Loading summary
Transcript76 lines
- [00:00]
Faisal Islam
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
- [00:06]
Megan McCardell
Has the news been getting you down? I'm Megan McCardell and I'm here to help. I'm the host of a new show from Washington Post Opinion called Reasonably Optimistic and it's an antidote to the pessimism that's riddling America right now. Every Wednesday I'm going to talk to people who see a path forward.
- [00:23]
Chris Mason
It does seem to me that there is some awakening of a desire to act together to solve problems where they are. You know, I am a believer in America and it's worth fighting for.
- [00:32]
Megan McCardell
Join me Wednesdays on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [00:36]
Bleacher Report Advertiser
The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports right now. The NBA is heating up, March Madness is here and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I can follow the teams I care about, get real time scores, breaking news and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment.
- [01:09]
Chris Mason
So, Chris, did you catch the new US satirical show Saturday Night Live, except the UK version, SNL UK at the weekend?
- [01:18]
James Landale
I certainly caught the bit that went on to make news. I can't say I watched every frame of the whole show, but the bit that has made news since, I certainly did, yes.
- [01:28]
Chris Mason
And I think you mean this bit. This is how they opened the show. They called this the cold open in the States and it was a sketch about Sir Keir Starmer and the Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, apparently preparing for a phone call with President Trump. Now, let's have a listen and you can tell me what you made of the Keir Starmer impersonation by George4akers. Here we go.
- [01:53]
James Landale
Oh, crumbs. I just hate conflict so much.
- [01:58]
Faisal Islam
Are you referring to the war or this phone call?
- [02:00]
James Landale
Isn't there a way? I can not do both. I just want to keep him happy. Lammy.
- [02:08]
Chris Mason
Well, what did you think?
- [02:09]
James Landale
Well, I thought the voice, as the exchange went on, that was the absolute. For me, that was the absolute nub of the exchange and the mickey taking. I thought as the exchange went on that the voice got closer and closer to an obviously sent up version of the real thing. And I'm struck, James, that today when the Prime Minister was facing questions from MPs and we'll get onto this, he wanted to Point out about finding stuff out from America before it was public, which seemed to me just a little kind of tacit reflection that even though the thing, the relationships got a bit bumpy and people are taking the mickey out of it. Oh, and the President is posting these change on social media, that there is still a functioning relationship between Washington and London.
- [02:59]
Chris Mason
Yeah. And we are told that the Prime Minister, according to number 10, hasn't seen the clip. But that very fact that the President of the United States is posting without comment, a satirical clip on social media. I mean, just a reminder yet again of the strange world we live in with a TV president completely, that here
- [03:16]
James Landale
you have the reality TV president who loves social media and loves things that will travel far and wide on social media. And there you go. I mean, this is just, you know, we're used to diplomacy, kind of conventional diplomacy, and of course, that is a million miles away from the Trump playbook. And here comes case study number 7283.
- [03:40]
Faisal Islam
Yeah.
- [03:40]
Chris Mason
And 24 hours later, the real Prime Minister was actually on the phone to the actual President to discuss the. The latest situation in terms of the U. S. Israeli war on Iran. And that is what we're going to be talking about on this episode of
- [03:54]
Katrina Manson
Newscast, Newscast, Newscast from the BBC.
- [03:57]
Sadiq Khan
Fat boy sliver me in the classroom
- [03:59]
James Landale
doing our violin lessons.
- [04:00]
Chris Mason
I was the tattletale in the classroom. Can I have an apology, please? I trust almost nobody that daddy has
- [04:05]
James Landale
to sometimes use strong language.
- [04:07]
Chris Mason
Next time in Moscow, I feel Delulu with no Salulu. Take me down to Downing Street.
- [04:12]
Katrina Manson
Let's go have a tour.
- [04:14]
James Landale
Blimey. Hello, it's James in Glasgow and it's Chris at Westminster.
- [04:18]
Katrina Manson
It's Katrina in Washington and it's Faisal
- [04:21]
Faisal Islam
in the newscast studio.
- [04:23]
Chris Mason
Hello, everyone. Now, over the weekend on newscast, Paddy and Laura were talking about this ultimatum that President Trump had issued to Iran threatening to obliterate their various power plants, starting with the biggest one, first exclamation mark. Unless they reopen the Strait of Hormuz, this crucial choke point for about a fifth of the world's oil and gas. Katrina, just let's do this one step at a time. When was that original deadline supposed to expire? How long was it for?
- [04:52]
Katrina Manson
So the original deadline was for 48 hours, essentially. So that would run out very late tonight, whether you're in the East Coast, US Or UK time. So technically that original deadline still had many hours to run on it before President Trump's latest intervention.
- [05:10]
Chris Mason
And Chris, was the UK taking that threat seriously? Because it did seem to be a threat of a very significant escalation and potentially an escalation that would hit a lot of civilians. So was the UK worried about this? Did they think that this was all going to spiral out of control?
- [05:28]
James Landale
Absolutely, there was worry, but there was also, as I mentioned a second ago, an awareness in government that the Prime Minister talked about on Monday afternoon when he was talking to MPs on the liaison committee of Senior Select Committee chairmen and women, that the UK did know that these talks between the US And Iran were, were happening. But I think, you know, when I speak to people, James, in government privately, they acknowledge just the kind of, the fundamental reality of dealing with a Trump White House, which is that half the time they're guessing, just like the rest of us, about what he, what they might do next. So, of course, it makes sense to take seriously any deadlines that this President sets. But there's also an awareness that you may get to a point before that deadline where the script is then rewritten again. But then that's not to say it might not be rewritten once again 24 hours later. And so the Prime Minister is pretty candid when he's asked about, you know, the implications, whether in the very short term, hours ahead, the kind of medium term of days or weeks, the longer term of months and beyond, when it comes to all of the questions that spiral from this conflict and effectively acknowledges he doesn't know.
- [06:43]
Chris Mason
Yeah. And then to exactly what you're saying. We get this post out of nowhere on President Trump's platform, Truth, Social. Let's just quote a bit of it. One of the all capitals posts. I am pleased to report that the United States of America and the country of Iran have had over the last two days very good and productive conversations. And the President goes on in his message based on the tenor and tone of these in depth, detailed and constructive conversations, which will continue. He says he has instructed the Department of War to postpone any and all military strikes. And he talks about those being against the Iranian power plants, the energy infrastructure, for a five day period, subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions. So then, of course, Katrina, there's a whole load of debate, as there always is, with these messages out of the blue from President Trump completely shaking everything up yet again. What is this, a signal? Is it a temporary reprieve? Is it the wind down towards the end of war? How will Iran respond? I mean, what was your. How are people reading it there in Washington D.C. here?
- [07:51]
Katrina Manson
People are scrambling to find out just what is going on and Whether in fact there were talks or not, because shortly after the president posted that, and it was around about 7am in the morning here, so before the markets opened, crucially, the Iranians then came out and said, well, we weren't having any talks. We don't know what the president is talking about there. So were there talks? Were there not talks? We're sort of clueless about that at the moment. The president has spoken a few times today, and he said this time and again about these great discussions that they're having with the Iranians. And we just keep getting remarks from the Iranians saying they're not having any direct talks or any negotiations or any discussions. They said they did receive calls from some sort of friendly intermediate countries asking them to have talks with the US but that that hadn't happened yet.
- [08:44]
Megan McCardell
So.
- [08:44]
Katrina Manson
So it's curious as to whether the president was sort of giving this information to try and regulate the markets a little bit, which have had a fairly rough time of it over the last few weeks. Is it that he's sort of leading up to this position? He laid the groundwork for last week of being prepared to declare victory. From a US Perspective, they've had great military successes in their campaign in Iran so far. Their strategy points well, that's less been less successful so far. It's possible that what the president is talking about, these talks that the Iranians say aren't happening, that there is a tradition there of both countries maybe doing a bit of in the media diplomacy and trying to force issues so us mere mortals aren't privy fully to what's going on behind the scenes. But I suspect this isn't the last we've heard, even just today from President Trump talking about this because he is due to have a few more engagements later on.
- [09:45]
Chris Mason
Yeah. I also think it presumes a lot of the world's assessment of this presumes that there's some sort of unified Iranian regime at the moment and that it isn't fragmented. I mean, one part of the regime might well say there are no talks. They might not know about them. There might be talks with another part. Does that part have the authority? I mean, there's a whole lot of questions. But to come back to your. To pick up on your point about markets, Katrina with Faisal. I mean, Faisal maybe take us back to, you know, first of all, how did the markets respond to the initial deadline? And then how did they respond? Yet another roller coaster for. And not just the markets. I mean, we've got various things, don't we, the oil price, we've got shares, we've got government borrowing, government lending rather, and the bond markets.
- [10:31]
Faisal Islam
I have, I struggle to remember like such an across the board wild riders we've had today and you have crashes sometimes but this, this was quite an extraordinary series of events. So you're absolutely right to remind everybody that the first thing this morning we had the reaction to what you were talking about over the weekend, which was the, the escalation, the threat desalination plants versus energy infrastructure, you know, as escalatory as you could possibly imagine on both sides. And the markets reacted. Stock markets in Asia fell, the oil price went up to three or four dollars a barrel. And as you mentioned, and this is really important, this is the effective interest rate on government debts also shot up, including for the UK the so called gilt rate all the way up to 5.12%. And you know, we thought problematic when it goes over five. So it was going higher and higher and higher. Then bang, up comes this truth social post that you've just described and it all, it just kind of hugely rebounded, went into reverse. And let me just pick on the oil, the oil price for example, that fell percent within seconds essentially. But then when Iran denied it was back up 10% and then it's moved more than 5% up or down another four times today.
- [11:46]
Chris Mason
Oh my goodness.
- [11:47]
Faisal Islam
Same on gas. You can, I'm sort of drawing out the chart here. Same for, same for gas. And then you know, the really is really interesting in terms of the effect on us here in the UK was the, what we call the guilt yield, the effective cost of government borrowing. And essentially to cut a long story short, that is a verdict on how inflationary, the wave from the Gulf which will eventually hit us, how that will be and therefore the requirement for, for the bank of England, for example, to raise interest rates to combat this wave of inflation domestically. And at one point there was the assumption that interest rates, and remember just a few weeks ago before the conflict, the assumption would have been that there was going to be a cut or two. At one point this morning before the Trump Post four rate rises was what was being assumed by the markets. That's down to sort of two and a half, three now. So still and so, and so that sort of gives you the sense of where we are, which is essentially this, which is so the markets have rebound, they rebounded, they went bounced back in the other direction and they're now, they're now still better than they were, but they're worse obviously than they were before the conflict started. Which shows, I think, the market's confused, as all of us are confused as diplomats, but starting to assume that you have to plan for this not lasting weeks, but lasting months.
- [13:10]
Chris Mason
So I suppose the really big question here, Chris, is why has Donald Trump made this change and has he been bounced into it by the markets? Has he looked at what's happening to the economy and decided, oh, I, I better, I better retreat a bit here from these really, really, really loud threats?
- [13:33]
James Landale
Well, you begin to wonder, don't you? And Katrina, I'll be fascinated about your take on this, that the combination of various things, one, there's the markets, one, there's how things are going down amongst America's usual allies, and then there's American public opinion and a public opinion within, within and amongst those who backed Donald Trump for the presidency in a campaign where he was emphasizing, you know, the, the sort of futility of foreign conflict, as he often articulated it, and America not getting drawn into, into such things. So, you know, where we divine the sort of proportional significance to attach to each of those, I think is a, is an interesting question. But then also, where do things go next if there are twists in the coming hours and days that he's not anticipating and how does he respond to those? And then from the government at Westminster's perspective, and indeed, you know, Western governments beyond America as well, how do they go about anticipating what might come next, making contingency plans? This was the subject of the COBRA Contingencies Committee meeting that was happening in Westminster on Monday evening, involving the bank of England governor and plenty of cabinet ministers. How do they begin to imagine the scenarios that they might be confronted with, both in the sort of short and medium term? How do they wrestle with what might be affordable given the scale of government intervention in recent years with other energy shocks that there have been, and indeed the pandemic into the mix too, alongside the full scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia. All of these things swirl with that big picture question of the longevity of the conflict, which kind of underpins so many of the subsequent questions about how long the implications of this go on. All of those are still, you know, impossible for those in government here to answer because they can't be certain. Or to put it another way, have no idea what Donald Trump might do next.
- [15:33]
Katrina Manson
We do know that he's motivated by money and he's motivated by the markets.
- [15:37]
Chris Mason
Right.
- [15:37]
Katrina Manson
We saw that with the tariffs last year in the wake of Liberation Day. As soon as there was a nervousness around treasury bills, he stepped in and took action here. We see, as Feisal so eloquently articulated there, the chaos on the markets. If you look at the price of petrol at the pumps here in the US which was the one big win that President Trump had out of his first year in office, that he was able to say he had brought down the price of petrol, or price of gas, as they say here. The price of petrol just in the last month since this war began, has gone up by a dollar a gallon, and the price of diesel has gone up by $1.50 a gallon.
- [16:17]
Chris Mason
So.
- [16:17]
Katrina Manson
So if you're going in to fill up your car, your van or whatever, that's a level of an increase that you really, really, really notice in your wallet. And so people are now starting to push back to their local representatives about what is this all about? We had a poll from CBS YouGov over the weekend, and more than 90% of people had said they'd noticed the price of petrol going up, and they're very unhappy about that because obviously, we have a cost of living crisis here and an affordability crisis that we've been talking about since before the presidential election in 2024. And we know what a key indicator that was. So I think you have those two factors pushing on President Trump and the team around him. Then the other kind of factor you have pushing, again is how the allies are responding, as you've just been talking about there as well, and the sense that the US Is quite isolated here with Israel and there cleave in their sort of two objectives from this war as well. You know, we heard all those points of President Trump kind of seeming to suggest the job was done. We have a statement out from Prime Minister Netanyahu today. He's been speaking to President Trump. The statement just came in, actually, since we started recording the pod here. But in that Prime Minister Netanyahu speaking about his conversation about President Trump, you know, and how he believes there is an opportunity to leverage the tremendous achievements, as he put it, that we've reached alongside the US to realize the goals of the war through an agreement, an agreement that will safeguard our vital interests. So he's talking about an agreement. We're not hearing anything about an agreement elsewhere, just this conversation about talks, as we were discussing a few moments ago. But the Israeli prime minister continues to say, at the same time, we are continuing to strike in both Iran and Lebanon. We are smashing the missile program and the nuclear program. We continue to deal severe blows to Hezbollah. Just a few days ago, we eliminated two more nuclear scientists and we are still active. We will safeguard our vital interests under all circumstances. So no suggestion from Prime Minister Netanyahu that his campaign is getting anywhere near an end either. So there is this sense that the President is now torn between sort of international pressure, if you like, and domestic and financial pressure as well.
- [18:45]
Chris Mason
Yeah. And actually, as you say, you know, strikes have actually continued. It's not as if there's a pause here. I mean, the military action has continued throughout the day. And I actually want to come onto that point that we've all sort of nudged at and hinted at, which is a bit more about how this might affect newscasters, especially here in the uk. But before that, let's just clear something up about these talks, Chris, because we actually have heard from the Prime Minister addressing MPs at this Liaison committee meeting, which is a meeting of some senior MPs, basically, who chair various committees around Westminster. You can tell us a bit more about that in a minute, but let's hear the Prime Minister, first of all, because he said he actually was aware, to some degree at least, of talks between Washington and Tehran.
- [19:33]
Sadiq Khan
I welcome the talks reported between the US and Iran. And to be clear with the committee, we, the UK were aware that that was happening. And the immediate priority has to be a swift resolution of the conflict and delivering a negotiated agreement which puts tough conditions on Iran, particularly in relation to nuclear weapons.
- [19:59]
Chris Mason
And so, Chris, we've heard reports of UK officials actually being present at talks between Iran and the US in the. When are we reading too much into this to think that the UK has any diplomatic involvement here other than being briefed? I mean, again, it's sort of more questions than answers from what the Prime Minister is saying there, because again, we don't really know talks with whom, at what level, about what. You know, it's so frustratingly vague. Unless you can shed total light on it all.
- [20:27]
James Landale
Sure. I mean, certainly what I took away from it, as we were pondering a little earlier, was just the recognition from the Prime Minister and a desire to volunteer publicly that when. When it was news to us that these talks, whatever they amounted to, were happening, it was not news to him. So in the context of that clip we played at the beginning of the pod today about, you know, the sketch on Saturday Night Live UK and all of the barbs that the President's been throwing in the Prime Minister's direction publicly, et cetera, et cetera, a nod from the Prime Minister that underneath that remains a functioning diplomatic relationship where the UK is briefed on things that are not yet in the public domain. So I think it was a desire, a noted desire, I thought, from the Prime Minister to volunteer that alongside. By the way, him saying when he was asked about the whole nature of these barbs lobbed in his direction, that in his view, he knows what's going on there. This is the President putting pressure on him publicly. And in the view of the Prime Minister, he'll remain sort of resolute in what he has articulated as his sense of what's in the. In the British national interest, which is to take a, you know, markedly different approach from the. From the White House.
- [21:39]
Chris Mason
Yeah. And the Prime Minister was actually asked, Faisal, about cost of living pressures at the. This liaison committee meeting. Can you tell us a bit more about. And I'm sure lots of newscasters would be very interested to hear your take on what does this mean for newscasters. What does this mean for us all?
- [21:58]
Faisal Islam
Well, the unhelpful answer, just to preface everything, is, it depends on. Obviously that's totally fair and we've heard about the volatility in markets, and obviously that directly feeds through to the gas and the oil price, which then feeds through into the petrol and the. Eventually from July would feed through into domestic energy prices. It should be said that there's other things going on in this COBRA meeting and actually we should step back and say it's quite unusual for a sort of preemptive economic COBRA meeting like this to happen. So that's the first thing I'd say. I would have expected it more around the issue of critical supply chains, the petrol supply, which he said that there was no problem with, perhaps things that are less well known, like the supply of fertilizers, which comes from urea, which is disproportionately a byproduct of what is refined in the Gulf. Things like helium, which matters hugely for the tech industry because you need helium to make microchips. You know, there's all sorts of other sort of unknown little quarries of the world economy that are dependent on. On that blockage in the Straits of Hormuz that I frankly didn't even know about before it started to happen. But if we take that critical factor of the domestic fuel prices and the impact of gas and oil prices on. On that. The sense I get from talking to government and I've spoken to the Chancellor, I've spoken to the government, bank of England, I've spoken to some of the energy bosses over the past week is that there is time here, there is time both to establish what the problem is, how Long lived this conflict is. But you also have three months before the energy cap resets. And right now the expectation is that that energy cap will, will increase a typical household due fuel dual fuel bill to about 1950. Remember that the energy price guarantee from four years ago kicked in at two and a half thousand. So you still got a bit of a way to go. It has been dramatic in markets. It isn't quite the heights, the dizzy heights of the gas price that we saw during Russia, Ukraine. Nonetheless, I think the interesting thing here, we spoke about this on newscast a couple days ago with Chris is the preemptive need from across politics for some sort of package to be prepared in advance of it even necessarily being hugely needed. So if it's needed, what we, I think we can say is and then this also reflects back onto what I was talking about in terms of government bond yields. That is also maybe a little, little raised eyebrow about an open ended fiscal commitment of tens of billions. You know, you, the markets are saying you might want to think about whether you want to offer such open ended commitments. So all the, all the vibes, all the mood music I've had from the Chancellor and other people is if something's being prepared, they really want to make it targeted. And instead of the tens of billions I think you're talking a few billion. And indeed the thing we have had which is heating oil, whilst important at 50 million, is relatively modest and highly targeted on the, on the very poorest. So they're waiting for certainty and they're waiting to come up with some sort of, I think package that could provide support in a targeted way. Now if things do escalate and all goes to 150, maybe they have to rethink that. How they'll afford that though is, is a real question. And the last thing I'll leave to is the, is how the politics and economics are intertwined. The energy price cap will get announced in May, I think in the days after the aftermath of the labor, sorry, the, the, the local election results and possible action. Chris will know more about this in terms of labor leadership and you can imagine a dynamic here. I just float this where the two things interact and if you like, if there are some leadership noises, let's just call them that. Are they going to be on the left suggesting that bond deals don't matter, suggesting the fiscal rules don't matter, suggesting that, you know, tens of billions is fine? You know, you can start to see something as the key staging post in May on this quite complicated interlinked journey between geopolitics, economics and domestic politics.
- [26:14]
James Landale
Yeah. And that economic and political tightrope is what the Prime Minister and the Chancellor find themselves walking down right now and throwing into the mix in the very short term is the sense that they want to give off the impression that they are clearly treating this seriously and examining all the potential ramifications of where things might go. And that means doing the groundwork now about what. What might be feasible in terms of support that could be offered, what mechanisms might exist to work out where you draw the line, what frameworks are there, say, within the Department of Work and Pensions or elsewhere, that might create. Might make it easier to deliver targeted support, clearly, in these situations, the easiest in purely logistical terms. Amount of support is a universal thing, because you don't have to work out where your cliff edges are and where somebody qualifies and where somebody doesn't. But all the mood music, publicly and privately, is an awareness that. That in all likelihood, wouldn't be affordable. And so there's clearly a lot of stress testing going on about where those. Where those lines might be drawn. There's also an awareness around. Giving off a reassuring vibe, not wanting to see any sense of panic in the short term, particularly around, say, petrol and diesel. And then there's, as Faisal hints at. Absolutely. The politics. We saw that intervention from the former Deputy Prime Minister, Angelo Rayner last week, albeit in a. In a different part of, if you like, the political woods around immigration policy, but absolutely. The Prime Minister and Chancellor and others keenly aware of the argument that will no doubt gather ahead of steam the other side of the elections in early May, with the likelihood now, as we approach late March, that these two things are. Are going to overlap.
- [28:04]
Chris Mason
Katrina, just before you go, this is a terrible question to ask you, really, but when do you think we'll next hear from President Trump? And I know that you can hear from him any second and any moment. I mean, it's on demand.
- [28:15]
Katrina Manson
Hold on.
- [28:16]
Chris Mason
I know, I know.
- [28:17]
Katrina Manson
Let me consult my sick. Meg, get my bottle.
- [28:19]
Chris Mason
I'm sorry, but is there anything scheduled? Like, is he due to be in front of the media soon or again or. I mean, you never know. It's a stupid question. Never mind. It's a stupid question.
- [28:28]
Katrina Manson
No, it's not. It's not. It's not, actually. And I will pull up his diary here if you bear with me one minute, because we've already hear from him three times today, you know, as he's traveling around. Yeah, only three. Well, it's only 3pm or so. In the afternoon here.
- [28:45]
Chris Mason
He's under here as well, don't you? You wonder while you're looking that up how much pressure he's under.
- [28:49]
Katrina Manson
He. Well, you know, he's, I mean, as I was alluding to earlier, he is under massive pressure domestically here there. You can't oversell just how little support there is here in America for what he's doing. Poll after pollution comes out either saying completely opposed to the initial strikes and to carrying them on. And even from his most loyal supporters, vast majorities want it wrapped up immediately, declare victory and get out of there. Even from, you know, the most ardent so called MAGA supporters. And there is a little fraction within the MAGA base, but the people who are opposed to it within the MAGA base are very loud. So the polling isn't backing up what the podcasters are saying, if you like. But I was speaking to a whole pile of Republicans and MAGA people over the last week or so and the kind of universal theme that was coming across was we're in favor of what he's doing in Iran and in terms of, you know, what is perceived to be or being described by the President as making America safer by making sure Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon. But what everyone is not in favor of is the methodology that the President has gone about not having a big address to the nation, explaining to the country why he was going to war with another nation and also how the timeline has slipped. Like that initial video in the middle of the night, early hours of the morning on that Saturday talked about a multi day operation. We're now heading for a month. There are more and more reinforcements, military reinforcements heading for the Gulf. They won't be there for a couple more weeks. It looks like when you speak to military strategists that this could be weeks or months more of an operation. You have the President, notwithstanding all his talk about a deal or no deal in the last few hours, saying just on Friday he wasn't interested in a ceasefire. So the mood music coupled with the Prime Minister of Israel's determination to keep this going and keep striking does sort of suggest something much longer. But I can tell you there are two more opportunities that we'll have today to hear from President Trump. He's in Memphis, Tennessee right now and then he'll make his way back. So given how loquacious he's been so far, he may say more as the day is out. And the other bit of reporting just to bring to you on that issue of talks or no talks, deal or no, deal is, some of the outlets here in the US are reporting there may be talks later in the week in Pakistan and that the vice president, J.D. vance, would be leading that U.S. delegation to what would be, at that point, direct talks with Iran. Now, I'll just put a gigantic health warning on that, that we have not stood that up here at the BBC ourselves at this point, but many of the US media outlets are reporting rumblings in that direction, so we'll see what happens. But, I mean, an hour is a long time in this sort of situation, let alone a few days.
- [31:51]
Chris Mason
You can say that again.
- [31:52]
James Landale
I love the use of the word loquacious.
- [31:54]
Chris Mason
Me too. I was going to comment on that as well. Tremendous word and a very apt one, a good one. Listen, I know you have to go, Faisal, I know you have to go too. So, Katrina, thank you very much.
- [32:04]
Katrina Manson
You are so welcome. Talk soon.
- [32:06]
Chris Mason
Faisal, thank you very much as well.
- [32:08]
Faisal Islam
Thank you.
- [32:09]
Chris Mason
Chris. There's another really important thing that we just need to talk about before you go, because the other thing that Sakir Starmer was asked about at this liaison committee meeting was this attack in North London in Golders Green, on four ambulances run by a Jewish volunteer medical charity. What more do we know about that? What did the Prime Minister have to say about it?
- [32:33]
James Landale
Yeah, the disgust we've heard articulated by political leaders here today is what you'd expect, really, waking up on Monday morning to this news of this arson attack on these Jewish charity owned ambulances. It's being treated as an anti Semitic hate crime, it's being investigated by counter terror officers. That's what the Metropolitan Police are saying. So there was these four ambulances set on fire in the early hours of Monday. There were then several explosions caused by the gas canisters that are on board ambulances. And the Prime Minister, articulating his horror, his disgust at what's happened, he said when he was talking to MPs that replacement ambulances are going to be provided pretty much straight away. And in time the NHS will fund the long term replacement of these ambulances. And Mayor of London Sadiq Khan talking about it being a dark day for London. And we've heard, as we have repeatedly, haven't we, in recent years, from Jewish community leaders of that fear, from so many Jews, of the threat that they face, the fear that they face. We heard it after the attack in Greater Manchester at the synagogue there. You hear it in the context of this latest attack and as I say, a concern expressed across politics really, about just how grim this is. Frankly, yes.
- [34:07]
Chris Mason
Chris, thanks very much for bringing us up to date on that. Thank you for everything. Nice to talk to you.
- [34:11]
James Landale
Cheers.
- [34:13]
Chris Mason
And just a reminder that if you are interested in applying for tickets to join Chris and Adam and lots of other BBC podcasters at Cast Fest, which is on 25 April, then the link for tickets is in the episode description. But that's all from us. Bye for now.
- [34:28]
Katrina Manson
Newscast Newscast from the BBC.
- [34:30]
Newscast Producer
Thank you so much for making it to the end of Newscast. You clearly copyright Chris Mason Ooze Stamina. Can I just encourage you to subscribe to us on BBC Sounds? Don't forget you can email us anytime. It's newscastbc.co.uk and if you would like to join our Discord community to talk about everything newscast related, there is a link in the description of this podcast and don't be scared. It's super easy to click on it and then get set up. Or you can WhatsApp us on 033-0123 9480 and I promise you we read and listen to every single message. Thanks for listening to this podcast.
- [35:10]
Chris Mason
Bye.
- [35:18]
Bleacher Report Advertiser
The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports right now. The NBA is heating up, March Madness is here and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I can follow the teams I care about, get real time scores, breaking news and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment.