok were made aware of some of these videos on its platform, and they have since been removed. But what about the politicians themselves . Are they able to keep on side with tiktok . Well, deep in suburban minnesota theres a savvy incumbent whos showing that politicians can play by the rules and be down with the kids. So, small vibe, right . All right. Cross arms this time. State senator matt little is a rarity. A politician whos fully embraced the site, promoting himself, not his party. The most successful videos are all just self deprecating about either me or kind of my profession, i guess, as an elected politician. Techno dance music. So, our most successful video by far is a video of another senator who comes into my office. 0h, hi, thanks for checking in. Lam. Still a piece of garbage so, youve told a lot of your tiktok followers that youre still a piece of garbage . Oh, you got it down. Yeah. Have you actually told them about any of your policies . We absolutely have, in terms of education and healthcare, a lot of the work i have done to lower pharmaceutical prices in the us. And if it was just purely a popularity contest, it wouldnt be as useful for us as a platform. If we compare it to other platforms where you do have to pay money, basically, to get noticed, have you observed higher organic growth from tiktok than those other platforms . Well, i would say no other platform in my political career has gotten me an interview on bbc world news. So, im pretty happy with the success of tiktok in getting our message out to a wide audience techno dance music weve gotten a lot of anecdotal stuff while were out and about, like, i love your tiktok, i love your videos. In the last few days we have had two people say, i only know you because my daughter knows you from tiktok. Matt little, with over 150,000 followers, is one of tiktoks most followed american politicians. But this comes with its own problems. Well, certainly my opponents team is trying to use that against us and say im not very serious. Um, but when it comes time, and im on the senate floor, and im passing bills, i dont care how many tiktoks ive made or how many tweets i have sent. Im getting stuff done for my district and people know that. Senator little . Hey, vivian what matts doing on tiktok is all about soft power, influencing his electorate with comedy whilst getting his core message out vote for me in the upcoming state election. Windchime and glissando. Looks good, vivian but with a huge rise in political content on social media platforms like tiktok, some of the messages are more opaque. If someone approaches you and says this tiktok looks dodgy, how long does it actually take . Im with the institute for Strategic Dialogue in london, who scour the internet, checking the veracity of online content. We are interested whether its being used as a place to spread hate, disinformation and malicious content around the election. Have you found any evidence for tiktok videos being used to spread election misinformation . A huge amount. And the reality is you dont have to dig around to find it. So, one example, which is the very first video that comes up if you do a blanket search for votebymail on tiktok. 2020 is an extremely important year, and i can tell you, as i come from south africa, which is a communist country. The top recommendation under that hashtag is from a south african born american citizen. And after theyve ta ken everything, then they start to come for your land. So your freedoms will be gone. So, its hugely divisive, very scaremongering. Lets not vote by mail, because that is a huge piece of fraud. Tiktok are facing a very similar set of challenges to all of the other tech platforms over the last few years, theyre just facing them a lot more quickly as theyve entered this space just before the election in november, really. Its really an issue of enforcement, and there isnt yet a sense that tiktok have got in any way further ahead of the curve than the other platforms in terms of how theyre dealing with that problem. This is a promise. This video has now been taken down. But thats a drop in the ocean, given the sheer number of videos like this still on the site. And it is notjust misinformation thats got the isd worried. What are the main conspiracy theories that are being spread on tiktok, regarding the election . What weve seen here is a lot of conversations around the potential for fraud via mail in ballots, weve also seen covid i9 conspiracies kind of bleed over into political discussions. 0ne hype house account had a video two days ago, saying they cant wait for covid i9 to disappear after november 3rd, and they kind of left it hanging there, and the logical leap that people made in the comments made was covid i9 has been used and manipulated by the democrats to bash and criticise President Trump, and that after november 3rd, its going to simply disappear. This video was uploaded two days ago and by last count has 440,000 views, which are more than some news organisations could ever hope for on some of their content. This video was posted by the republican girls hype house. What doesjoie, who runs the account, think about misinformation on the republican girls videos . So, with misinformation, its very hit or miss. And this is whenever conservative censorship really takes place. You know, if something puts out something with a source that is wrong, we take that down immediately. If something is even remotely wrong, we take it down immediately. If something is debunked by fact checkers, and we check to see if it is actually wrong, and its not, then, we thats a red flag on the apps behalf. Just to clarify, you are saying that if you think one of the republican girls has posted something wrong, you take it down, if you realise its wrong . Yes, absolutely. We the last thing we want to do is spread misinformation. So, what is tiktok doing to police their site . Eric han is tiktoks head of safety in the us. Our strategy has always been the same. Which is detect, triage, prevent. I think one thing that we always recognise as well is we are always going to try to get to 100 as quickly as we can, but also recognise that, hey, were 99. 9 correct. That 0. I could lead to many mistakes. So that is the environment we live in and what were fighting again. Its not actually been very long that youve been able to report a tiktok video for misinformation. Why did that take so long to implement . We also recognise were a two year old company, but to your point, were seen as a ten year old brand. Right . I saw a tweet once that said tiktok is speed walking through everything the rest of the social platforms had 10 15 years to go through, right . So that includes our transparency reports, that includes making sure our reporting functions are there, and i think if you were to compare us to our peers, and you look at the whole landscape, there have been times and situations where i think weve caught things faster. For example, the nancy pelosi video that was manipulated to make her look like she was inebriated. Slowed down and then they had a press conference in the rose garden with all of this, um. That is something that we caught really, really quickly. And it did not reach more than four digits in video views, whereas on other platforms, and its easily discoverable. It racked up millions and millions of views. So i think there are going to be wins like that and there are going to be times where its going to be much harder to catch information like that. As the 2020 president ial race enters its final phase, the volume of tiktok election videos has intensified, and hype houses are now really pushing out their messages. Do you think tiktok is going to sway the election . Absolutely. A lot of younger people who may not have been as engaged in politics are more engaged now because of tiktok. I dont think that republican girls itself will sway the election, whether donald trump will win or lose. I do believe that more people will register to vote, i do believe more people go out and vote trump because of our influence. I do think tiktok is going to make a difference in this election. If youre someone whos registered to vote, and on november 2nd or even on november 3rd, you see it on your for you page, todays election day , youre gonna be like, oh my god todays election day. I gotta go vote. I guess content producers would say this, but what about josh constine, the tech expert . Gen z is the latest generation to gain access to the vote, and winning them could be crucial to the election. I think that this app could really get people out of their house and get to the polls. If you can go and shoot a tiktok over and over to get that perfect take, youre going to be willing to get out there and get to the polls. People talk about tiktok like its any other social media app, but that ignores this whole other world thats going on there. You dont only miss what is starting to dictate gen z culture, you also miss how older generations are trying to influence young people. If they do turn out to vote in this election, chances are that tiktok may well have had a lot to do with it. Hello. Saturday brought some extremely wet and rather blustery weather for many parts of the uk. It was a particularly soggy end to the day in eastern and south eastern parts of england. Not quite as wet for most of us on sunday. Still some heavy showers around, some blustery winds, but some sunny spells in between. You can see the speckled shower clouds here pushing in on our earlier satellite image. And its this stripe of cloud here that brought the heavy and persistent rain for many during the first half of the weekend. That is now clearing away. Low pressure still very much driving the weather, so it is going to be another windy day and that wind coming in from the west will drive a fair few showers across parts of northern ireland, western scotland, the western side of england and wales, and quite a few i think blowing in across southern counties of england as well. Not as many showers across the north east of england or eastern scotland. And we will see some spells of sunshine. But its going to be windy for all of us. These are the average wind speeds. The gusts will be higher than that. We could see gusts of 50 mph or more in the most exposed places in western scotland, where the showers could well turn into a spell of more persistent rain through the afternoon. Temperatures 11 14 degrees, a fairly cool feel. And it stays rather cool and blustery as we head through sunday night and into the early hours of monday. As you can see, therell be further showers moving in from the west. Some clear gaps in between those downpours, and temperatures generally in a range between 5 8 degrees. Now, monday is another sunshine and showers day, but a bit of a shift in the focus of those showers. They will increasingly become focused across northern ireland, england and wales, whereas for scotland, i think things should start to turn a little bit drier and we will see some spells of sunshine. Not as windy by this stage, but temperatures still struggling a little bit between 11 14 degrees. It does stay unsettled, though, through the coming week. Low pressure taking up residence to the north west, a deep low out in the atlantic, so thatll drive strong winds and showers across the uk, some longer spells of rain at times. And it may well be that for the end of the week, this weather system brings some more persistent wet weather, so the outlook looks like this. There will be some heavy rain at times and some brisk winds, a very unsettled autumnal week on the way. This is bbc news. Welcome if youre watching here in the uk or around the globe. Im aaron safir. 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