arrested a 36-year-old man on arrested a m-year-old man on sus-icion of - arrested a 36-year-old man on suspicion of murder— - arrested a 36-year-old man on suspicion of murder in _ - arrested a 36-year-old man on suspicion of murder in connection - suspicion of murder in connection with the discovery of two suitcases containing human remains in bristol. police have withdrawn an appeal for information about a colombian international. and barbora krejcikova is wimbledon champion — the czech player beats italy's jasmine paolini to win the women's singles title for the first time. i will try and get my teeth for the top of the hour. now, it is newscast. newscast from the bbc. hello, it's adam in the newscast studio. and it's laura in the newscast studio. and it's me next to you and opposite adam. thank you for that very detailed description of the geography of the studio. everyone can picture us now. so yeah, this is newscast, which is the bbc�*s daily news podcast available, well, every day on bbc sounds.

we've been talking about the election here on radio 4, live for the last few weeks. now we're going to talk about the new government. i'm just thinking the last time we were sat in this seating arrangement a week ago, the cabinet were getting used to their new seating arrangement in downing street. there was one seat left to declare in the election. and now it's...that's just daily life. that's not different any more. that's true. this is the new universe. and somebody in the new cabinet said to me this morning, it now already feels like such a long time. the campaign, election night, the gasps of breath as the exit poll dropped already feels to them, this one particular member of the cabinet, as if it was another lifetime. and yet other labour ministers i've been talking to still are talking about the penny not quite dropping. somebody said, "i was driving along in my constituency and i suddenly thought, oh, god, we've got a labour government and oh, god, it's me, you know?"

so i think this huge change, because it is also just a change of personnel, right? changes in huge human experience as well as profound changes in the government and the make—up of the politicians who lead the country. but it's a strange, strange moment in people's lives as well as this very rapid transition in terms of administration of who's running the country. and it is rapid. i mean, it's one week, they've all had their removal vans in. they've left, they've all been replaced. and there's been no march on parliament. there's been no dispute of the result. there's been a very gracious speech given by rishi sunak, who's now escaped the clutches of the australian person who pulled his strings and can now speak for the united kingdom. and it was a very gracious, gracious speech. it will be historically seen as gracious. and it's, for me, it's a book end of his catastrophic, rain—soaked opening of the whole thing. and it's important people say, voters like me say, well done on making a gracious speech, mr sunak, because we don't want everything to be cynical and just spotting range rovers.

so this tone now of this new government is definitely trying to set a different tone. they say repeatedly that politics is now back in the service of people, rather than in terms of political shenanigans. and adam, they have had an extraordinarily busy first seven days in office. yeah, i was going to say it's one of these things you realise that some of the things we say are a little bit performative. what?! what, we? so during the election campaign, during the election campaign going, "oh, well, do you know what? if keir starmer becomes prime minister, i mean, straightaway he's going to have to go to washington for the nato summit," as if like, oh, if it was you or me having to do that, i'd be like, yeah, that would be quite a shock. but actually, no, he's been preparing for this. he's got a team and there's the huge whitehall machine preparing for whoever�*s. . .for the prime minister to go to washington, to go to nato. so actually, it's sort of a bit of a myth that it's like, "ooh, in at the deep end." and yet and we'll talk about nato in a second, and yet one of the things that we have seen this week that we, dare i say it, predicted a bit last week, is that cabinet ministers have

already been getting busy saying, "we are so shocked, shocked, i tell you, by the terrible things which we have discovered." now, i'm not suggesting for a second that i know what it feels like to suddenly become a cabinet minister — perish the thought. don't worry, dear listener, that is not something that is ever going to happen. however, i'm sure there is a moment of profound realisation and clearly behind the doors of the department of health or the department ofjustice, there may well be nasties that incoming ministers had not been completely aware of. however, dear listener, be aware that we have also seen this week what you might pretentiously call a narrative shift, and the government is quite deliberately trying to draw a new sort of baseline and say, "hello, country, things are worse than we thought and therefore give us a break. give us a bit more time. please, please have patience." and i love to hear you sum it up like that because you know he was mocked, old keir, for saying, "i'm the son of a toolmaker," but really he's like the builder who comes

in and goes, "ooh, ah, well, i took the skirting board off and then you won't believe it, mrs kuenssberg, but the bricks..." go on, do that sucking thing that they always do. and ooh. he inhales. "and then actually we think in the party wall your neighbour's got a cannabis farm, which, which they're running off your electricity, hot—wired your meter." and they've left all the air. shall we actuallyjust do, like, a little catalogue of all these things that ministers are saying? so the first one, i think, was rachel reeves, actually. she did a big speech at the treasury with lots of civil servants, apparently some of whom were crying to have a female boss for the first time because it was that inspirational. and she, and it was like a little bit of the speech that didn't get as much attention as the rest of it because it was about planning reforms. she says she's going to do a sort of audit by the end of this month. and she used a weird phrase like "the spending inheritance" we've been bequeathed. now, what surprised me about that was like, you don't need to do an audit because there's a thing called the blue book, which the office for budget responsibility produce

every year, which i go back to quite regularly because it is a massive list of everything that has to be spent, everything that's been pledged, what the economy is doing and what the consequences are for spending and tax raising. so it's all there already. she just needs to get the blue book out. i could lend her mine. and wes streeting is doing the same at the department for health. he said it's broken. he says it's broken and he's getting ara darzi, who's a very well respected peer and medic himself... and a former labour minister. and a former labour minister, to come in and do an nhs review. except guess what? ara darzi has already done reviews of the nhs. i think he did one back in 2018, so you can see, and i think, look, there is a genuine, "look we want to know how grisly the warts and all reality is when we've said and we've campaigned on the fact that things are really terrible, but we genuinely do want everything out in the open." there is, however, also a political story being told here. so i think the two things are both true at the same time. yeah, ijust wanted... i'm risking interrupting because ijust thought there was a useful list we were doing, which was you did the spending review at the treasury.

spending for nhs. you had earlier mentioned justice. prisons, yes. we are releasing prisoners early, which the conservatives were going to do as well. and already had been doing. and so we see that you change the government, but you can't change the facts on the ground, which is that there are no more prison places. now, the public have a big say in this. it's very easy to blame the conservatives and labour. the public have broadly supported longer sentences. the public don't like letting cons out. they want people to be punished. the system, however, doesn't accurately reflect the fact that we do not rehabilitate people at the right rate. so many of the prisons are full with people who've already been in them before. that's right. and there is also an issue of covid delays. so this is still one of the profound problems. i think there are about 7000 people — and forgive me, i don't have that figure in front of me — but from talking to people in government about this over recent months, there are about 7000 people who are part of the backlog

from covid, when the courts obviously reduced the amount of people they were going through. the question about this, though, is that the prison capacity numbers have been out there in the public domain for months and months and months. in the campaign, we asked shabana mahmood when she was shadowjustice secretary. she's now justice secretary. we said, "so, if you win, are you going to have to continue with early release? because the whole thing is a pressure cooker and the lid might blow off." and she wouldn't say. now, she didn't rule it out, but she wouldn't say. and it was one of the things that labour was allergic to spelling out during the campaign. now, from a political reason, no—one�*s going to put on a leaflet, "we're going to let prisoners out early." however, it's a really good example of the immediate difference between what you say when you're trying to win and what you then tell the public when you are suddenly in the chair that's got a big thing saying "you're it" on the back. and when you appoint... but that's what it is though, isn't it? "it's on you guys." well, the prisons minister they've appointed, one of the goats, james timpson, has said that a third of people in prison don't

need to be in prison. he hasn't said that from his official "you're it" chair. no. but i think the mirror... i think should we make the "you're it" chair a thing? i want to get one made. let's make it. the mirror, i think, had the really the best lateral thinking about this. it said, "most people in the criminaljustice system think there are too many women in prison." they go in for a different sort of crime. you could reversion the women's prisons, release more women than men. and i'm saying to you and me as a listener to radio 4, i'm not sure that had the coverage it should have had. i think that's an amazing bit of new thinking that was in my daily mirror and has not been on my airwaves. and what we don't know yet is, what we don't know yet is in that department, are they going to essentially try to do a bit more of the same, manage things a bit better, build the extra 20,000 prison places? they have said they'll do that, which is what the conservatives said they were going to do too. or will there, in this new government, be space for that kind of much bolder thinking,

which we knowjames timpson as a minister believes should happen, but it's not clear at this stage if this government is, in that particular area, and frankly, all sorts of other areas too, are they going to try and be much better, more effective administrators, or are they really, really going to turn things upside down. 0r look at it another way, they could end up being quite lucky. so actually, there's been so much back and forth about building new prisons, going back for the last 15 years and lots of promises to build them, and then they don't get built, and then a whole new programme to build new ones that then doesn't happen quick enough. there are going to be two new prisons opening this year and a third one opening next year. so actually, shabana mahmood might be the beneficiary of a bonanza of new prison places. so having to take the short—term hit of letting people out slightly earlier than they were already being let out early, but then actually loads of new prison places open up in the next few months. and it reminds me of the gdp figures

this week where actually the economy grew quite a lot last month without labour having to do anything yet. well, people often have said about keir starmer is that he is a lucky general and if england wins the football tomorrow night, i mean, someone in downing street yesterday was sort of laughing to me yesterday about, "oh, my goodness, that would be the luckiest thing we could ever do to pick up the public mood." i know not everyone�*s a football fan. i know not everybody is an england fan. however, there are certain things that labour wants you to know are not their fault and they don't want to be blamed for, and they're making that case. there are, will be or may be more things that they will be very happy to take credit for, even though perhaps they might not have been anything to do with them. in case you've got the radio on, you'vejust turned on, you're wondering what on earth is going on... well, i think we're all doing that. it is 11:13 and you are listening to newscast, which is the bbc�*s daily podcast, and for this short time we have been unleashed on the unsuspecting radio [i listener. this is the last time. it is, yes, ourfriends

at the week in westminster will be back next saturday, so if you're hating this, don't worry, we'll be gone soon. there's only 17 minutes left ever. yeah, right now, take immediate action. dear mr smith, dear mrs trellis, we've received your email. i was going to give you the opportunity to do a little historical side bar, a little historical parallel with england's being in the final of the eurosjust after a big labour victory, what major international event happened just after tony blair's victory in 1997, that you're a world expert in? 0h. 0h, eurovision? eurovision, we won eurovision! there is historical precedent for this. love shine a light in every corner of the globe. is that what blair said on the steps of downing street? i don't remember him saying that. boom, bang—a—bang. dolnot...? yes, i think the thing is, can i go back as well in time? if there is a victory for one of the home nations, they're still in the final,

so it's still a feel—good weekend. i mean, i know people will wish there'll be a victory, but it's still a bounce for pubs. there could be an interest rate cut in august. now, i know some people think i'm a bit previous when i mentioned this before and it's not a done deal, but then you've got to imagine if rishi sunak had called his election in september. well, that's right. and behind the scenes in the tory race, there's already, i mean, there's still a big conversation and people in his team are still saying, "look, if we'd gone, if we'd gone later, it wouldn't have got any better, it would have got worse." but there's definitely part of those recriminations. but before we talk about the tory party, we should, though, talk about keir starmer�*s because it has been a huge week and it did involve a massive appearance on a, you know, a stage that doesn't get any bigger in the white house. you know, there are plenty of british prime ministers who fret and plot and worry about when they're going to get to go to the white house, when are they going to go handshake kodak moment with the american president?

do you remember with gordon brown, when we were both working in westminster? and he was almost like begging for a meeting with 0bama. and yet they ended up having a brush by in a kitchen for like two minutes. yeah. it wasn't what was planned. and then in the worst of all worlds, talking to a man who's got severe problems, political problems and also a contested health problem. and you know, when i grew up, there was a show called spitting image, which ran a sub sketch about president reagan called the president's brain is missing. and it had him, uh, giving reading things off the autocue, which were rubbish cupcakes, crumbly candy bars. and, you know, we spoke to tina brown. tina brown, the uber editor. class act, transatlantic journalism queen. right. put that on an aston. and she said the democrats have known aboutjoe biden's problems for months.

it's the most chilling question in american public life. what did you know and when did you know it? the american public knew as well, because the polls have showed that a big chunk of the public thought he was too old and not fit enough to be president. so it was just this weird people, mainlyjournalists and political operatives in the middle, that didn't. 0r there's a different question. it's not whether or not there was knowledge, it was whether or not the situation was deemed serious enough in orderfor political action to be imperative. yeah, because it's not... that's the question. so a couple of months ago, do you remember we talked to nancy pelosi one weekend, and she was saying — also no spring chicken herself — she was like, the president is fine. he is alert and incredible. and there is absolutely nothing wrong. fast forward a couple of months after the debate performance. she says the president has to come to his own decision and i will back him. and what's happened in the last couple of weeks is the tone of the political debate in dc has completely changed, but what keir starmer would not have wanted, alongside the fanfares and the red carpet and the images and the nato and here i am, i'm a statesman, is the closing

press conference at nato, him being asked again and again and again about president biden's mental state. and again, that's a reminder of the in, you know, in politics, a new government with a whopping majority, you don't choose the events to which you have to respond, and he would not have wanted to have answered those questions. he would have wanted to be talking about the commitment to ukraine and whether or not they were, when they were going to spend money on defence. and that's a tricky political issue for this government, too. but the issue of president biden's health absolutely overshadowed all of that, all of that. um, and it's not something that keir starmer would have wanted to have to talk about. not at all. let's talk about that pledge to spend 2.5% of gdp. so, national income on defence. so in the election and before the election, the conservatives said they would do that by 2030, so they put a date on it. keir starmer has signed up to the number but not the date. and so when do we think the uk could get to 2.5%? well we don't know.

i mean and it's a problem because in whitehall, especially at a time when there's not much cash around, but at any time in whitehall, if there isn't a date, it doesn't go in the treasury spreadsheet. and if it's not in the treasury spreadsheet, it ain't going to happen. so this absolutely is a political problem for the labour party. it is also, people would say, a problem for the armed forces. and at a time when the prime minister is standing up, quite understandably, echoing lots of politicians that we've heard from in the last few months, saying the world is more dangerous we must be prepared for all eventualities, we cannot allow putin to win, we must keep supplying ukraine, to be saying that at a time when army recruitment is down, huge pressures on defence spending, if you talk to people whose area this is, real gaps where there ought not to be, if you take the threats to our security really, really seriously, this is a very significant political challenge for this new government. of course, it depends how difficult its opponents are going to be able to make life for them. but it's a very real problem and there's no date on it.

so there's a review. reviews can come in handy if you're not quite ready to... especially if it's going to take a year. yeah. and there was again, there was a strategic defence review under borisjohnson's downing street, which they then reviewed again. yeah. and also british missiles can go deeper into russia, we're now told by the new prime minister, and there are very few columnists in the uk press who talk about is there a peace strategy? so i've got thanks for all your new weapons. oh yes, i'm hearing all new bombs. but is there anyone with any bandwidth to try and talk about peace deals in gaza, israel, in ukraine is any is there any have we got anyone who's working on that and if so, what's their name? can we be introduced to them on radio 4? what's the plan? because, and where's the table? because the table is pretty clear.

it's going to have to end up in a table somewhere with probably someone from turkey. well, that takes us back, whether it's israel, gaza that takes us back to biden, because actually everyone is working on the basis of biden's plan. but of course, no one�*s talking about that because everyone�*s talking about whether biden can remember the name of any of the people who are looking at his plan. um, just on labour and defence, i noticed there's a little thing that keir starmer said, oh, the uk's position will now be nato first when it comes to defence. now i remember under borisjohnson they talked about this thing called the indo—pacific tilt. and signing that deal with australia and the us about submarines. does that mean actually that stuff is going to go away and actually we're going to be much more european focused? it will go away. but i think, yeah, because the world doesn't go away. right. so i don't think it will go away. and i think it would be bizarre if that was not still to be seen to be part of the overall approach. and clearly it was a shift in priority. but i think given that, you know, that review, which sort of came up with the idea of that tilt was in a pre—ukraine invasion world. and forgive me, the exact chronology is not quite at my fingertips,

but there was a sort of, oh, look, the world is different. we should be looking east as well as to west and to the traditional threats. but i think we're in a world where there is a conflict on the edge of europe, and there is a world where people in nato will tell you that countries on the eastern fringes of europe feel very, very nervous. there is no discussion publicly of anything like a peace strategy around ukraine, because ukraine at this point, quite understandably zelensky�*s people wouldn't countenance anything that looked like having to give up one inch, let alone one mile. peace would be full russian withdrawal for them. but that is not a conversation that is being had publicly in any way, shape or form. just one last thing on the defence. i sound like i'm a defence obsessive, but i'm not. but it's just it's come up quite a lot. you can see also the thing that the labour left,

so your diane abbotts and yourjohn mcdonnells. do you remember then, the people that supported jeremy corbyn, they really focused on this limit on benefits for people with more than two children? they have made that their kind of big fight. and actually you just think that's quite a sharp contrast. are you on the side of spending 2.5% on defence, or are you on the side of lifting the two—child limit on benefits? and it's just a very clear kind of division there. it is a very clear division. and it's notjust people on the left likejohn mcdonnell. so gordon brown, for example, former prime minister, has spoken with great conviction about the two—child benefit cap, andy burnham, the well—known and well—liked, very prominent great mayor of greater manchester, has also talked about the two—child benefit cap. now there is zero sign at this stage that keir starmer and rachel reeves have got any intention of doing anything about this any time soon, but there is political pressure on them. and, you know, even though you've got a majority of a gazillion, it doesn't mean that everything is going to be plain sailing. and you can't make the philosophical line go away, which is some parents limit the number of children. those who are able to have

children who want them, some of those people limit the number of children they have based on the fact that they can't afford any more. so you can have a state that writes checks for people to have children when you've got other voters who say, actually, i can only afford one or two children, and then we pay respects to all the people listening who don't have or don't want children, but there is a political thinking, i feel that nick robinson should come in. there should be new political thinking to be done at this time. i got a cheque the other day. it was very exciting. what, have you got secret children? no, not for the benefit system! oh, you got an actual cheque? yeah. i see.

but you're right to mention that, though, because the public is not in the same place as the labour left on the two child benefit cap. so there are plenty of voters who think actually quite, quite right, and that the government is in the right place on this, as the conservatives were. some voters think that, some don't. but it will be a running conversation in the labour party. we do have some time to talk briefly about the tories warming up for grand national leadership race. no, i was already... my metaphor was going to be a soap opera. and like, that's such a cliche in politics, it's really overused. but actually this week it actually was a soap opera. it was like, do you remember in dynasty when you'd have, like, the two women in shoulder pads, like fighting in a fountain? that actually happened. so what happened was there was a meeting of the shadow cabinet and leaked from... that was a very, very detailed description of exactly what kemi badenoch said went wrong in the election and what should happen with the future of the conservative party. and that was leaked almost like a verbatim transcript to a newspaper, including the bit

that said they were warned not to leak anything from the meeting. and one of the things that kemi badenoch is suggested to have said in this almost verbatim transcript is that suella braverman, was having a very public nervous breakdown. to which she responded online, saying does she really think i'm having a nervous breakdown? and to which lots of seasoned tory observers went, oh, not again. can we notjust please have this row in private? and so at the moment, the tories have not yet been able to agree how long the leadership race should be. there are two schools of thought. 0ne says do it quickly so you can get somebody installed so that the labour government doesn'tjust get to completely run away with blaming us for everything in history forevermore, and they essentially go unchallenged until christmas. there's another school of thought that says, let's take our time. we have to get this right. we have to have a proper diagnosis about what went wrong, and we have to have a proper testing period of the potential new leaders. somebody whispered to me, what all the other candidates want is enough time to make sure that the members have a really good look at kemi badenoch, because or else they're worried that she'lljust run away with it, even though some people think she would not be a good candidate, but they haven't yet been able to agree on that.

and they also had a row about how they were electing the new party board. i mean, it is messy. it was predictable that it would happen. but what's not predictable for me and you two will tell me the answer so then i needn't worry anymore. very optimistic. i think it's likely to see a caretaker. you can't imagine rishi sunak staying until christmas. so they've got to pick a new leader by the party conferences, surely. which is september, october time. they don't know yet if they're going to give the members the final say or not. they could change the rules. there's been talk about changing the system. how long can i expect to see rishi sunak as leader of the opposition? i think if the party decides to have a long race and not have a new leader until november, december, i think they'll end up going for a caretaker. i think if the party decides that they won't have a new leader until september or october, i think he would stay until that point. and also remember that there's a month of summer holidays for parliament coming up. so actually it sort of doesn't really matter.

well, it's less visible to the public, but that is when the party theoretically should be getting going. we're nearly out of time. our last radio [i encounter. do you both want to share your favourite memory of this last period of election excitement, or the thing that will stay with you for the longest? can i go back to where i started? i think of the gracious goodbyes. it made me proud to be british. i liked thangam debbonaire saying goodbye, jeremy hunt winning, but being very gracious. i liked rishi sunak, what he said. i like what keir starmer said. 50, um, call me sentimental, but thank goodness for a system that can produce that speech. and do you think that that means we are entering into a period of politics where perhaps we can say goodbye to some of the toxicity, some of the clamour, some of the yelling and unpleasantness, at least in westminster? well, my memory is related to that, because it is the first leadership debate between rishi sunak and keir starmer. and it's when keir starmer did not

rebut the claim from rishi sunak that labour's policies would increase everyone�*s taxes by a number that i'm not going to say, because it's old history and the fact that starmer did not go in and rebut that straightaway. does that show keir starmer is a different kind of politician who doesn't want to play the old games? and actually, that means maybe we're in for a new type of politics if he can do that? or does it show that keir starmer is a bit of a newbie, doesn't have the killer instinct and the usual access to the usual tools and techniques of politics, which means, actually, he might suffer as prime minister as a result? 0r there's even a third option there. we desperately need to improve the well, we need to put some clean water back in the well that is the public conversation and clean... you put water in a well? it comes from the ground? well, it does, but you rely on it not being polluted anyway.

laura, what's yours before we go? i go to another moment when the clock was counting down very, very loudly, and i nearly stopped breathing when the exit poll dropped. and that moment of silence just before i had to announce it was the thing that i will remember. because you're going to be in the history books now. 0h, not because of that. no, it's a chilling moment and it's the end. we'll be there on bbc sounds until the electricity runs out. but now it's goodbye. goodbye. newscast from the bbc.

live from london, this is bbc news. less than 2a hours to go before the euro 2024 football less than 24 hours to go before the euro 2024 football final. england face spain with the england football milder saying all his players are fighting fit. i milder saying all his players are fighting fit-— milder saying all his players are fiuuhtin fit. . ., ., , fighting fit. i am not a believer in fairy tales. _ fighting fit. i am not a believer in fairy tales, but _ fighting fit. i am not a believer in fairy tales, but i _ fighting fit. i am not a believer in fairy tales, but i am _ fighting fit. i am not a believer in fairy tales, but i am a _ fighting fit. i am not a believer in fairy tales, but i am a believer. fighting fit. i am not a believer in fairy tales, but i am a believer in| fairy tales, but i am a believer in dreams. and we've had big dreams, we have felt the need and the importance of that. but then you have to make those things happen. in other news, israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu says it is not clear a deadly —— on gaza against two top hamas commanders were

successful in killing them. the hamas health ministry says at least 19 palestinians were killed. a mild is arrested on suspicion of milder after humid remains were found on —— in two suitcases on a bridge in bristol. an barbora krejcikova is wimbledon champion. the czech player be italy's jasmine paolini to wind the women'ssingles final for the first time. —— be. hello, welcome to the programme. we start with football. in 24 hours' time, the second half of the euro 2024 final in berlin will be about to start. england and spain fates each other in the much anticipated finale of the tournament. tens of thousands of football bands both english and spanish have flooded into the german capital for the match —— face each other. as you can imagine, they are in high spirits. the first meeting between the countries at the euros since the