of preparedness and state of preparedness and hosting the europeans. >> world leaders congregate in blenheim palace today as keir starmer hosts what's known as the european political community summit. the prime minister wants a deal on migration, but what might it cost us.7 >> and we're live in milwaukee, where donald trump is due to speak, accepting his party's nomination for the presidency. nigel farage, liz truss and bofis nigel farage, liz truss and boris johnson are all there to . boris johnson are all there to. and of course, throughout today , and of course, throughout today, keir starmer will be meeting key leaders across europe, all at churchill's birthplace, blenheim palace. he wants a deal on migration. >> yes . essentially he wants to. >> yes. essentially he wants to. although the reports are so far that he wants some kind of

returns agreement. so the eu will take some of the people who cross on small boats into this country illegally. and then in exchange, we take some people from the european union. so it's all a little bit confusing. and i guess our question today is would you accept such a deal? what is the benefit of it? what is the purpose even really? will it be like for like so they take 10,000 a small boat migrants and then we take 10,000 from the european union. what's the point? >> i suppose the argument is that if someone can be returned to france immediately, as soon as they arrive on a small boat, they, instead of being picked up and taken to dover, they can be picked up and returned to calais. that would be a positive thing that might stop these boat transfers, but the cost of that might be taking just as many migrants, perhaps even more from the pool of european migrants that currently exists. we've seen the numbers coming into lampedusa, we've seen the numbers crossing the mediterranean, we've seen the numbers walking through the balkans. i mean, at what point

doesit balkans. i mean, at what point does it become a bad deal? also, how many european countries have got very angry indeed about these types of exchanges and systems and asylum policies within the european union ? within the european union? >> last time i checked, we're not members of the european union. so what exactly is going on here? let us know your thoughts . gbnews.com/yoursay thoughts. gbnews.com/yoursay should we get the headlines with sam francis ? sam francis? >> tom. emily, thank you very much and good afternoon to you. it's just coming up to 12:03 and we'll start this hour with that breaking news from the covid inquiry. we're hearing that the uk was ill prepared for the coronavirus outbreak, with successive governments planning for the wrong type of pandemic. that's according to the first report from that covid inquiry. just out this lunchtime. baroness hallett says there were significant and widespread failures in her 240 page assessment, accusing the uk's emergency plans of being too

complex and outdated. the report also condemns the 2011 pandemic strategy being virtually abandoned when covid hit with no focus on any economic or social impact. ten recommendations have been made , including more simple been made, including more simple approaches to dealing with health emergencies and conducting uk wide pandemic exercises every three years to prepare for any future outbreaks. at least eight more reports will follow today's publication. plenty more on that analysis of the report with tom and emily throughout this afternoon . volodymyr zelenskyy afternoon. volodymyr zelenskyy is among more than 40 european leaders meeting in oxfordshire today , with more support being today, with more support being promised for ukraine and earlier , promised for ukraine and earlier, the ukrainian president said when he arrived there that he's counting on sir keir starmer support, the uk demonstrated leadership from the very beginning of russian attacks and all the strong steps and some, some not.

>> simple steps, always. ukraine uk began so i count on my meeting. i will have meeting with prime minister and also bilateral one. and also i will have i will have meeting with with the government . with the government. >> well sir keir starmer is hosting that summit at blenheim palace, which he says he hopes will fire the starting gun on a new relationship with the eu following brexit. the prime minister says he wants to reset our relationship with the continent and to push for closer security ties with other countries. the group, as i said , countries. the group, as i said, have already agreed on boosting defence capabilities in ukraine as it defends itself against russia . meanwhile, in the us, russia. meanwhile, in the us, joe biden has tested positive for coronavirus. the president was last seen walking off of air force one after cancelling a campaign speech in las vegas. his diagnosis comes as concerns are growing about his age, with reports that two top democrats have privately questioned his

re—election bid. in a meeting with him this morning, an interview has been released, with biden suggesting he would pull out of the race if medical professionals advised him to . professionals advised him to. >> i made a serious mistake in the whole debate and, and look, when i originally ran, you may remember it. i said i was going to be a transitional candidate, and i thought that i'd be able to move from this to pass it on to move from this to pass it on to someone else. but i didn't anticipate things getting so, so , anticipate things getting so, so, so divided. and quite frankly , i so divided. and quite frankly, i think the only thing age brings a little bit of wisdom. and i think i've demonstrated that i know how to get things done for the country . the country. >> the families of two british men reported missing in sweden are now appealing for information on their whereabouts. it's feared the men were victims of a double murder. 33 year old juan cifuentes and farooq abdul razak, who's 37, travelled for a business trip

there but haven't come home. officers are currently investigating after two bodies were found in a burnt out car in malmo at the weekend, with local media reporting those two unknown people were shot though police, as i say , are still police, as i say, are still working to identify the victims . working to identify the victims. one person has died and 71 people have been rescued after a migrant boat sank in the english channel late last night. all those on board the vessel ended up in the water but were picked up in the water but were picked up in the water but were picked up in a joint rescue operation between the uk and french authorities. two prominent mps, both of whom were former government ministers in charge of overseeing the post office, are being questioned at the horizon. it inquiry today. labour's pat mcfadden, who you can see there on screen, is currently being questioned. at the inquiry he was postal affairs minister and later sir ed davey will also take the chair to be questioned. he's now the leader of the liberal democrats, but also held that role in charge of the post office. they'll both be asked

about errors in the horizon it system, which led to subpostmasters being wrongly convicted of fraud . the author convicted of fraud. the author of an explosive report into the treatment of people taken into custody by greater manchester police, is calling today for urgent change. dame vera baird carried out the review following reports that three women had accused the force of unjustified strip searches after being arrested. she says the inquiry has found that many of the arrests were unnecessary or unlawful . greater manchester unlawful. greater manchester police has apologised and does say it accepts the recommendations of her inquiry , recommendations of her inquiry, and an experimental drug has been found to extend the lifespan of mice by 25. and it's thought it could also work in humans. researchers behind the trials say the animals were injected with an antibody called il 11. the treatment cut cancer deaths , reduced chronic deaths, reduced chronic inflammation and saw less muscle wasting all key signs of ageing .

wasting all key signs of ageing. and finally, before we hand back to tom and emily, viewers have been tuning in to get a rare peek inside the hidden world of a snake. mega den in northern colorado. but be warned, it could leave you rattled. the 2000 rattlesnakes can now be viewed online thanks to this. as you can see there on your screen, round the clock webcam. although i have to say they are rather tricky to spot . the rather tricky to spot. the elusive reptiles are nestling inside the rocky mountainside crevice, but the exact location is being kept secret to stop snake lovers or perhaps snake haters from messing with the animals . those are the latest animals. those are the latest headunes animals. those are the latest headlines for now, i'm sam francis, your next update at half past 12 for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code , alerts by scanning the qr code, or go to gbnews.com forward slash alerts .

slash alerts. >> good afternoon britain. it's 12:09 and the uk covid 19 inquiry has published its first report, laying bare the failures of the uk to properly prepare for the right kind of pandemic. >> yes, the bombshell report says the government and the civil service failed its citizens during the pandemic , citizens during the pandemic, leading to mass deaths and suffering so let's dip into the inquiry where baroness hallett is currently speaking. >> resilient systems . this >> resilient systems. this includes rationalising and streamlining the current bureaucracy and providing for better and simpler ministerial and official structures and leadership . leadership. >> a new approach to risk assessment that provides for a better and more comprehensive evaluation of a wider range of actual risks . a new uk wide actual risks. a new uk wide approach to the development of strategy , which learns lessons strategy, which learns lessons from the past and from regular

civil emergency exercises and takes proper account of existing inequalities and vulnerabilities. >> better data collection and sharing, and advance of future pandemics, and the commissioning of a wider range of research projects. >> the holding of a uk wide pandemic response exercise at least every three years, and the publication of the outcome , the publication of the outcome, the bringing in of external expertise from outside government and the civil services to challenge orthodoxy and guard against the acute problem of groupthink . problem of groupthink. >> lastly, and most importantly, the creation of a single independent statutory body responsible for whole system preparedness and response. it will consult widely, for example, with experts in the field of preparedness and

resilience and the voluntary community and social sector , and community and social sector, and provide strategic advice to government . some of the core government. some of the core participants have suggested i make many more recommendations than the ten i have made. i am indebted to them for their assistance . however, the inquiry assistance. however, the inquiry team and i have identified what i consider to be the ten most significant recommendations which i believe can be implemented swiftly and at reasonable cost, and if implemented together, could make a real difference to the preparedness and resilience of the united kingdom . each of the the united kingdom. each of the recommendations in this first report is important in its own right , but in report is important in its own right, but in my view, all the recommendations must be implemented in to order produce the changes that are necessary . the changes that are necessary. i welcome the commitments made by leading politicians to

consider carefully, and i expect implement the recommendations made by inquiries such as this one. i intend to monitor progress, and i have asked the inquiry team to liaise closely with the relevant government departments and bodies. i will expect each organisation that is responsible for implementing my recommendations to set out within six months how it plans to respond . i emphasise that to respond. i emphasise that many of the other issues of real concern to members of the public will be examined more fully in later modules of this inquiry, more reports and recommendations will follow . they include will follow. they include reports and recommendations relating to the core political and administrative decision making across the united kingdom. the impact of the covid 19 pandemic on the health and care systems in the four nations of the united kingdom . the

of the united kingdom. the adequacy, supply and distribution of ppe , the use of distribution of ppe, the use of dna, cpr notices, vaccines and therapeutics test, trace and isolate policies, procurement , isolate policies, procurement, the economic response from all four governments, the impact on children and young people and the impact on the population of the impact on the population of the uk. more widely. unless the lessons are learned and fundamental change is implemented, the human and financial cost and sacrifice of the covid 19 pandemic will have beenin the covid 19 pandemic will have been in vain. the harrowing, some damning words there from baroness hallett, who has been chairing this inquiry, and the preliminary finding is that britain prepared for the wrong pandemic. >> yes, that's very interesting indeed, isn't it? and she claims

both the government and the civil service failed the public, and that there were far more deaths than there needed to be. and also the financial impact was far too high as well. she's got ten big recommendations so far for the government that she says, should all be implemented with haste . remember, the cost with haste. remember, the cost of this covid inquiry was estimated just in may to be around £196 million of taxpayer money, so i hope that these recommendations will be useful and implemented . and implemented. >> if so, i think, if anything, this is the most important part of the inquiry. this isn't litigating anything that happened during the pandemic. this is about how prepared britain was for the pandemic. it's the most useful thing to report , first of all, so that we report, first of all, so that we can think about actually, how do we prepare for the next pandemic, i wonder , however, if pandemic, i wonder, however, if the future parts that go over individual ministerial decisions and what was happening during

the rather chaotic period of three different lockdowns and various tiers of restrictions, whether that will be perhaps more heat than light? >> gosh yes . more heat than light? >> gosh yes. remember all the endless conversations and quizzing over whatsapp messages? who said what, when, who was rude to who? who was nasty to who? who was upset by whom. they're interesting. just a couple of the recommendations, just to give you a taste of what she's saying. she wants a radical simplification. simplification of the civil emergency, preparedness and resilience systems, better systems of data collection, sharing in advance of future pandemics . a uk wide pandemic pandemics. a uk wide pandemic response exercise every three years at least, so that recommendation that we should be having sort of practices practices every three years, just in case, not involving you and me, hopefully just within government as they do war games and such, but our very own mark white has been there at the inquiry. >> as you can see, they've just concluded the report. he's currently dashing back to the

studio and will give us all the internal detail. >> he will indeed, and i'm interested to know from you at home, whether you think this is an important exercise, this inquiry, do you have hope that they will find things and implement recommendations as they should? just let us know your thoughts. perhaps you think it's a waste of taxpayers money. gbnews.com forward slash. your say is the way to get in touch. but coming up we're going to be live at blenheim palace. >> yes. taking his first steps to reset relationship with europe, keir starmer is meeting with international leaders. but what will those entail. this is good afternoon britain on gb news

>> well. good afternoon. britain. it's 12:20, >> well. good afternoon. britain. it's12:20, and the prime minister says he's taking his first steps in resetting the uk's relationship with europe. >> well, he's hosting the european political community summit at churchill's birthplace

of blenheim palace. with around 50 european leaders in attendance. the prime minister is set to offer a lead in the continent's fight against illegal migration. at least that's what he hopes. >> yes, our political correspondent katherine forster is at the summit at blenheim palace. catherine, thank you very much. what a beautiful setting for such a congregation for such a meeting. what exactly has been spoken about so far? and what's all this about a potential migration deal ? potential migration deal? >> yes. good afternoon, tom and emily. it's incredible, isn't it? the timing of the general election. it's enabled sir keir starmer, after one week as prime minister, to go to the nato summit in washington and one week on from that to host 45 european leaders here in this incredible setting of blenheim palace. so this morning, we've seen the leaders photograph, and we've seen sir keir starmer kick this all off with a speech in

which he said under my leadership, britain will be a friend and partner ready to work with you, not part of the european union, but very much part of europe. and i think that's key because of course, this meeting here, it's not just members of the eu, it's members of the whole of europe, excepting russia and belarus, of course. so the first priority was to reassure vladimir zelenskyy in ukraine and send a message to russia. and i suspect to donald trump, if he should be incoming as president, that europe remains committed to supporting ukraine. we heard zelenskyy speaking about that as well. of course, he is asking for more support and more support now, but also the matter of illegal migration. now, the agenda for this was set by rishi sunak. but sir keir starmer is very happy to pick this up. i'm

sure he's dropped the rwanda plan, he says. it was a gimmick, he said under no circumstances are we going to be leaving the echr. but he is very keen to work with europe to try to tackle the channel migrants. and of course, he will have to, won't he? because without leaving the echr, without rwanda, they have only the opfion rwanda, they have only the option of trying to stop people from getting to us in the first place. so he really wants a new security cooperation. he really wants uk to be part of the fingerprinting system that the eu has. that would mean that people arriving, they would instantly have intelligence on them and also returns agreements with safe countries. david lammy is working on that. sir keir starmer will be talking with emmanuel macron later. there may be some new movement on the deal with france, a possibility it may be, of us taking some asylum

seekers, potentially children with links to the uk and something there maybe we will have to see. but ultimately what sir keir starmer wants is a is a returns agreement with the eu. well, there is no prospect of that happening right now or indeedin that happening right now or indeed in the very near future . indeed in the very near future. apart from anything else, ursula von der leyen and president of the european commission is not here. she is trying very hard to get re—elected for another term . get re—elected for another term. so big ambitions from sir keir starmer. he's hoping that because this is a new government that they weren't involved in brexit, that their hands are clean of that, so to speak, that the eu and other european countries will be more minded to listen and perhaps give them what they want. but i imagine there will be a price extracted. you don't get something for nothing. >> never, never, ever something for nothing. well, katherine forster, i'm hoping you're enjoying the glorious day. the

marvellous setting. what a gift for keir starmer to have just been handed this summit on a platter. in his second week as prime minister. katherine forster, thank you so much for joining us there. live from blenheim palace. >> decent timing , isn't it? >> decent timing, isn't it? first, first week on the job. yeah. your nato summit. you've got your blenheim palace summit. it's all all rather lovely. >> you get to welcome 45 different european leaders one by one into the most marvellous palate. i think it's the grandest palace in the united kingdom , actually. kingdom, actually. >> and on such a glorious day, that doesn't happen so often here, does it? >> you're very lucky, general. >> you're very lucky, general. >> is keir starmer very lucky indeed. all this talk of resetting our relationship with the european union. i wonder if that's code word for, i don't know , something more. anyway, in know, something more. anyway, in other migration related news, labour will fast track plans to allow 90,000 migrants earmarked for deportation to rwanda previously to claim asylum in the united kingdom. >> well, the new home secretary, yvette cooper, is expected to announce the legislation as soon as this week. it will kick start

the process for thousands of people who had feared they could be removed from the uk to actually claim asylum here in the uk. >> well, joining us now is henry bolton, international security and border control expert, henry, these are 90,000 people who have presumably entered this country illegally. now under the new government may well have their asylum claims processed. the conservatives have said this is essentially an amnesty. what do you make of it, >> the conservatives are partly right, >> under legislation that the conservative government brought in, people who were crossing the channel since june last year were ineligible to claim asylum. so they've been coming in. and of course , nothing's been sort of course, nothing's been sort of course, nothing's been sort of holding them back or deterring them. >> rwanda didn't deter them, not to any any particular extent anyway. >> so we've got this continual still ongoing movement across the channel of people who who

then can't claim asylum in this country. but what do you do with them? there are two things that you can do with them, or three things that you can do with them. you can either return them to whence they came, or you can, you can you can detain them somewhere, or you can grant them asylum. you've really got those three choices, now, rwanda was a way of solving part of that problem because you can't return people to afghanistan, syria, iran and places with which we have no, no formal contacts with the government. and we have no access to those countries in order to return people there . so order to return people there. so what do you do with them? well, an answer would be to send them to rwanda. well, that's a that's a closed option. now that's not going to happen. so what do you do with them all, now this is something that i believe and i flagged it at the time. if you are going to pass such legislation as the conservatives did, then you need to immediately have in place the return agreements and the whatever other operational responses you're going to have to deal with the people that now can't claim asylum. well, they

didn't do that . so here we are didn't do that. so here we are with 90,000 people plus, in the uk who are in limbo. the labour government has to do something with them. now, as i understand it, their priority is going to be to process the asylum's asylum claims from countries who are for people who have come from safe countries widely regarded as safe, so places like vietnam, which means that then they can be returned to those countries, their asylum claims can be denied and they can be returned to those countries. but the majority of them are probably going to be granted asylum because it's too difficult and too time consuming to process their claims in a proper sort of henry the refugee council, the refugee council, gave an estimate and they seem to think that about 70, a 70% would be granted asylum. i think that's probably fair. i think that's probably fair. i think that's that's probably about about. right. but there are two reasons why you need to grant them asylum there. they come from countries that we can't return them to. anyway, as i've said just now, or to properly

and fully investigate their asylum claims, we are we simply don't have the means or it's a very, very lengthy process to do it. and of course, all the time we've got more and more boats arriving. so then you get rid of 10,000 in whatever way you deal with them , and by then you've with them, and by then you've got another 10,000 across the channel. so you've got to somehow get ahead of the game. so i understand why the labour government is doing this, it's a shame, i think, in that respect that they, they've closed off the rwanda option because that would have dealt with some of them, and so in effect, yes, a lot of these are going to be effectively amnestied. and i in a sense, i understand that, i appreciate it and i it's a pragmatic response, but only only if you're going to also stop the flow coming across the channel. and i think these talks that you've just referred to in blenheim palace, part of that is going to be exploratory . what is going to be exploratory. what is the art of the possible? keir starmer, this is his first real opportunity for him and others

in the government and their, their, their staff to engage with other other european countries and countries from elsewhere. i noticed that the president of albania was present, and we've already got an agreement with them, but i suspect he was front and centre of those photographs because the prime minister wants to hold him up as an example of what sort of agreements can be made to, to work with other countries. some of those other leaders there that at the moment aren't taking people back . people back. >> yes, we're looking at the albanian prime minister stood next to keir starmer now on our screens. of course, that's a legacy agreement rishi sunak struck. it did reduce the number of albanians coming to the uk by more than 90. >> indeed. and if keir starmer can sort of utilise the presence of the albanian, albanian team at blenheim palace to encourage other countries to do likewise, then he might be. that 70% that we talked about might be reduced slightly as we can return other people , and there might be i'm people, and there might be i'm sure there are discussions going

on as to how we might be able to do a sort of rwanda type sort of deal with somebody else who, for example , a country that is a example, a country that is a member of the council of europe, perhaps even albania, to return people there if they're from afghanistan or somewhere else. it's exploratory. i'm sure keir starmer has got some sort of ideas of the sort that i've talked about, but these talks now are exploratory. there's no clear plan, there's no clear way ahead at the moment. and i'm not sure henry albania would agree to that, would they? well, you don't know. albania has already indicated to italy for example, that they will take some people, they will take some people from italy. so, you know, these are conversations. i mean, i participated in conversations like these , discussions like like these, discussions like these in other, other regions of these in other, other regions of the world, you get together with people behind closed doors with a lot of coffee, and you discuss the art of the possibility possible. what would you be prepared to do? what would it take to do a deal? these are informal in a sense. some of

these conversations, but they then gradually take short form and become more solid . and i and become more solid. and i think going forward again , think going forward again, labour's idea of a border security command, again, i treat it with caution . but i have it with caution. but i have always said that as well as deaung always said that as well as dealing with the push factors, the pull factors, and dealing with the processing of people, once they get here, you have to address the facilitation and encouragement of movement between a and b, between the point of origin and the uk, and that's normally criminal and so i welcome the fact that they are going to do this. but it has to going to do this. but it has to go beyond europe. it has to because otherwise once they're in europe, then the europeans have got the same problem that we've got. we've got a problem altogether. so i broadly welcome this. but the success or otherwise is going to be in the detail. >> yes, indeed . well thank you >> yes, indeed. well thank you so much henry bolton, international security and border control expert. yes, of course, it's not just a europe wide problem. it's a it's a global problem. really the mass movement of people. >> yeah. it doesn't look like

we're going to get a deal done today. but those conversations perhaps beginning exploratory conversations, exploratory discussions . discussions. >> anyway, coming up, we're going to be crossing over live to milwaukee ahead of donald trump's acceptance speech for the republican nomination for presidency. this is good afternoon, britain. we're on gb news, britain's news channel . news, britain's news channel. >> very good afternoon to you. it's just after 12:30. and the top story today. the first report from the covid inquiry has found that all four uk nafions has found that all four uk nations were failed by a lack of process of policy and of planning for a pandemic. the 240 page document reveals the government made serious errors and there were significant flaws in how the outbreak was dealt with in 2020. it also found the measures in place were outdated and complex. baroness hallett has now made ten recommendations to avoid a repeat of what she's described as those fatal flaws. in any future health emergency .

in any future health emergency. meanwhile, sir keir starmer says he wants to use a summit of european leaders to push for joint action on illegal migration. the prime minister's hosting around 45 foreign leaders at blenheim palace in oxfordshire, where defence, security and energy are on the agenda. earlier, he used his opening speech there to reaffirm the uk's support for ukraine, saying the threat from russia reaches right across europe . in reaches right across europe. in another blow to joe biden's efforts to get re—elected as us president, he's now contracted coronavirus, forcing him to pull out of a campaign speech. the white house says the 81 year old is having mild symptoms from the infection, but he's vaccinated, boosted and isolating. they say while he continues his duties. it comes as the us president's facing growing pressure to step aside because of his age with reports today that two top democrats in congress have met him privately to express their concerns over his re—election bid . a football club in

bid. a football club in hertfordshire has paid tribute to one of the british men who's gone missing in sweden. juan cifuentes used to play for welwyn garden city before disappearing alongside farouk abdul razak. their families are appealing for information on their whereabouts amid fears the men might have been victims of a double murder. here, men might have been victims of a double murder . here, greater double murder. here, greater manchester police is now promising to take action following a report that's discovered officers are abusing their power. dame vera baird carried out the review following reports that three women had accused the force of unjustified strip searches after being arrested. she says the inquiry found those arrests were unnecessary or unlawful . and unnecessary or unlawful. and finally, banks have been told to improve how they treat political figures following a review into so—called de—banking, the uk's financial watchdog found most firms could deal with mps better so they're not subject to excessive checks or bans. the issue of de—banking made headunes issue of de—banking made headlines when nigel farage claimed he had his account

closed because of his political views . those are the latest views. those are the latest headunes views. those are the latest headlines for now, i'm sam francis. more at 1:00. >> for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone , sign direct to your smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code, or go to gbnews.com forward slash alerts

good afternoon. britain. it is 12:38. >> yes, and tonight, donald trump is expected to speak for the first time since he was shot at at that rally as he accepts the republican nomination for presidency. >> he plans on, he plans to build on his running mate, j.d. vance's, vow to champion the forgotten americans, which was the central theme being to kick start a golden age and make

america great once again. they've changed the slogan not, make america great again. make america great once again . america great once again. >> so i guess, you know, makes sense logically. let's go across to ray addison, who's in milwaukee for us, ray, fantastic stuff that you're there at the, the convention, tell us what's up . up. >> well, welcome to you both to the phi serv forum here in milwaukee. it's home, as you've been saying to the republican national convention and in just a few short hours, this hall will be absolutely packed with thousands of party members here for the fourth and final day of this event. and now this venue usually hosts huge sporting events, pop concerts as well. in fact, if you hang around till august, you'll be able to see barry manilow. but tonight there's only one person that people want to see and that is donald trump making his keynote speech. and accepting his presidential nomination. now he's supposed to be arriving

around 8:00 central time in the us. that would be around 2 am. uk time. however we know with donald trump he's often, makes the audience wait to build up that anticipation. and so it could be much later into the morning in the uk over the scene. a bandaged donald trump here at the convention, he's been listening to speaker after speaker sing his praises . and speaker sing his praises. and last night the main event was jd vance. that is the iowa senator. and of course, donald trump's vice presidential pick as his running mate. and vance spoke very passionately about hope . very passionately about hope. yes, last night. and he also said that if donald trump had not turned his head at that split second, then a would be assassin could have killed him. and this, in fact, could be a major day of mourning for the republican party. of course, that brush with death just five days ago has eliminated any

final doubt that many republicans had over donald trump being their presidential candidate. and in fact, some have seen it as a sign from god himself that he is being protected. and even if i could use the word endorsed to run for president , donald trump use the word endorsed to run for president, donald trump himself said after that event that he had ripped up the original speech that he's written for this evening, and he wanted to unite america. he's gone for a more conciliatory approach for this evening. however, since then, joe biden has once again gone on the attack . using that gone on the attack. using that rhetoric that we've been hearing about how donald trump is a existential threat to democracy. and so with that change, will donald trump actually rip up the second speech and go back to plan a? maybe he'll go back on the attack. i spoke to some people here attending the convention, and i asked them ,

convention, and i asked them, what do you want to hear from donald trump tonight? >> what he wants to do to make america great again? >> you know, i do think after the assassination attempt that he's going to try to be a little more unifying. >> it's called veritatis splendour in latin, the splendour of truth. yes hurrah! >> we're going to get some truth from him. >> he's lying. punks! >> he's lying. punks! >> i'm. >> i'm. >> i'm. >> i'm really hoping that he reaches out across the aisle and talks to everybody. >> look, i'm super pumped. >> look, i'm super pumped. >> i can't wait to hear his speech. his speech. and i think it will be even more emotional now, ray, i've noticed a trend at this convention. >> it seems that donald trump is starting a bit of a fashion trend . lots of people are taking trend. lots of people are taking to aping his ear wear. >> yeah, absolutely. and we've we've been seeing that around the convention centre over the last few hours that we've been here. and we're going to bring

you some shots of those later and speak to some people. but this is a hugely colourful and vibrant event. there is people obviously from all over the united states and the territories too, and they are incredibly passionate. and if nothing is more true than what we have discovered, certainly through this would be assassination attempt in pennsylvania. it has united the party around donald trump, and there's a real sense of, excitement and urgency. those words that we saw him say when he stood up after being shot and he stood up after being shot and he pumped his fist in the air and he said , fight, fight, and he said, fight, fight, fight. that has become a rallying cry here at the convention. and party members break out into it, into chants of that as often as they can, just as often as you might usually hear them say u—s—a , usually hear them say u—s—a, u—s—a. and so there is a lot of passion and a lot of excitement about donald trump's speech here. this evening.

>> and ray of course, joe biden himself is not only coming out on the attack, it seems like he's been a little bit attacked. he's under the weather right now suffering from covid, and it's led a lot of people on the hill to suggest his suitability is now back in the frame . now back in the frame. >> yeah, absolutely. the assassination attempt on donald trump took a little bit of the heat off of joe biden. if you will, because the focus came off of that media narrative of when will he pull out? will he pull out ? however, by by joe biden out? however, by by joe biden withdrawing from that speech that he was supposed to make in las vegas yesterday? our time, it's really put the focus on him. obviously he's he's been diagnosed with covid. that's what we're hearing. although a lot of people that i've been speaking to here at the convention rather doubtful whether that is the real reason. and we understand there's been fresh reporting that this this incident is making or giving joe

biden the opportunity to think about his options and maybe listen a little bit more carefully to some of those voices that want him to go. and we are seeing an increasingly number, increasing number of senior democrats who want him to back out. >> well, thank you very much indeed, ray. you've got a big day ahead of you for us in milwaukee. thank you very much. ray addison there at the convention, speaking at what must be about six inches the morning. >> so funny, isn't it? yeah >> so funny, isn't it? yeah >> make ear bandages great again. cool again. there's so much merchandise already about the attempted assassination. t shirts. hats? i've seen bandages fairly distasteful keyrings that have been being sold, that have a hole in the ear of a of a cut—out of donald trump. >> you can put your keys on, anyway, are they pro donald trump? i think they are pro . trump? i think they are pro. >> okay. >> okay. >> well that's fine then he'd laugh, wouldn't he? i think he probably laughs. he'd probably laugh anyway. the uk covid 19 inquiry has published its first report today. it lays bare the failures of the uk to properly prepare for a pandemic.

>> well, the bombshell report says the government and the civil service failed its citizens during the pandemic, leading to mass deaths and suffering well. >> our home security editor, mark white, is there for us now. mark, tell us, what were the key things that came out of that report? >> well, there's no doubt that this first module report from the covid inquiry, another nine to go after this , is deeply to go after this, is deeply damning of the way in which the uk government and indeed the a devolved government, as well , devolved government, as well, prepared for the possibility of a global pandemic. prepared for the possibility of a global pandemic . the. a global pandemic. the. according to baroness hallett chair of this inquiry, they were too fixated on an influenza type virus and didn't pay enough attention to what was emerging in asia and the middle east in terms of coronavirus outbreaks there. and even so, the pandemic

resilience plan that they had , resilience plan that they had, the 2011 plan just was not robust in any way, shape or form. it didn't survive . form. it didn't survive. according to the report, first contact with this virus , this contact with this virus, this virus that was effectively abandoned as soon as the pandemic really started to grip the uk. and of course, we know 235,000 people died with symptoms related to covid 19 as of the end of last year. it caused untold damage to the economy, and it is the belief of baroness hallett that had actually there been a more robust, pandemic plan in place at the time, and it might well have prevented some of the economic damage and the loss of life that occurred as a result

of covid 19. >> it is fascinating to see that the initial finding is that there were some plans, as you mentioned, that 2011 set of preparations , but for flu rather preparations, but for flu rather than for covid or some sort of sars style illness and perhaps that's the reason why we kept the borders open for quite so long. while east asian countries shut down their borders and kept the virus out for longer in many ways, the government was following the plan to the letter. it's just it was the wrong plan . wrong plan. >> yes, a plan, as i say, that just didn't survive first contact in battle as it were. baroness hallett in her inquiry is very scathing of the institutions that were in place to oversee the implementation of

the pandemic plan. she said that they were labyrinthine in their complexity, and she has come up with ten recommendations as well, that she wants to see acted upon recommendations that she believes will help in future if they are properly acted on and there is investment in pandemic preparedness. so the likes of regular exercises, at least three times a year, paying attention to those exercises, having a view to what is happening around the world and not being so focused on groupthink on a particular potential for a pandemic, when of course, there are lots of potential avenues that a pandemic could take. so it's been welcomed by the families, of some of those who died from

covid 19 already. they want to see it going much further, and it will because of course, this is just the first, as i said, the first report of some nine other modules that are to follow that will look at the way, for instance, the next one at the way in which the government and its ministers responded to the pandemic as it was growing in intensity and the decisions that those individual ministers made, for better or worse . for better or worse. >> well, thank you very much indeed, mark white. our home and security editor. outside that covid inquiry thank you very much. >> yeah, deeply ironic that in 2019, just a couple of years, just one year before the pandemic, the global health security index ranked the uk as best in the world prepared for a pandemic. because we had this flu style plan and that flu style plan, discouraged closing

borders said you should continue travel so you could should continue all sorts of barmy things that don't really make any sense if you're dealing with any sense if you're dealing with a coronavirus, but but all ministers were thinking, my goodness me, we're so well prepared. all of these international experts are ranking us so well. perhaps there isn't a perfect blueprint, >> but to finish the hour, this is a bit curious. a council worker has been sacked after protesting about the use of his pronouns on his email signature. he didn't want to. >> well, james orwin changed his email footer to x, y chromosome guy and adult human male rather than he him . than he him. >> well, he's he he said the only way to challenge the company policy was to adopt deliberately provocative pronouns. >> well, joining us now is human rights activist miranda yardley , rights activist miranda yardley, miranda. it seems that, this individual was, clearly sort of trying to launch a protest in his own way against the use of

mandatory pronouns in email signatures. should he really have lost his job? >> well , have lost his job? >> well, having, just read through the 63 page, judgement of the employment tribunal, which was fun. >> i have to say, very interesting. >> there's a lot more to this than you would, think at first blush, >> the, one issue, one issue, i think, which is worth mentioning is that the claimant represented himself , is that the claimant represented himself, which is never a good idea. >> there's an adage about lawyers that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client, and the these types of procedures are very much process thick, and understandings of the law can be very different to how you would perceive it , perceive it, >> the second thing that i would bnng >> the second thing that i would bring up as well, that this is a decision only in the first tier tribunal, and if this went to appeal tribunal, and if this went to appeal, as happened in the force data case, it , it could, it

data case, it, it could, it could lead to a precedent that would be binding, which i think would be binding, which i think would be binding, which i think would be a interesting outcome . would be a interesting outcome. >> now, turning to the facts of what's happening within the case by the, tribunal decision, the really good bits to look at are paragraphs two, nine, 8 to 301, which set out the, reasons for or that the reasoning behind the wrongful dismissal dismissal decision for gross misconduct. >> it would appear that the claimant , >> it would appear that the claimant, had done what he'd done, and put this, put this message within his, bio , his message within his, bio, his within his pronoun space of his bio, and he was asked to remove it and he was refused to remove it. >> and it was on that that the, tribunal decided that, he had , tribunal decided that, he had, not acted in accordance with

reasonable instructions of his employer, which was to remove what he'd put within the signature. >> and so he repudiated his contract of employment by those actions. >> now, all of that said , i'd >> now, all of that said, i'd like to say that i do not agree with, public associations, or local authorities, for example, publicly owned bodies, nor i, i would say with corporations imposing a belief system on people whereby they would have to put their pronouns in their bio or their email signature . bio or their email signature. >> so i think that this, this , >> so i think that this, this, this particular case is, is quite misunderstood. >> and if we look at the facts of the case, i think that there is a, an interesting and worthwhile discussion to be had here. >> it's quite amazing how quickly this has become the norm, though , in businesses, in norm, though, in businesses, in local authorities, public bodies , local authorities, public bodies, that you're all invited to put your pronouns. i mean, this is

very new, this is very new, yet it's somehow everywhere now. and i can imagine a lot of employees find it extremely irritating and feel a pressure to do it, even if it's not a specifically mandatory. >> yeah , absolutely. again, the >> yeah, absolutely. again, the pronouns in bio thing was not mandatory. >> and i think, you know, we can only analyse this case, the ramifications of it, if we look at the, the facts, and i would say to anybody that is interested in learning more about this and understanding what is actually going on to read the judgement. but it's like you say, this has happened very, very quickly. i don't think that this type of action does anything for , people who does anything for, people who consider themselves to be, somewhat, how would i put it? gender variant. >> and i think it is i think it is a form of coercive behaviour thatis is a form of coercive behaviour that is undemocratic and attacks people's free speech. >> and like you say, it's all happened very quickly. i mean , happened very quickly. i mean, ironically, we're talking about a social meme, just after

talking about a, a virus attack, which knocked out the world for a, a year or so, a few years ago. >> i mean, ideas, ideas have got no have got no boundaries. bad ideas have no boundaries. >> and the correct response, i think to bad ideas is to replace them with better ideas. >> well, thank you very much indeed for your time. miranda yardley, human rights activist. good to get your perspective on all this. it would annoy me if i was told to put my pronouns in my bio. so, you know, i'm a woman. just stop anyway. >> no , i don't think, i don't >> no, i don't think, i don't think either of us

>> good afternoon. britain. it's 1:00 on thursday, the 18th of july. i'm emily carver and i'm tom harwood. the covid inquiry report this lunchtime, we learned the dramatic conclusions of the first report from the official covid inquiry. this our inquiry chair, baroness hallett,

delivers her verdict on the state of uk preparedness . state of uk preparedness. >> hosting the europeans world leaders congregate in blenheim palace today as keir starmer hosts what's known as the european political community summit . these are the very summit. these are the very latest pictures as sir keir starmer commences his talks on how to end the illegal migration crisis in europe and we're live in milwaukee, where donald trump is due to speak , accepting his is due to speak, accepting his party's nomination for the presidency. >> nigel farage, liz truss, bofis >> nigel farage, liz truss, boris johnson they're all there to . to. >> we were looking at pictures there of keir starmer with the albanian prime minister at the european political community summit in blenheim palace. really interesting that these are two men who are having such frank conversations so early on. of course , albania is the one of course, albania is the one country in europe we do have a

returns deal with. yeah. >> could he capitalise on that relationship that rishi sunak helped build, sending back illegal migrants to albania that lowered the numbers of albanians coming here significantly? 90% around that, around that. so i'm sure keir starmer wants to build on that relationship. could it be as henry bolton mentioned earlier, we had him on to talk about this , mentioned that about this, mentioned that perhaps, perhaps albania could be a country that would do a rwanda style scheme with us, a safe third country. >> although i don't think albania can take all of the migrants in europe. >> it's a small country. >> it's a small country. >> ultimately, we're going to have to strike more returns agreements, the thing is , agreements, the thing is, albania can agree to a returns agreement with the uk. we just chuck them a little bit of money. now. we've been chucking rather a lot of money at france and they have still refused to do any sort of returns agreement. what they want is a two way returns agreement, not just done with france, but done with the whole european union. so that britain takes a share of

all of the migrants in europe . all of the migrants in europe. i, i don't know if, if, if the average voter would, would much like keir starmer signing up to something like that, so would it even stop the boats? >> i mean, would it, would it i mean , if you're going to come mean, if you're going to come illegally, won't you continue to regardless? i don't know, i don't know. let us know your thoughts. gbnews.com/yoursay is keir starmer on to something or will there be a massive catch to all of this? talk about a returns agreement gbnews.com/yoursay. shall we get the headlines with sam francis ? the headlines with sam francis? >> very good afternoon to you. >> very good afternoon to you. >> it's exactly 1:03. and the top story this lunchtime. sir keir starmer says today's report from the covid inquiry does indeed confirm the uk was unprepared. he says for the coronavirus outbreak. in the 240 page assessment released this lunchtime, baroness hallett found there were significant and

widespread failures from successive governments. the report also condemns the 2011 pandemic strategy for being virtually abandoned when covid hit, with no focus on economic or social impacts. ten recommendations have been made, including a more simple approach to dealing with health emergencies and conducting uk wide pandemic exercises every three years, the prime minister has said his government are committed to learning from the inquiry, as he expressed his heartfelt sympathies to those who have lost, loved ones during the pandemic. the who have lost, loved ones during the pandemic . the volodymyr the pandemic. the volodymyr zelenskyy is among more than 40 european leaders meeting in oxfordshire today, with more support being promised for ukraine. earlier, the ukrainian president said he is counting on sir keir starmer's support. >> the uk demonstrated leadership from the very beginning of russian attacks and all the strong steps and some, some not. simple steps, always.

ukraine uk began so i count on my meeting. i will have meeting with prime minister and also bilateral one. and also i will have i will have meeting with with the government . with the government. >> well, sir keir starmer is hosting that summit at blenheim palace, which he hopes will fire the starting gun on a new relationship with the eu following brexit. the prime minister says he wants to reset our relationship with the continent and to push for closer security ties with other countries. the group have already agreed on boosting defence capabilities in ukraine as it defends itself against russia . in the us, joe biden as it defends itself against russia. in the us, joe biden has tested positive for coronavirus. the president was last seen walking off of air force one after cancelling a campaign speech in las vegas last night. biden's diagnosis comes as concerns are growing about his age, with reports that top democrats have questioned his re—election bid in private

meetings with him this morning. an interview has been released with biden suggesting he would pull out of the election race if medical professionals advised him to . him to. >> i made a serious mistake in the whole debate and, and look, when i originally ran, you may remember it. i said i was going to be a transitional candidate, and i thought that i'd be able to move from this to pass it on to move from this to pass it on to someone else . but i didn't to someone else. but i didn't anticipate things getting so , anticipate things getting so, so, so divided and quite frankly, i think the only thing age brings a little bit of wisdom, and i think i've demonstrated that i know how to get things done for the country, for the families of two british men who were reported missing in sweden are appealing for information on their whereabouts. >> it's feared the men were victims of a double murder. 33 year old juan cifuentes and farouk abdul razak , who's 37, farouk abdul razak, who's 37, travelled for a business trip there but haven't come home.

officers in sweden are investigating after two bodies were found in a burnt out car on sunday. local media in the area of malmo are reporting those bodies were shot, though police are still working to identify the victims . one person has died the victims. one person has died and 71 people have been rescued after a migrant boat sank in the engush after a migrant boat sank in the english channel late last night. all of those on board the vessel ended up in the water, but were picked up in a joint rescue operation between french and uk authorities . two prominent mps, authorities. two prominent mps, both of whom were former government ministers overseeing the post office, are being questioned today at the horizon it inquiry . questioned today at the horizon it inquiry. labour's pat mcfadden was postal affairs minister and sir ed davey, now the leader of liberal democrats , the leader of liberal democrats, also held that role while at the inquiry. they will be asked about errors in the horizon it system , which of course led to system, which of course led to subpostmasters being wrongly convicted of fraud . the author convicted of fraud. the author

of an explosive report into the treatment of people taken into custody by greater manchester police, is now calling for urgent change. dame vera baird carried out the review following reports that three women had accused the force of unjustified strip searches after being arrested. she says the inquiry found many of those arrests were unnecessary or unlawful . we'll unnecessary or unlawful. we'll grant a greater manchester police has apologised and says it does accept the recommendations of the inquiry , recommendations of the inquiry, and an experimental drug has been found to extend the lifespan of mice by 25. and it's thought it could even work in humans. researchers behind the trials say the animals were injected with an antibody called il 11. the treatment cut cancer deaths, reduced chronic inflammation and saw less muscle wasting. all key signs of ageing and just a quick breaking line for you. before we hand back to tom and emily, we are hearing

this afternoon that andrew malkinson, who was wrongly convicted of rape and jailed for 17 years, was failed by the criminal cases review commission and they say he could have been exonerated almost a decade earlier. that review finding just into us in the last few minutes , the ccrc rather, are minutes, the ccrc rather, are saying that he obstructed his fight for justice and saying that he obstructed his fight forjustice and it saying that he obstructed his fight for justice and it cost him an extra decade of being wrongly imprisoned. that conviction quashed . in 2003 conviction quashed. in 2003 after years of protesting his innocence . we'll bring you more innocence. we'll bring you more on that as we get it. but we're just hearing, as i say, that the wrongly jailed andrew malkinson could have been freed a decade earlier . could have been freed a decade earlier. well, those are the latest headlines for now. i'm sam francis. much more on that breaking story and much more throughout the next half hour. >> for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code or go to gbnews.com forward slash alerts .

forward slash alerts. good afternoon britain, the prime minister is hosting 45 european leaders at blenheim palace today to find out why, let's talk to the chief political correspondent at the times, aubrey allegretti. aubrey, what's going on? >> so, sir keir starmer is really sort of been handed the best start possible to his premiership by inheriting this summit that rishi sunak to organise at blenheim palace in oxfordshire. >> it's going to see a gathering of european leaders, not just those in the eu. importantly, because this is people and countries which are very much in the sphere of europe. and so i think this is the third or fourth meeting. >> the things on the agenda are migration and chance for keir starmer to put front and centre his promise to reset relations with the eu and europe. >> he's seeking a new defence and security pact, and he'll

also be able to demonstrate his conviction to continuing to support ukraine regardless of the government changing its political colours. last month . political colours. last month. >> page of the times today. your story pm seeks deal with europe on migrants. this is some kind of proposal to have a returns agreement when it comes to small boats. so sending some small boats. so sending some small boats , those who come over on boats, those who come over on small boats to france and then for us in return to accept some migrants from the rest of the european union, is that something that's actually been detailed at all? >> so this is the start of probably quite a long negotiation. and david lammy, the foreign secretary, has sort of responded to the story by saying, you know, we shouldn't expect anything out of this summit, which is going to necessarily kind of announce an agreement, but it is a really important first step. >> and we've seen particularly keir starmer and emmanuel macron cosying up to each other. so that's a really important relationship for to labour forge to try and get consensus. i suppose the difficulty are the

two points of tension hanging over this conference. number one, ursula von der lie—in, the head of the eu council commission, rather is not there. and therefore she won't be able to sort of sit down and talk about how the uk might be able to forge some kind of deal eu wide. the second is that there is some disgruntlement about the hunganan is some disgruntlement about the hungarian prime minister viktor orban. he has made so—called peace missions to speak to people like putin and trump and that has really upset some european leaders who see it as undermining europe's support as a whole for ukraine. so there are two points of tension hanging over this summit. >> it's interesting. this returns agreement idea. it was floated, of course, by rishi sunak back at the franco—british summit in the elysee palace a couple of years ago. macron at that point saying there would be no returns. agreement between two countries bilaterally. it would have to be britain with the whole of the european union . the whole of the european union. that seems like it's very much still the case. >> that's absolutely right. and

it's arguably why ursula von der leyen's absence today is more conspicuous. now she's obviously fighting for re—election to her brussels post, and that's why she's not available to be there. and so i think keir starmer will still try and find a way of sort of smoothing the wheels . getting of smoothing the wheels. getting people like emmanuel macron onside is an important way for trying to lay the ground for a future eu wide returns deal. but yeah, if ursula von der lie—ins there , we're not going to see there, we're not going to see any kind of breakthrough today. >> well, thank you very much indeed for your time. aubrey allegretti, chief political correspondent at the times. >> now, it is interesting that there is going to be this horse trading these preliminary conversations, but very unlikely. anything that actually comes concretely out of what's happening today other than, you know, introductions. hello, i'm sir keir starmer. >> i want to start i'm wondering about this. you know , whole talk about this. you know, whole talk of returns agreements. i mean, is this potentially the uk considering signing up to an eu wide asylum policy because that

would be surely unthinkable. >> i don't think following brexit, not unthinkable for this government whose explicitly said they want to get closer to the european institutions, not join the institutions, but in many ways shadow the institutions they've already spoken about getting back into europol , getting back into europol, sharing, fingerprint data. all this sort of stuff, bit by bit, agreement by agreement. i think it's very much within the scope of this government to maybe join some sort of pooled european migration programme. yes. >> and is this all part of the reset? the reset of relations with the european union? are we going to see the united kingdom get closer and closer and closer and sign up to some of these europe wide schemes, we shall see. as aubrey said there, it's all sort of in preliminary stages. nothing decided yet. >> and we should say that meps will be voting on ursula von der leyen. they only get one candidate proposed to them in the true democratic eu style .

the true democratic eu style. there'll be a ballot paper before all 750 meps in in europe this afternoon. that says ursula von der leyen. yes, or no. so they get to vote for their one candidate, yes or no, to be the european commission president. it's likely she'll win, but we'll bring you that result when it happens. >> the height of democracy , the >> the height of democracy, the height of democracy. anyway, tonight donald trump is expected tonight donald trump is expected to speak for the first time since he was shot at at the rally as he accepts the republican nomination for presidency. >> well, he plans to build on his running mate, j.d. vance's vow to champion the forgotten americans, with the central theme being to kick start a golden age and make america great. once again. >> yes, well, let's cross over to ray addison , who's in to ray addison, who's in milwaukee for us, ray , it's milwaukee for us, ray, it's a very big day. i imagine the crowds tonight will be absolutely massive. people will be clambering just to catch sight of donald trump .

sight of donald trump. >> yeah, this is an absolutely huge venue. it sits around 18 to 20,000 people. and i think there's around 50,000 people that have come down to here attend the rnc itself , that have come down to here attend the rnc itself, and not just within this venue here inside, but outside as well. there are hundreds of fringe events taking place, and the real the city has really just sort of come alive with republicans. and this event took three years of planning and so they've really come in here in force . now, this is day four of force. now, this is day four of the convention. it centres around the theme of making america great once again. and it's going to be focusing on how trump will, in the words of the republican party , usher in a new republican party, usher in a new golden age for america. they're saying that trump's agenda is aimed at addressing america's standing at home and abroad, ensuring that american families

experience prosperity and safety, and create a resurgence for cities and communities. the republican party, saying that americans will once again have reason to harbour hope and optimism for the future of our country . well, donald trump is country. well, donald trump is due to speak, we're told, at around 8:00 central time here in the us. that's around 2 am. in the us. that's around 2 am. in the uk, although that's bound to overrun. and before him , we've overrun. and before him, we've got a number of other significant voices in the republican party speaking. one being eric trump, donald trump's son. we heard from donald trump jr last night introducing his vp running mate, jd vance. well, eric will take to the stage this evening. we'll also be hearing from former fox news host tucker carlson, a man without, with not without his own sense of controversy as well. and former secretary of state mike pompeo will be on the stage behind me, too. and then in true trump style, we're hearing that dana

white, the ceo of the ultimate fighting championship, is set to get on the stage behind me and give a speech of his own, and it will be his job, we're told, to introduce donald trump. and then, of course, that big moment when donald trump comes out that much anticipated speech, he's predit much anticipated speech, he's ripped it up, he says after that assassination attempt just five days ago. and it's going to be taking a more conciliatory approach to unite america. maybe we'll hear about what it felt like from his perspective to be shot , the impact that it's had shot, the impact that it's had on him. and of course, it wouldn't be a trump speech without hearing about his plans to end illegal migration on the southern border to fix the us economy. and of course, he's also pledging to end the war in ukraine. should he win the election before he even takes office. in january of next year. but i've been chatting to people here at the convention, seeing what they want to hear from

donald trump tonight. this is what they had to say to make america great again. >> you know, i do think after the assassination attempt that he's going to try to be a little more unifying. >> it's called veritatis splendour in latin. the splendour of truth. yes. hurrah >> we're going to get some truth from him. >> he's lying . punks! i'm. i'm >> he's lying. punks! i'm. i'm really hoping that he reaches out across the aisle and talks to everybody. >> look, i'm super pumped. i can't wait to hear his speech. his speech. and i think it'll be even more emotional . even more emotional. >> well, of course, this moment for donald trump, this huge moment for him in his presidential campaign comes as joe biden was forced to back out of a speaking engagement that he had in las vegas last night. he says he's got covid people here at the republican convention not completely convinced , but also completely convinced, but also at the same time not really wanting to speak ill of the president. they can see that obviously he's a man of advancing years, but there is

significant concern among the democratic party that he is not bowing out of this race gracefully and may indeed continue on to what republicans here feel is the inevitable conclusion. certainly, following that assassination attempt of donald trump returning to the white house. >> thanks so much, ray ray addison. you are there in milwaukee at the republican national convention. good stuff. and there's been a bit of a hoo ha awesome criticism over , nigel ha awesome criticism over, nigel farage being there. >> yes, he's there , he says for >> yes, he's there, he says for a couple of days, but there have been some people who say, say, well, he's only just been elected member of for parliament clacton. why is he off in america , i do think that that's america, i do think that that's a bit of, it's a bit. it's a it's a bit much to say that, you know, he can't he can't go over and see the likely next president of the united states. i think if anything, you know, puts clacton on the map a bit. it's that maybe and there's been a quite it's quite funny, actually. >> really. it shouldn't be a clip going around of, which

we'll show you in a little bit, i think. i we'll show you in a little bit, ithink. i hope, we'll show you in a little bit, i think. i hope, of, the lovely emily maitlis interviewing nigel farage there in the us and she asks him is, is donald trump having a hard time? is donald trump having a hard time? and he goes, he nearly he nearly died. and he just stops. he just stops. nigel does she goes, is he having a hard time? yes. yes, actually he is. yes. emily he is having a hard time. yeah. >> people say that, that after margaret thatcher was almost blown up by the ira in 1984, in brighton, at the brighton hotel, the grand brighton hotel, people say that she was never quite the same again . same again. >> when you have a near—death experience like that, it it obviously stays with you. it'll be interesting to see how donald trump's speech this evening, is perhaps different from from speeches he's given before. >> yes, but i guess he just gives off the impression of being totally unfazed, really? you know, with the fight. fight fight and then getting back straight to it at the convention and all of that. but yeah, it must take a toll. i mean, nearly dying in a way like that.

>> a bullet go to be grazed by bullet. >> i it's unimaginable sort of what that could do to someone's psyche. >> tom was watching a video a little earlier of just how close it was . just how close, anyway, it was. just how close, anyway, coming up, should we be teaching our children about gender ideology ? we're going to be ideology? we're going to be debating this very shortly, following quite a bit of backlash at a london primary school who had their pupils pupfls posed pupils posed with pride and all sorts. don't go

>> good afternoon. britain. it's 1:24. now. the labour member of parliament, rosie duffield, has hit out at a primary school for posting a picture online of one of their students posing with pro trans and pride flags. >> not just one. about about 20. a whole host about 20 of them, i'd say. the labour mp argues these children have no meaningful concept of sexuality

or gender identity, and should essentially be left alone. well, is she right? >> well, joining us now is the co—founder of thoughtful therapists , james esses, who therapists, james esses, who supports rosie duffield's position and the lgbti liberation campaigner peter tatchell, who's for children celebrating pride, well , why celebrating pride, well, why don't we start with you, james? yes what's what's wrong here? >> well, this image and there's many more on top of this in a variety of schools up and down the country. >> but this essentially encapsulates a notion of children being i'm going to say, ideologically indoctrinated, but more than this, being sexualised at school by their teachers, this goes far beyond acceptance. respect, tolerance of same sex attraction and age appropriate sex education. this is teachers pushing their own ideologies, nefarious ideologies on their pupils. >> peter, do you think this is a benefit to these children?

>> well, no primary school is teaching pupils about sex. >> they teach young people about love and respect for others . love and respect for others. >> other people with different races, different faiths, different sexualities. >> but it's not about sex. >> but it's not about sex. >> it's about respect for, well, hang on, lgbt plus people and in particular in this teaching, it's about respect for people of different families. so they teach young people that some kids will have a mum and dad, some will be single parents, some will be single parents, some may live in extended families with grandparents or cousins or uncles, and some will live with same sex parents. but there is absolutely no teaching in any primary school about sex. this, this, this. we don't know the full details, but i think this, this, this particular school was merely attempting to acknowledge that some of the kids in the school will have same sex parents and that that should be respected. but it's not about sex, peter. >> i mean, james, one of the young boys there, was holding up a sign saying, i can't even think straight. that goes beyond just teaching people that people have different families.

>> oh, of course it does. i mean, that's the type of sign you might expect to see on a stag or a hen do not in a primary school classroom. i mean, you know, i fundamentally disagree with peter. no surprises , though. peter has surprises, though. peter has previously said that uk schools should teach students about the erotic value of foreplay. secondary schools, young people age 16 and over not in primary school. fair enough peter. >> not for young kids in secondary school. >> the point is that the teaching, the symbolism here is very clearly linked to sex. this school is part of a federation of schools i posted recently, photographs from one of the sister schools in which children are drawing flags representing omni sexuality , asexuality, pan omni sexuality, asexuality, pan sexuality. those are sex based terms, and children as young as five years old are being exposed to this. >> that's very true, isn't it? pan sexuality that is obviously about sex. >> it's about an identity. >> it's about an identity. >> it's about an identity. >> it's not about, oh, come on, peter pan sexuality. >> obviously that's about sex. >> obviously that's about sex. >> it's about saying some people

may fall in love with someone of the same gender or a different genden the same gender or a different gender. that's all it's about. it's not. it's not about sex. >> i've got i've got to emphasise to believe that you actually genuinely think that young children this age should be, you know, being handed signs saying , i can't even think saying, i can't even think straight or having the progress flag and learning all about gender identity and whatnot. is it not a bit much ? they are very young. >> i agree that some of these slogans may have been inappropriate. it all depends on whether the children understood the issues, but we have to remember that young kids today are becoming aware of their sexuality or gender identity at a very young. some are becoming aware at a very young age, and those kids need support. and those kids need support. and those who have same sex parents or a trans parent, they need support to not feel left out, not feel excluded, not feel marginalised . it's about marginalised. it's about kindness to pupils in our schools who come from different families and different parents. >> james, just because the word sexuality has the word sex within it, that could well mean

male female rather than intercourse. >> well, as we've just said , >> well, as we've just said, terms like pan sexuality, omni sexuality relate to the type of person you are sexually attracted to. i'm more concerned by the imposition of gender ideology. this notion suggesting to these impressionable young children that they may have been born in the wrong body. that's what i'm concerned about . and what i'm concerned about. and i've spoken to parents from this school who've reached out and said they are extremely concerned by what's going on. they were never informed about this. they were never even asked for their consent for their children to be used in this photograph that was posed online. i mean, the whole thing is a disgrace. >> i agree, parents should be informed and engaged. it should be a cooperation between teachers, parents and pupils. but i've got to emphasise a lot of young lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans kids grow up feeling very alienated, very fearful of who they are. but at this stage they need reassurance, they need reassurance. >> this young age, you're not you're not thinking about who

you're not thinking about who you're sexually attracted to and the like, so i can't see what purpose it serves. >> well , i purpose it serves. >> well, i look back at my purpose it serves. >> well , i look back at my own >> well, i look back at my own childhood and at the age of eight, i knew that i liked men . eight, i knew that i liked men. >> i didn't see it as sex at all. i just thought i would like to be with a man, lots of young kids have those feelings. >> but is this encouraging children to think about whether they're born in the wrong body, or whether they'd be happier as a boy and a girl at such a young age? >> no one should be encouraged. no one should be encouraged, but they should be supported. >> if it's sort of making it cool, isn't it? >> no , no. it's about giving >> no, no. it's about giving reassurance to kids who are often very anxious about their sexuality or gender identity. and we know lots of young kids go through a great deal of personal trauma, and some even feel like taking their own lives . feel like taking their own lives. we've got to stop that. and it's not about encouraging or promoting. it's about being supportive . supportive. >> last word to you, james. >> last word to you, james. >> i mean, to where begin? peter's politicising and weaponizing the idea of suicide.

this has been debunked. the fact of the matter is these are young children, prepubescent children. we should not be teaching them sex in this way. we should not be suggesting to them that they may have been born in the wrong body, and then encouraging them or affirming them down a pathway of irreversible transition. this is completely unprofessional . is completely unprofessional. inappropriate. the government has released guidance saying that schools should not be doing this, and the government needs to do something to clamp down on this before it's too late and more children become harmed off the back of this radical ideology. >> yeah, no children should be harmed. i agree with that. >> well, they're a point of consensus, although much disagreement as well. >> we'll have to leave it there, james says. peter tatchell, thank you so much for talking through that contentious issue. >> yes, let us know what you make of it. gbnews.com forward slash your say. but coming up the prime minister says covid policy failed uk citizens reacting to the uk covid inquiry findings as they published their first report. today. >> we'll bring you all the latest after your headlines with sam francis .

sam francis. >> very good afternoon to you. it's 1:32 and >> very good afternoon to you. it's1:32 and the top story. we'll just start with some breaking news, a recap that we heard in the last half hour or so that a man who was wrongly convicted of rape and went on to spend 17 years in jail could have been exonerated almost almost a decade earlier. a review has found today. in light of those findings , andrew of those findings, andrew malkinson says the criminal cases review commission obstructed his fight for justice, and he says cost me an extra decade wrongly imprisoned. well, in the last few minutes, justice secretary shabana mahmood says the chairwoman of the criminal cases review commission is unfit to fulfil her duties. it's understood that shabana mahmood is now seeking to remove helen pitcher from that position after the failings in andrew malkinson's case. the first report from the covid inquiry has found that all four uk nations were failed by a lack of process of planning and policy for a pandemic. the 240

page policy for a pandemic. the 240 page document reveals the government made serious errors and there were significant flaws in how the outbreak was dealt with in 2020. it also found the measures in place were outdated and complex. baroness hallett has now made ten recommendations to avoid a repeat of what she has described as those fatal flaws in any future health emergency . sir keir starmer says emergency. sir keir starmer says he wants to use today's summit of european leaders to push for joint action on illegal migration. the prime minister is hosting around 45 foreign leaders at blenheim palace in oxfordshire, where defence, security and energy are on the agenda. earlier this afternoon he used his opening speech to reaffirm the uk's support for ukraine, saying the threat from russia reaches right across europe . in the us, joe biden has europe. in the us, joe biden has now been forced to pull out of a campaign speech after contracting coronavirus. the white house says the 81 year old is having mild symptoms from the infection, but they say he is vaccinated. he's boosted and

isolating while he continues his dufies. isolating while he continues his duties . it comes as the us duties. it comes as the us president's facing growing pressure to step aside because of his age, and there are also reports that the two top democrats in congress have met him in private to express concerns over his re—election bid . a football club in bid. a football club in hertfordshire has paid tribute to one of the british men who has gone missing in sweden. juan cifuentes used to play for welwyn garden city before disappearing alongside farouk abdul razak. their families are now appealing for information on their whereabouts amid fears the men might have been victims of a double murder. men might have been victims of a double murder . greater double murder. greater manchester police is promising to take action following a report that's discovered officers are abusing their power. it was set up after complaints about the treatment of three women in custody and its unlawful arrests of strip searching being carried out. dame vera baird carried out the review following the reports that three women had been accusing the force of those

unjustified strip searches. she said the inquiry found many of the arrests were unnecessary and unlawful . and banks have been unlawful. and banks have been told to improve how they treat political figures. following a review into so—called de—banking, the uk's financial watchdog found most firms could deal with mps better so they're not subject to excessive checks or bans. the issue was made headune or bans. the issue was made headline when nigel farage claimed he had his account closed because of his political views . those are the latest views. those are the latest headunes views. those are the latest headlines for now i'm sam francis. another update at 2:00 for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code , or go to gbnews.com. >> forward slash alerts . >> forward slash alerts. >> forward slash alerts. >> cheers! britannia wine club proudly sponsors the gb news financial report , and here's financial report, and here's another look at how the markets

are faring this afternoon. >> the pound will buy you $1.2987 and ,1.1883. the price of gold £1,897.40 per ounce, and the ftse 100 is at 8247 points. >> cheers . britannia wine club the gb news financial report

>> good afternoon. britain. just coming up to 20 to 2. and the uk. covid 19 inquiry has published its first report today, laying bare the failures of the uk to properly prepare for a pandemic. >> yes, the 240 page document reveals there were significant flaws in how the outbreak was deau flaws in how the outbreak was dealt with back in 2020, and people were failed by the lack of preparation for such pandemic. >> properly prepare for a pandemic hard to say. peter

piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. >> well, he's going mad. he's officially going mad . officially going mad. >> loopy, let's let's cross to our home and security editor mark white, who is outside the inquiry . mark white, who is outside the inquiry. mark, this is a significant day . significant day. >> yes, indeed. and baroness hallett in that first of some nine covid inquiry reports that we'll get over the next couple of years is damning in terms of what the government did or didn't do in terms of its preparations for a health emergency, and not just a uk government, but the devolved governments as well. the plans , governments as well. the plans, she said, were outdated. they focused on the wrong pandemic. they were, focused on the potential for an influenza pandemic, rather than looking at what was occurring in asia and in the middle east. with coronavirus type, outbreaks that

were occurring there. and that just really wasn't factored into those plans. and indeed, she said that the plan, such as it was from 2011, just didn't stand up in any way to actually real life , the outbreak or life, the outbreak or a pandemic. once that pandemic started to grip that emergency plan was effectively just thrown out of the window, she said. and she also went on to say that the institutions and structures responsible for emergency planning were labyrinthine in their complexity. there were fatal strategic flaws, she said, underpinning the assessment of the risks faced by the uk a little earlier. i spoke to elkan is a lawyer representing some 7000 of the families. the

victims of the covid outbreak, and he welcomed this first report. but he said now the government must act on being properly prepared for a future pandemic . pandemic. >> preparedness was completely inadequate and the chair of the inquiry recognised that in her report and the families are pleased to see her recognition of it . we're also pleased to see of it. we're also pleased to see on the whole the recommendations that follow, although there are certain areas we would have liked to see further clarity. i think they were obsessed with the with the influenza pandemic, but even on that basis, they were not well prepared for that , were not well prepared for that, >> there was really no preparedness at all. and it's not just for pandemics . i not just for pandemics. i suspect we are poorly for prepared all sorts of emergencies and disasters . emergencies and disasters. >> so baroness hallett has come up with ten recommendations that she says she expects the

government to adopt. they include a radical simplification of the civil emergency preparedness and resilience systems, and, crucially, as well, the creation of a single independent statutory body that is responsible for health emergency preparedness. >> well, mark white, thank you very much for bringing us all of that outside the covid inquiry. some really interesting recommendations. there i've always felt felt that during the pandemic, things were slightly too fragmented. you had different rules in scotland, different rules in scotland, different rules in wales, different rules in wales, different rules in england and in northern ireland, for that matter . and in northern ireland, for that matter. and it seems that one of the recommendations here isn't that there should be a uk wide approach. it's saying that all of the different devolved administrations should, should do these sorts of practice runs every year or every few years about what it would be like to have another pandemic. >> you don't think that that

would be a coordinated exercise? >> well, it's still involve it's still saying that these different groups should get together and do these exercises, including those devolved authorities . i, i wonder if authorities. 1, i wonder if things would have been better if there was just one single authority that decided policy for the whole country. >> i'm trying to imagine what these oh, there's an argument against devolution. these the, i'm trying to i'm trying to think about what these kind of exercises would look like , okay. exercises would look like, okay. so one day everyone's told, okay, today we have to imagine that a pandemic has hit or we've just heard that a pandemic is in x country. what do we do ? do you x country. what do we do? do you be like that? >> well, yeah, because that happens currently in the ministry of defence. so every now and again they will have people who take a day out of their normal, you know, sort of job in, in the mod to come in, sit around a table, they lock the doors, they say right , the the doors, they say right, the chinese have invaded taiwan. what do we do ? and they sit what do we do? and they sit around and they thrash it out and they wargame the strategy. i would imagine it's exactly the same. that's going to be

mandatory to do now for pandemics. well, there's been another lab leak in wuhan or whatever it is. >> but when actually happens, it's all out the window, isn't it's all out the window, isn't it , new people are it's all out the window, isn't it, new people are in it's all out the window, isn't it , new people are in charge, it, new people are in charge, but yes, the creation of a single independent statutory body responsible for preparedness and response are another statutory body . another statutory body. >> yeah, that's just what we need. more government, i think. >> more government, more government. that's exactly what we need. let us know your thoughts. gbnews.com/yoursay. of course it was all a very traumatic experience for a lot of you , i imagine, but lots of of you, i imagine, but lots of you have been getting in touch , you have been getting in touch, particularly about that debate we just had on the primary school with all the kids, with the pride flag and whatnot. we're going to read out some of those after this short

break. well. good afternoon. britain. it is now 149 in the afternoon.

of course. and we had a bit of a fiery debate earlier. if you were tuned in this was all a sparked by, rosie duffield , the sparked by, rosie duffield, the labour mp, who was concerned by a picture she saw of a primary school where lots of very small children were, you know, waving the progress flag and carrying placards saying, i can't even think straight. and it got us thinking about these sorts of things in schools, lots of you said, kathy said, children shouldn't be indoctrinated with aduu shouldn't be indoctrinated with adult ideology. they can decide for themselves who are what they are as they grow into adults. anthony says. why do schools need to teach anything about sex other than contraception? to avoid unnecessary pregnancies, and, grumpy grandad, hi grumpy grandad, you say children should not be spoon fed any ideology pride. religion doesn't matter what it is , it shouldn't happen, what it is, it shouldn't happen, yes. i'm not sure. i found many comments that were positive. >> no, i there was a, there was a school in london, just this week that took children on a

march against an ocado warehouse opening near the school. >> yes, i saw that. >> do you see the children sort of going with, with big sort of signs saying no ocado, no , no signs saying no ocado, no, no building here, no warehouse here. and it's like these, these children, how old were they? like 4 or 5. they don't have political opinions. you can't ascribe that to them. i think it's just very distasteful when children are included in any political cause. >> yeah, it does feel that way. i mean, what do they care about ocado? you know . yeah, they have ocado? you know. yeah, they have a very strong feeling about planning regulations. >> ocado should be able to open a warehouse if it wants to open a warehouse if it wants to open a warehouse. >> but mark on starmer and, keir starmer and the european summit, he says makes a nice change for the uk prime minister to actually speak to european leaders to resolve our problems, rather than just shout rhetoric at them from westminster. i mean, that's a bit harsh. i mean, that's a bit harsh. i mean, rishi sunak did try to speak to european leaders. >> i literally went with rishi sunak to the franco—british summit at the elysee palace,

where they were hugging each other. they were saying , mon other. they were saying, mon amie, my friend, you know, they were they were really they couldn't have. there was no shouting, i think, i think we've misremembering the last two years. >> i mean, it is a possibility that sir keir starmer, having been a remain voter, being for the european union as a concept, might have some better talks with some of the members. i don't know, maybe give away more, maybe, but more locally now because the welsh parliament has come under fire for passing a bill that offers financial assistance schemes to promote diversity in its candidates. >> well, our national reporter, charlie peters is here to tell us more. charlie what on earth's going on? >> yeah. well, so wales has been under the spotlight recently this week in terms of its first minister resigning afterjust minister resigning after just 118 days as a consequence, i've taken a look at recent legislation passed in the welsh parliament last week, a new bill went forward on its fourth reading and passed, now waiting for royal assent called the elections and elected bodies bill. now this government, the

welsh government described it as radical and groundbreaking. it's now former counsel general used those terms. it is going to add 400,000 people potentially to the electoral register by automatically qualifying them as voters, but more troublingly, according to some critics i've spoken to. it has another subsection which has raised some alarm bells, which is that it has advised ministers that they must promote diversity in all elections in wales, not just for the senate, but also for county and local elections. so that would include advising ministers to keep an eye on any instances where there is an underrepresentation of certain identities within those elected officials. that's section 27 of the bill, but it's the next section that's attracting some attention. section 28, which says that the welsh government and ministers are now permitted to provide financial assistance in the aim of promoting diversity, according to. and this is what it says in the bill specified characteristics. now

i've gone to the welsh government and asked them, what are those specified characteristics? who should receive additional funding when going for an election in that one month period before a vote? they wouldn't tell me, but they did say that it is vital that our elected bodies represent the diversity of people in wales. a spokesperson added that this legislation will pave the way in tackling barriers to participation. they said that we will set out proposals for what these protected characteristics will be shortly , and these will will be shortly, and these will be developed and consulted upon widely. they don't know yet. >> they just want to give taxpayers money to, quote unquote, diverse candidates. yeah but these are supposed to be elected candidates. it's almost like they're heading towards some sort of quota system. yeah, well, that's not democracy . in the senate. democracy. in the senate. >> there are 5% of the elected representatives. there are members of the senate are from ethnic minority backgrounds. that tracks against a wider 5.6, oh point six represented well point six off. >> so, charlie, thank you very

much for bringing us that story. >> it's almost as if the nhs is fixed, the roads are fixed, the potholes are fixed and now they can concentrate on this. we'll be back in just a second. lots more to come on this including on that covid inquiry of course. and what's going on in europe. stay with us. >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar sponsors of weather on . solar sponsors of weather on. gb. news >> hi again. here's your latest gb news weather forecast coming to you from the met office. temperatures are going to be rising plenty of fine weather for many parts of the uk. however, in the northwest there will still be quite a bit of cloud as we go through the end of the week and further rain to come to. we currently have a weather system which is gradually making its way a little bit further eastwards, but this is going to break up as we go through the day. so a little bit less rain overnight and any rain over scotland likely to be confined just to the higher ground and most other places turning drier after a

warm evening. across england and wales in particular, it is going to be a warm night, not a huge amount of cloud around, but temperatures not dropping a huge amount, some places staying with temperatures around 17 or 18 degrees. first thing tomorrow morning, there could be a few pockets of mist and fog around around western parts of england and wales , perhaps, but for much and wales, perhaps, but for much of england, wales it is going to be a fine start, plenty of sunshine. and with that , sunshine. and with that, temperatures are going to start to rise pretty quickly. a cloudier story though, across parts of northern ireland and scotland. perhaps not as cloudy as today, but nonetheless a few spots of rain are possible as we go through the morning. perhaps the brightest weather will be across more eastern parts of scotland. a greater chance of seeing some sunshine here through the day. we are going to see a bit more cloud building across far western parts of scotland in the outer hebrides, some rain pushing its way in here and there could be some strong blustery winds to go with it elsewhere. and for scotland, northern ireland, a drier day than today and a little bit brighter at times. but the best of the sunshine will be across

much of england and wales, and with that temperatures rising higher than today, highs of around 31 celsius in the south—east. but everywhere it is going to feel relatively hot . as going to feel relatively hot. as we go through the evening, we are going to see a bit more cloud and rain feeding into far north western parts of scotland and northern ireland, but staying fine towards the southeast. there will be some wet weather pushing its way through as we go through saturday and into sunday, but saturday and into sunday, but saturday could stay hot in the south—east by that warm feeling inside . inside. >> from boxt boilers, sponsors of weather on gb news

>> well . >> well. >> well. >> good afternoon. britain. it's 2:00 on thursday, the 18th of july. i'm tom harwood, and i'm emily carver covid. inquiry reports the prime minister says the government's covid 19 policy

failed uk citizens off the back of these damning findings into the uk's first report into that pandemic response. >> hosting the europeans world leaders congregate in blenheim palace today as sir keir starmer hosts what's known as the european political community summit. now the prime minister wants a deal on migration, but what could it cost us? >> body parts, murder case two men are on trial for alleged murder following a gruesome discovery of a torso wrapped in cellophane in salford wetlands. we'll be bringing you the very latest from manchester magistrates court and we'll be live in milwaukee, where donald trump is due to speak, accepting his party's nomination for the presidency. >> nigel farage, liz truss, bofis >> nigel farage, liz truss, boris johnson they're all there to .

to. >> now this covid inquiry has made recommendations to the government, ten of them. but it's also been critical of not just the response of ministers, but the civil service, too . but the civil service, too. indeed, it says civil service groupthink was partly to blame for the sluggish response to this pandemic. >> that's very interesting , of >> that's very interesting, of course, because throughout the pandemic, when anything was seen to go wrong, ministers and the government were to blame. whether it was matt hancock, whether it was other health ministers, whether it was the prime minister at the time and so on and so forth. but there's a lot of government behind those key figures that we elect and who sit in the cabinet. the whole civil service is there an issue with groupthink, not least when it comes to pandemics, but just in general? >> yeah, i think that's totally the case. i spent some days at the case. i spent some days at the covid inquiry listening to some of the evidence. i was there when, matt hancock spoke. i was there when dominic cummings spoke. one of the really interesting things is they bring up all of the

official recommendations from sage that that official scientific body that recommended all of the all of the different measures, and especially for the first year of the pandemic, the government followed those recommendations to the letter. so i think there's a question mark in terms of, oh, did did we lock down too late? did we? should we have locked down at all all of these questions? it's less so about the politicians and more so about the scientists who are advising the politicians, because the politicians, because the politicians did what the scientists said, especially in that first year. >> yes. for the most part. and of course, there's huge amounts of course, there's huge amounts of bureaucracy, but it will be very interesting if the focus does go on to the civil service and we start discussing actually are all the machinery of government, does it work in the best way possible? i mean, how many people work in the civil service? >> oh, i mean, it depends if you include what you include as the civil service. but in whitehall, thousands, tens of thousands easily. but but what you have not physically in whitehall obviously lots of different departments all over the country. but but but but what you have actually what dominic

cummings has been talking about recently when he set up the vaccines taskforce, which was arguably the most successful part of our pandemic response, what he did was get rid of all of the hr procedures that the civil service usually does . he civil service usually does. he disregarded every single ecj ruling . he disregarded the ruling. he disregarded the normal employment procedures that the civil service loves and has built up over years, and created this isolated team that could hire and fire as it wanted to, that had the power to move the levers that it needed to. but as soon as that procurement was over, the civil service moved to shut down that team. it was an aberration. oh, no, we have to bring back all of the hr procedures. we have to do this by the book. we can't just bring in external outside talent like that. it has to go through all the civil service processes , the civil service processes, >> we ran it like a streamlined business, like a start—up. >> yeah. and government can't. >> yeah. and government can't. >> of course, we can't have any sort of business thinking in government. that's got to be shut down. clearly bad . shut down. clearly bad. >> yeah. bad business bad. profit bad. >> well, we'll be getting some

of that and much, much more after your headlines with sam francis. >> tom. emily, thank you very much. good afternoon to you. it's just coming up to 2:05. and the top story this afternoon. sir keir starmer says that the report , released this lunchtime report, released this lunchtime from the covid inquiry, confirms that the uk was unprepared for the coronavirus outbreak. in the 240 page assessment released earlier, baroness hallett found there were significant and widespread failures from successive government. the report also condemns the 2011 pandemic strategy for being virtually abandoned when covid hit, with, she says , no focus on hit, with, she says, no focus on economic or social impacts. 1010 recommendations have now been made, including a more simple approach to dealing with health and emergencies and conducting uk wide pandemic exercises every three years. the prime minister says his government are committed to learning from the

inquiry, as he expressed his heartfelt sympathies to those who lost their loved ones during the pandemic. >> 2019. it was widely believed in the united kingdom and abroad that the uk was not only properly prepared, but was one of the best prepared countries in the world to respond to a pandemic. this belief was dangerously mistaken in reality, the uk was ill prepared for deaung the uk was ill prepared for dealing with the whole system. civil emergency of a pandemic, let alone the coronavirus pandemic that actually struck . pandemic that actually struck. >> chair of the covid inquiry baroness hallett there. speaking earlier . baroness hallett there. speaking earlier. well, baroness hallett there. speaking earlier . well, volodymyr earlier. well, volodymyr zelenskyy is among more than 40 european leaders meeting in oxfordshire , with more support oxfordshire, with more support being promised for ukraine and earlier , the ukrainian president earlier, the ukrainian president said when he arrived in oxfordshire that he is counting on sir keir starmer's support in the uk, demonstrated leadership

from the very beginning of russian attacks and all the strong steps and some some not. >> simple steps, always uk and uk began, so i count on my meeting. i will have meeting with prime minister and also bilateral one. and also i will have i will have meeting with with the government . with the government. >> and sir keir starmer is hosting that summit at blenheim palace, which he hopes will fire the starting gun on a new relationship with the eu following brexit. the prime minister says he wants to reset our relationship with the continent and to push for closer security ties with other countries. the group have now agreed on boosting defence capabilities in ukraine as it continues to defend itself against russia. in another blow to joe biden's efforts to get re—elected as us president, he's now contracted coronavirus, forcing him to pull out of a campaign speech last night. the

white house says the 81 year old is having mild symptoms from the infection, but they say he is vaccinated. he's boosted and currently isolating while he continues his duties. it comes as the us president's facing growing pressure to step aside because of his age . and this because of his age. and this morning, an interview was released with biden suggesting he would pull out of the race to the white house if medical professionals advised him to. >> i made a serious mistake in the whole debate and, and look, when i originally ran, you may remember it. i said i was going to be a transitional candidate, and i thought that i'd be able to move from this to pass it on to move from this to pass it on to someone else. but i didn't anticipate things getting so, so, so divided. and quite frankly, i think the only thing age brings a little bit of wisdom. and i think i've demonstrated that i know how to get things done for the country . get things done for the country. >> the families of two british

men who were reported missing in sweden are now appealing for information on their whereabouts. it's feared the men could have been victims of a double murder. 33 year old juan cifuentes and farouk abdul razak, who's 37, travelled for a business trip but haven't come home. officers in the area of malmo were investigating after two bodies were found there in a burnt out car on sunday. local media now reporting that they believe they were shot, though police are still working to identify the victims in the car . identify the victims in the car. a man who was wrongly convicted of rape and jailed for 17 years could have been exonerated almost a decade earlier, a report out today has found that andrew malkinson was failed by the criminal cases review commission and could have been freed just five years after he was convicted in 2003. that conviction was quashed last summer. the justice secretary now says she wants the chair of the commission, helen pitcher, to be removed from her job. two

to be removed from herjob. two prominent mps, both of whom were former government ministers overseeing the post office, are currently being questioned at the horizon it inquiry. earlier labour's pat mcfadden was in the chair answering questions. he was postal affairs minister and now sir ed davey is giving evidence. he's the leader of the liberal democrats and also held that role. they're being asked about errors in the horizon it system, which to led subpostmasters being wrongly convicted of fraud and the author of an explosive report into the treatment of people taken into custody by greater manchester police, is calling for urgent change. dame vera baird carried out the review following reports that three women had accused the force of unjustified strip searches after being arrested. she says the inquiry did find that many of those arrests were unnecessary or unlawful. greater manchester police has now apologised and says it accepts the recommendations from the inquiry. and finally, one last story for you before we head

back to tom and emily, an experimental drug has been found to extend the lifespan of mice by 25. and it's also thought it could work in humans, researchers behind the trials say the animals were injected with an antibody called il 11, and that treatment cut cancer deaths, reduced chronic inflammation and saw less muscle wasting. all key signs of ageing. those are the latest headlines. for now i'm sam francis. your next update from the newsroom at 2:30 for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone , sign up to news your smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code, or go to gbnews.com >> forward slash alerts . >> forward slash alerts. good afternoon britain. it's 2:11. now the prime minister says that the uk covid inquiry report confirms the uk was

underprepared for covid 19, and that policy failed. uk citizens. >> yes, the 240 page document reveals there were significant flaws in how the outbreak was deau flaws in how the outbreak was dealt with in 2020, and people were failed by a lack of preparation. >> well, our home and security edhon >> well, our home and security editor, mark white, joins us outside the inquiry. he's been digging over all the detail and mark, interesting how the civil service, as well as politicians come in for criticism . here. come in for criticism. here. >> oh, there's no doubt about that. i mean, i think what baroness hallett's report really highlights is a sense of complacency, a wrong belief that the uk was somehow one of the better placed countries in the world in terms of its ability to deal with a global pandemic. that was absolutely not the case. according to baroness hallett , the contingency plans hallett, the contingency plans have preparedness plans that they had were out of date . they

they had were out of date. they were cumbersome. they were looking at the wrong, the wrong type of virus. they were focused, for instance , on focused, for instance, on a pandemic caused by influenza . pandemic caused by influenza. rather than looking at the emerging viruses in asia and the middle east, coronavirus type diseases that were being seen in those countries. but it was she paints again, a picture of this ponderous colossus of government departments and groupthink that were unable and unwilling to adapt to the changes in the sort of health threats that the world was facing. and she's come up with a number of key priorities that she believes will help try to stop , the, what we saw during to stop, the, what we saw during the pandemic, the covid 19 pandemic, with the loss of

235,000 lives that were linked to covid 19, and, of course, you know, a very significant damage to the economy. we've been heanng to the economy. we've been hearing from a lawyer acting for the families of some 7000 coronavirus victims, who has welcomed this first report from the covid inquiry but says it's absolutely vital that the government now acts on the recommendations put forward by baroness hallett . baroness hallett. >> preparedness was completely inadequate and the chair of the inquiry recognised that in her report and the families are pleased to see her recognition of it . we're also pleased to see of it. we're also pleased to see on the whole the recommendations that follow, although there are certain areas we'd have like to see further clarity. i think they were obsessed with the with they were obsessed with the with the influenza pandemic, but even on that basis, they were not well prepared for that , there well prepared for that, there was really no preparedness at

all. and it's not just for pandemics . i all. and it's not just for pandemics. i suspect all. and it's not just for pandemics . i suspect we are pandemics. i suspect we are poorly for prepared all sorts of emergencies and disasters . emergencies and disasters. >> well, baroness hallett in her report said that the damaging absence of focus on the measures required, in particular a system that could be scaled up to test, trace and isolate in the event of a pandemic was one of the key weaknesses she also said that she had no hesitation in concluding that the processes planning and the policy of the civil contingency structures within the uk government and the devolved administrations, we should add , where amounted to should add, where amounted to failing their citizens. should add, where amounted to failing their citizens . so, should add, where amounted to failing their citizens. so, as i say, a very damning report and nine other reports to come after this that we'll look at, for instance, what individual

ministers did as this outbreak , ministers did as this outbreak, as this pandemic took hold, the decisions they made, for better or worse , this is very much or worse, this is very much chapter one of this covid inquiry that is going to set us back close to £200 million. >> so there you go. thank you. so much. mark white, our home and security editor with all the latest on that covid inquiry, >> well, in other news, the prime minister says that britain will never leave the european court of human rights as he pledges to fight the new storm facing europe. >> well, it comes as the uk is hosting the european political community summit today alongside european leaders. >> well, let's speak to the political commentator now , peter political commentator now, peter spencen political commentator now, peter spencer. peter, a lot of people have commented on the fact that keir starmer's rather lucky to, in his first week, have have been able to jet off to washington dc and mingle with all of the nato leaders. and in his second week, he's hosting 45 european leaders in blenheim palace, all of these summits

gifted to him by the last administration . administration. >> absolutely right. i mean, it's like bingo with knobs on as far as he's concerned . far as he's concerned. >> and the gathering today, the european gathering is crucially important to him because one of his primary missions is to, as he put it, reset relations with europe and of course, it also fits in very neatly with his overall objective to boost economic growth. and that will be in large measure , done with a be in large measure, done with a bit of luck and following wind by by dint of investment in the british economy, not just from uk but also from across the continent and so here is his golden opportunity at the birthplace of winston churchill , birthplace of winston churchill, to be ever so nice to loads of people and have loads of meetings that otherwise might have taken months to get sorted. so yes, you're quite right. this is one of his luckiest of lucky

days. >> yes, it's very convenient to have all of these leaders in the same place at the same time. you can have a quick word with all of them. you can have longer conversations with some of them, but peter, all this talk about illegal migration, there is this is clearly a key theme for, for so many of these european leaders that are present, not least our own sir keir starmer, is sounding as though there's some kind of proposal for a migrant exchange scheme of sorts, really ? france, take back sorts, really? france, take back some of our , illegal boat some of our, illegal boat migrants, and then we take some from the european union. i mean, is this pie in the sky thinking, is this pie in the sky thinking, is this pie in the sky thinking, is this something that could actually happen ? actually happen? >> i think it it's it is something that could happen. >> but it was not going to happen overnight. much like everything else that keir starmer is, it has been talking about stuff takes time and there'll be a great deal of negotiations and a great deal of complication along the way. but most certainly it is a bit of an

objective for keir starmer having having ditched the rwanda scheme to have something else up his sleeve and, some idea of returns deal. also, i think probably more important is the cross—channel cooperation, between between british border folk and, and french border folk to and also reaching out further across europe with the idea being to actually smash the gang, the gangs, to use his terminology , to not just stop terminology, to not just stop boats when they arrive, that's in effect, but also to go for causes , which is, people causes, which is, people smuggling gangs who are who put themselves in a position to actually ensure that people or most of them sadly, manage to at least get across the channel. he wants to stop that if he possibly can. >> well, peter spencer, thank you so much for bringing us all of that really interesting stuff. and, quite a lucky

general. our prime minister seems to be so far, our political correspondent, katherine forster, is at the summit at blenheim palace for us, >> catherine, has any progress been made? any particularly interesting meetings of note . interesting meetings of note. >> well, we will hear a little bit later at the press conference at keir starmer is due to speak at 5:00. but what a golden opportunity this is for him along of course, with the nato summit last week. so we had the family photo. it's very noticeable. there's no parade of flags here. it's a rather more informal setting. getting together close on 50 european leaders , including some that leaders, including some that don't necessarily get on particularly well. but what we have heard so far is that very clear reaffirming of support to ukraine, no matter what. obviously looming is the possibility of a trump presidency and what that could

mean for europe in that, you know, with j.d. vance now as vice presidential candidate, quite an isolationist europe will be having to think about how they may manage if the us pull back from support of ukraine, but also on migration. now, there has been a working group meeting in a very small room , i'm told, and headed by room, i'm told, and headed by giorgia meloni and the italian pm. of course, she had great relations with the former prime minister, rishi sunak , but she's minister, rishi sunak, but she's leading on this because, of course , illegal migration. course, illegal migration. 380,000 people entered the eu illegally last year and italy really on the front end of this. so keir starmer, keen to build relations with her and other countries in that working group to including, like denmark , to including, like denmark, really centre left government and others , malta, albania etc.

and others, malta, albania etc. so keir starmer wants a security agreement, he wants access to fingerprinting information and much more to help crack down on these gangs. it's very clear that without rwanda particularly, you know, they do needif particularly, you know, they do need if they're going to crack down on these gangs, that has to be across european project because these people are coming right across europe to get here. now there's going to be quite an important meeting at dinner tonight with president macron. it does sound like there may be some further movement in the agreement that we currently have with france. we could hear an announcement on that a little bit later. we have heard talk potentially of some sort of exchange of migrants. ultimately sir keir starmer would like a whole returns agreement with the eu. there is no prospect of that happening in the short term, not least because ursula von der leyen isn't even here. she's

just been a re—elected as a leader of the european commission. but that is a much, much bigger project. but there may be something with france and we will find out in the coming hours. >> yes, another five years for ursula von der elianne, chief of the commission. thank you very much indeed. katherine forster from blenheim palace. >> i love those european elections where, meps all 750 odd of them, sit there in their hemispherical parliament and they spherical hemisphere. yeah and given given a little piece of paper, a ballot paper. but unlike the ballot paper put out, unlike the ballot paper put out, unlike the ballot papers that you and i are used to with, you know, multiple candidates to choose between, they have just one, just one name there. ursula von der leyen . von der leyen. >> ursula. yes. >> ursula. yes. >> now they do get to say yes or no, but that's all they get to say. so obviously such a knife edge vote for her. the only candidate there in the commission formal presidential election. >> and what would have happened if more people said no, then

they'd have to go away. >> the council would have to propose a different candidate. but the whole point of the of the european council is that they always sort of propose one candidate. and very often it's not someone that you'd expect. do you remember when jean—claude juncker got in, and people weren't expecting it to be jean—claude juncker ? and after jean—claude juncker? and after he went, no one at all expected ursula von der leyen would be the candidate of any of these parties. they were what's known as spitzenkandidaten debates. a few years ago. and she wasn't even featured in those debates. and then a grubby little compromise was made between the council members and promoted her. and there we have it. >> yes, people often joke , don't >> yes, people often joke, don't they, that, you know, it failed national politicians often make it to the top of brussels. you only, you only. i don't know if that's fair or not. >> oh , i don't know. >> oh, i don't know. >> oh, i don't know. >> or not, neil kinnock, peter mandelson, like you generally have to have lost an election in the uk before you get a job in the uk before you get a job in the eu. well, at least that used to be the case. >> or another country, coming up we're going to be crossing over live to our reporter in

milwaukee, wisconsin, ahead of donald trump's nomination for presidency. stay with

us. >> good afternoon. britain. it's 2:27. now. tonight, donald trump is expected to speak for the first time since he was shot at a rally in pennsylvania. as he accepts the republican nomination for the presidency. >> yes, he plans to build on his running mate, j.d. vance's vow to champion forgotten americans, with the central theme being to kick start a golden age and make america great once again. >> well, while man ray addison is there at the convention in milwaukee and ray, he's outside. things are getting going, of course, but a lot of anticipation for what donald trump will say this evening, a

lot of anticipation and a lot of security as well. >> i want to just get out of the way and let you see some of the security elements that we have here at the fiserv forum in milwaukee. i've never seen so many police officers, and they all appear to be from different forces as well. i'm certainly no expert on us law enforcement, but i think we've got some state troopers over there. we've got some beat officers as well, and if we pan back around the other way, we could see this security cordons that we've got are fences everywhere. you could not move an inch without going through some kind of scanner, some kind of check. you've got the metal detectors down there . the metal detectors down there. we've got these passes which i've taken to off go on air, but we've got these passes with these qr codes and you don't even need to. they just get scanned as you as you walk into the general area of the security check. it's very, very

sophisticated. and it is exactly what you would expect. and where there are no police officers , we there are no police officers, we have camera crews, news crews from all over the world. and of course, this is very, very early here. it's about 830 in the morning here in milwaukee and the news, but there's so many news crews in there going live all over the globe. and there is serious attention to this speech from donald trump. and of course, we heard from him the other day, didn't we? after that assassination attempt, saying how he had ripped up the script, the speech that he'd already worked on. he said it was an excellent speech, but he didn't want to say that anymore . he want to say that anymore. he wanted to focus on american unity. and so a lot of people here very excited to hear what he's going to say and find out how is he going to do that? what words will he use to try and unify this country? the democrats, the undecided, the republicans come together under what seems to be the increasing

likelihood that he will regain the white house and become the 47th president of the united states. this is the fourth. the final day of the republican national convention. and this speech tonight is not just an opportunity to hear from donald trump, but also he will formally accept that nomination unless we get a complete , a script change. get a complete, a script change. and he says, you know, being shot has made me think life's too short and i've decided not too short and i've decided not to become president again. very very unlikely. i don't think that's going to happen. so he will accept that nomination. he'll talk to us. he'll tell us about how it feels to have had that close brush with death. that bullet whizzing through past his ear , striking his ear. past his ear, striking his ear. and it's really this moment has, has, has been a real key moment for the republicans. it's eliminated any doubt that some of them and there was a lot that had doubts about donald trump. it's eliminated that doubt for them. there's a very heavy religious element here too, and

they feel that god protected donald trump last saturday and that if it's, you know , god has that if it's, you know, god has in some ways kind of endorsed his candidacy. and so they're now unifying behind him. so a sense of energy, a sense of renewal for the republican party as well. and of course, that that moment when he was shot and he he dropped to his feet and then he, he he rose and he put his fist in the air and he shouted the word, fight , fight, shouted the word, fight, fight, fight. that has become iconic . fight. that has become iconic. and you will hear that tonight when he is speaking, you will hear that chanting out over and over again, fight, fight, fight. just like you would hear traditionally that that the expression usa , usa, usa. but expression usa, usa, usa. but you will hear that from the audience here tonight. a lot of excitement about what trump's going to say . going to say. >> well, ray addison, thank you for bringing us all of that. and very interesting to see the level of security there . level of security there. clearly, something in deep, deep consideration after that

assassination attempt. yes. >> huge amounts of security arrangements, isn't there. and obviously we know why. because there's always a threat to these types of things, they talk all the talk about god. there's a lot of people saying he was saved by god, aren't there? but, i mean, it did. look miraculous, didn't it? the fact he got away with that, anyway, coming up, the welsh parliament is in hot water for passing a bill that offers financial assistance schemes to promote diversity in candidates. what's all this about? more on that after your headlines. >> very good afternoon to you. it's just after 2:30, the top story this hour, the covid 19 inquiry has found that the government failed the public because of flawed policy process and planning for a pandemic. the 240 page document reveals the government made serious errors, and that there were significant flaws in how the outbreak was deau flaws in how the outbreak was dealt with in 2020. it also found the measures in place were outdated and complex. baroness

hallett, who chaired the inquiry, has now made ten recommendations to avoid a repeat of what she described as those fatal flaws in any future health emergency . sir keir health emergency. sir keir starmer says he wants to use today's summit of european leaders to push for joint today's summit of european leaders to push forjoint action leaders to push for joint action on illegal migration. the prime minister is hosting around 45 foreign leaders at blenheim palace in oxfordshire, with defence, security and energy on the agenda. earlier, he used his opening speech to reaffirm the uk's support for ukraine, saying the threat from russia reaches right across europe . in the us, right across europe. in the us, joe biden has been forced to pull out of another campaign speech after contracting coronavirus. the white house says the 81 year old is having mild symptoms from the infection , mild symptoms from the infection, but that he is vaccinated, boosted and isolating. they say while he continues his duties. it comes as the us president is facing growing pressure to step aside because of his age , with aside because of his age, with reports that two top democrats in congress have privately met

with him to express their concerns over his re—election bid . a man who was wrongly bid. a man who was wrongly convicted of rape and spent 17 years in jail could have been exonerated almost a decade earlier. that's to according a review out today. in light of the findings, andrew malkinson says the criminal cases review commission obstructed his fight for justice and he says, cost me forjustice and he says, cost me an extra decade wrongly imprisoned justice secretary shabana mahmood says the chairwoman of the criminal cases review commission is unfit to fulfil her duties. it's understood she wants helen pitcher to be removed from that position after the failings in the case. a football club in hertfordshire has paid tribute to one of the british men who's gone missing in sweden, juan cifuentes used to play for will and garden city before disappearing alongside farouk abdul razak, their families are appealing for information on their whereabouts amid fears the men might have been victims of a double murder.

men might have been victims of a double murder . a report has double murder. a report has found that officers with greater manchester police have been abusing their power by carrying out unlawful arrests and treating victims as criminals. it was set up after complaints about the treatment of three women in custody and found unlawful. arrests and strip searches are being carried out. author dame vera baird has made a series of recommendations to make sure that more humane and dignified treatment of those in custody is put in place, and finally , banks have been told to finally, banks have been told to improve how they treat political figures. following a review into so—called de—banking , the uk's so—called de—banking, the uk's financial watchdog found most firms could deal with mps better so that they're not subject to excessive checks or bans. the issue of de—banking made headunes issue of de—banking made headlines when nigel farage claimed he had had his account closed because of his political views . those are the latest views. those are the latest headunes views. those are the latest headlines for now from the newsroom. i'm sam francis, your next update at 3:00 for the very latest gb news direct to your

smartphone , sign up to news smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code, or go to gbnews.com. >> forward slash alerts . >> forward slash alerts. >> forward slash alerts. >> cheers! britannia wine club proudly sponsors the gb news financial report , and here's financial report, and here's another look at the markets for you this afternoon. >> the pound will buy you $1.2987 and ,1.1883. the price of gold this hour, £1,897.40 per ounce, and the ftse 100 is at 8247 points. >> cheers . britannia wine club the gb news financial report

>> right. it's 240, and martin daubney is up next. and he joins

us now, martin, what have you got coming up this afternoon? ursula von der elianne back ? ursula von der elianne back? >> yeah, well, five years ago today , guys, i voted against today, guys, i voted against ursula von der linde as a brexit party mep. she scraped through by nine votes and she got through on a bigger margin . through on a bigger margin. today, i'll reveal the true horror of the backroom deals, the giveaways that she's promised to the greens and nothing at all on border control. what will this mean for britain ? talking of which, sir britain? talking of which, sir keir starmer has rolled out the red carpet. isn't it lovely at blenheim palace munching on volvos 50 european top brass? i thought we'd voted to leave. will mr remain? will the people's vote champion, the guy who campaigned to cancel brexit start to show his true colours resetting relationships. sounds to me like giving power back to brussels. talking of which , we brussels. talking of which, we can't stop the boats today. 15,000 this year has been breached. i've got exclusive

footage of boats arriving at dover this morning, including a dramatic rescue video from a disaster in the channel last night which saw a british vessel leave our coast, go into french waters , perform a rescue and go waters, perform a rescue and go back to france . where's the back to france. where's the french coast guard? why are we doing their job? as you can see, i'm pretty fired up. it's going to be a great show. three till six. >> goodness me, martin, i'm looking forward to it. i have to say, i for one, am shocked that, that the people smuggling gangs have not taken a look at our new prime minister and thought, my goodness me, he's going to sue us and then just shut up shop. i'm amazed that strategy hasn't worked. but you know what? there's still still time to come. well, your show on from 3:00, martin. >> looking forward to it. yes good stuff. indeed. well, in other news now, two men deny killing a pensioner whose remains were found across salford. >> yes, the torso of a 67 year old stuart everett was discovered by a passer by wrapped in plastic in a nature

reserve. >> now, this led to a huge police search across 16 locations. and, joining us now from manchester crown court is our reporter, sophie reaper. and sophie, please tell us more . sophie, please tell us more. well, both defendants appeared here at manchester crown court this morning, sat in the dock either side of their translator as they appeared for a plea hearing. >> martin pawlikowski, age 68, and michal miljkovic, age 42, standing charge with two counts, one of murder, one of manslaughter, both relating to the death of 67 year old stuart everett, now they stood one after the other in the dock as the court asked whether they pleaded guilty or not guilty , pleaded guilty or not guilty, both of which replied that they were not guilty on both counts. now, as you say, the investigation into this case began after a passer—by happened to spot a human torso wrapped in plastic in the kersal dale

nature reserve in salford that was in april earlier this year that launched a huge investigation which found multiple other body parts across the city. and using dna analysis, it determined that those body parts belonged to stuart everett. now shortly after this, the two men, pokrovsky and mirkovic , were pokrovsky and mirkovic, were arrested and charged with those two counts, and following today's proceedings, the judge in this case, john potter, told the two defendants that they would now be remanded in custody until the time of their trial next march. >> well , next march. >> well, sophie reaper, thank you so much for bringing us that. what a shocking case. >> yes, well, coming up, yet another scandal for strictly come dancing. this is a third dancer now comes under the spotlight for inappropriate behaviour whilst on show. what on earth is

on? right. well. good afternoon. britain. it's 2:47 now, and the welsh parliament has come under fire for passing a bill that offers financial assistance schemes to promote diversity in candidates. charlie peters is to here tell us about this story. what have you uncovered? >> well, it's called the elections and elected bodies bill only passed last week after its fourth reading. and it's described by the government in wales as radical and groundbreaking. that's the view of the counsel general. now, it does have quite a few parts to it. the headline that they're pushing is that it'll register up to 400,000 new voters on the electoral register in wales , but electoral register in wales, but the sections that have skipped quite a lot of attention are that they require ministers to promote diversity in candidates. that's one thing to say that diversity should be achieved in people who are running for office in wales, but it's the next section that's attracted quite a lot of criticism when we've raised it with some experts and commentators, which

is that in section 28 of this bill, ministers are approved and are allowed to give cash to candidates if they meet a certain set of specified and specific characteristics . specific characteristics. however, the welsh government haven't told us what those specific or specified characteristics are. when we ask them, could you rule out which characteristics would acquire this cash? are there any groups that wouldn't get it? they said they wouldn't say at this point, not white men, i imagine. well, that's one of the that's one of the identities i put forward to them . they wouldn't they them. they wouldn't they wouldn't comment on that. >> it does seem quite interesting that the welsh administration is saying they're going to give money to certain political candidates, but not other political candidates. i mean , isn't an election supposed mean, isn't an election supposed to be about electing people rather than ministers decreeing who must be elected? >> yeah, and that's the sort of criticism i heard when i went to the taxpayers alliance about this issue yesterday. they told me that it was too much meddling in democracy and that it was a sham bill that was wasting

taxpayers money in defence. the welsh government, a spokesperson told me last night that it's vital that our elected bodies represent the diversity of people in wales, and this legislation will pave the way in tackling barriers to participation . they went on we participation. they went on we will set out proposals for what these protected characteristics will be shortly, and these will be developed and consulted upon widely. all regulations will have to be agreed by the senate. we will play no part in determining any financial assistance to individual candidates. but again, they wouldn't tell me which characteristics and which criteria would qualify for this funding. >> i mean , presumably it will be >> i mean, presumably it will be those with protected characteristics under the equality act. >> so i don't know, but we all have protected characteristics. that's the thing. all of us falls under at least some of those brackets. every single identity is protected. i mean, everyone sat at this bar right now. we're protected according to our race, our age, our genden to our race, our age, our gender, our sex. all that stuff is protected. so the question for the welsh government now is, are there subsections of

protected characteristics you're going to give this cash to? are there religious perspectives you want to see more of in parliament? they should really be able to say which ones they don't want to see more of, and which ones they want to see more of, but they aren't. and when actually, when you look at the makeup of the senate, which is the core part of this, right. the welsh assembly, now 5% of assembly members in cardiff are from an ethnic minority background versus 5.6% of the wider welsh population. is that a significant disparity that requires taxpayers money to fix? is it even something that you should try to fix? these are contested political questions, but the welsh government is going to put money in that direction. >> oh dear goodness me, governments will love taxpayer money to fix elections to make up for 0.6% difference. i mean , up for 0.6% difference. i mean, it makes sense to presumably someone somewhere. but charlie peters, thank you very much for bringing us that story. right. >> well, to finish this show, strictly come dancing is fighting to survive as a third pro dancer is identified as a person of interest in this scandal that's been plaguing the

series over the last few months. >> well, in response, the bbc has said it would introduce chaperones in all rehearsals in a bid to ensure welfare needs are met. yes. >> so pro dancers giovanni pernice and graziano di prima won't be returning to the show. following all of these revelations. >> well, joining us now is the showbiz journalist sarah—louise robertson, because sarah, it seems like strictly is under fire. >> it's under massive fire at the moment. i don't think it's ever come under so much criticism as what it's facing, andifs criticism as what it's facing, and it's really all sort of snowballed from this complaint that began at the beginning of the year, and the sherlock star amanda abbington, she starred on last year's show. she dropped out. there was rumours at the time when she dropped out that she wasn't getting on very well with her, her strictly partner, which is giovanni pernice. but he obviously has now left. he's been suspended, she went to the bbc with these allegations. they've suspended him . but what they've suspended him. but what has now transpired is another

dancen has now transpired is another dancer, graziano di prima. he was sacked from this year's line—up after allegations surfaced about his mistreatment of his celebrity partner last year , zara mcdermott. and now we year, zara mcdermott. and now we hear there's a third name which hasn't been disclosed yet and which is coming under fire. but they're not. you won't see them in in this year's professional line—up. so it's been a past dancer , someone who's danced on dancer, someone who's danced on the show before and that's that's where we are really at the moment. but this is this is massive for the bbc because this show really is the jewel in the corporation's crown. it's viewed by millions and millions every saturday night. it's been one of television's biggest, biggest success stories. and it was something that was seen as a family show. i mean, there has been incidents in the past, i don't know if you can remember when there was that comedian sean walsh, sean spelt with two n's. i don't know why, and he

was rumoured to have had an affair with his his, strictly professional partner katya jones. so there has been these scandals of the strictly curse, but there's been nothing where it's come to actual physical abuse and mistreatment, and those are very serious allegations that have been made towards the show. >> yes. i mean, it points to maybe a cultural problem at the show if there are not one, not two, but three pro dancers under the spotlight. but i would just like to come in here with this and raise these points. >> i'm not saying anything's right or wrong. we don't know yet until we see like a full, full inquiry which will happen . full inquiry which will happen. but dancing, i don't know if you've ever danced. i have. it's a very, very, very competitive world. people take it really seriously. these are people who have gone into this from children. it's their career, it's their livelihood. and dancing is hard. it's not easy. you have to have discipline. you have to have commitment and they sometimes do use methods that

are unorthodox. i'm not saying they're right, but that does happen. >> well, that's the thing, isn't it ? none of us were. none of us it? none of us were. none of us were in those rooms. they'll have to find out if actually anything really terrible happened. anything really terrible happened . but yes, thank you happened. but yes, thank you very much, sarah. we're going to have to leave it there. i'm really sorry. sarah—louise robertson, showbiz journalist up next, it's martin daubney. >> see you tomorrow at 12. >> see you tomorrow at 12. >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar , sponsors of weather on . solar, sponsors of weather on. gb. news >> hi again. here's your latest gb news weather forecast coming to you from the met office . to you from the met office. temperatures are going to be rising. plenty of fine weather for many parts of the uk. however, in the northwest there will still be quite a bit of cloud as we go through the end of the week and further rain to come too. we currently have a weather system which is gradually making its way a little bit further eastwards , little bit further eastwards, but this is going to break up as we go through the day. so a little bit less rain overnight and any rain over scotland likely to be confined just to the higher ground and most other

places turning drier after a warm evening. across england and wales in particular, it is going to be a warm night. not a huge amount of cloud around, but temperatures not dropping a huge amount. some places staying with temperatures around 17 or 18 degrees. first thing tomorrow morning, there could be a few pockets of mist and fog around around western parts of england and wales perhaps, but for much of england, wales it is going to be a fine start, plenty of sunshine and with that, temperatures are going to start to rise pretty quickly. a cloudier story though, across parts of northern ireland and scotland, perhaps not as cloudy as today, but nonetheless a few spots of rain are possible as we go through the morning. perhaps the brightest weather will be across more eastern parts of scotland. a greater chance of seeing some sunshine here through the day. we are going to see a bit more cloud building across far western parts of scotland, in the outer hebrides , scotland, in the outer hebrides, some rain pushing its way in here and there could be some strong , blustery winds to go strong, blustery winds to go with it elsewhere. and for scotland, northern ireland, a dner scotland, northern ireland, a drier day than today and a

little bit brighter at times. but the best of the sunshine will be across much of england and wales, and with that temperatures rising higher than today, highs of around 31 celsius in the south—east. but everywhere it is going to feel relatively hot as we go through the evening. we are going to see a bit more cloud and rain feeding into far north western parts of scotland and northern ireland, but staying fine towards the southeast. there will be some wet weather pushing its way through as we go through saturday and into sunday, but saturday and into sunday, but saturday could stay hot in the south—east by that warm feeling inside. >> from boxt boilers , sponsors >> from boxt boilers, sponsors of weather

gb. news >> a very, very good afternoon to you. it's 3:00 pm. and welcome to the martin daubney show on gb news >> we're broadcasting live from the heart of westminster, all across the uk. >> on today's show, gb news can exclusively reveal that more than 15,000 small boat migrants

have now crossed the english channel. so far this year alone, a further 315 illegals arrived today just hours after one died and 72 were rescued after their boat began deflating off the french coast near calais. >> and we've got exclusive footage of the arrivals and of that rescue. meanwhile, sir keir starmer has rolled out the red carpet to 50 leaders from the european political community at blenheim palace today. looks lovely, isn't it? with talks of a reset with brussels, will mr starmer, who campaigned to cancel brexit for five years, if you remember. will he now show his true colours? >> now he's our prime minister. and on the same point, european commission president ursula von der leyen was controversially re—elected as president today. but at what cost ? with yet more but at what cost? with yet more punitive green deals in store and backroom deals and no guarantees on border control, what will all of this mean for

britain? that's all coming up in