>> good morning. 930 on wednesday, the 14th of august live across the uk. this is britain's newsroom with andrew pierce and dawn neesom in for the lovely bev turner now olympic boxer lawsuit. >> after winning gold at the olympics in may day. khalife next fight is against elon musk, donald trump and j.k. rowling. we'll have the latest on that one for you. >> work shy britain has more than 9 million people, are neither in a job or looking for one. labour, under growing pressure to tackle the worklessness crisis, we're having a punch up about that one later on. >> now, violent attacks against

women on trains have risen by more than 50% in the last two years. how do we make the railway safer .7 railway safer? >> and as an italian sprinter, becomes the first transgender paralympian grown, what does this mean for disabled female athletes? >> spoiler alert not good news and the happy story. a street cleaner from beckenham has won a houday cleaner from beckenham has won a holiday to dodge his employer's ban on gifts . we're hoping to ban on gifts. we're hoping to find paul spiers this morning and if you know where he is, call us. yeah, if you're if you're paul . about our opinion, you're paul. about our opinion, is it . is it. >> yeah. but i like this story about the binky i love. >> i love that story. >> i love that story. >> his his his his locals crowdfunding . send him on a crowdfunding. send him on a holiday. yeah. and his employers. viola. say you can't do that because it's against council policy. so a holiday company stepped in, staged a competition. tailor made to only he can win. >> a 63 year old elvis fan, street cleaner with the surname of spiers .

of spiers. >> so he's going on holiday. >> so he's going on holiday. >> blonde hair. >> blonde hair. >> thank you. well, that's one of your hairs. >> any case, it's not about us, is it? this programme? no, evidently it's not. it's all about what you think. so it's really simple. tell us what you think of anything. even blonde hairs on his jacket. it's very simple. visit gbnews.com/yoursay but first we have some news headlines. i think we should sophia wenzler. take it away, girl . girl. >> dylan. thank you. good morning . it's 932. i'm sophia morning. it's 932. i'm sophia wenzler in the gb newsroom. the russian city of belgorod has declared a state of emergency after ukraine launched a surprise offensive that zelenskyy has admitted was easy and met with little resistance. ukraine has since claimed 1000km of russian land . moscow said its of russian land. moscow said its forces had contained the ukrainian army's advance actions in the region, but ukraine claimed to have controlled more territory in the past 24 hours. evening standard defence editor robert fox says ukraine wants to

keep the russians guessing. >> they're probing, they're pushing, yes, you said they've got into the kursk pocket, zelenskyy admitted with great ease. zelenskyy admitted with great ease . they're now probing now ease. they're now probing now away to the south and the to east, belgorod, which is where all this started , keeping the all this started, keeping the russians guessing again. the game at the moment is to throw the russians off balance for as much as possible. >> back in the uk, the latest figures show inflation rose for the first time this year to 2.2% in the 12 months to july. figures are up from 2% in june. the increase was widely predicted and is largely due to pnces predicted and is largely due to prices of gas and electricity falling by less than they did a year before. darren jones, chief secretary to the treasury, said the new government is under no illusion as to the scale of the challenge we have inherited , and challenge we have inherited, and a major incident has been declared after a toxic chemical spill in a west midlands canal.

walsall council said the environment agency told it about a spillage that went directly into the canal at pleck on monday. the canal water is now being tested for sodium cyanide, which can cause headaches, nausea , changes in heart rate nausea, changes in heart rate and loss of consciousness. the pubuc and loss of consciousness. the public have been warned to avoid the 12 mile stretch of the canal network and towpaths running from the heart of the borough to neighbouring birmingham . those neighbouring birmingham. those are the latest gb news headlines. for now, i'm sophia wenzler more in half an 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 . slash alerts. >> hello and welcome! this is britain's newsroom live across the united kingdom on gb news with andrew pierce. that's him and me. dawn neesom in for bev

turner. i'm nearly caught myself bev turner then. oh my lord, she'd have sued. she probably would, and rightly so. she's a gorgeous brunette. i'm neither of those things. >> now that boxer. so she is the most famous boxer. probably more famous than mike tyson. >> mike tyson by now. >> mike tyson by now. >> yeah, because she is now taking legal action alleging criminal cyber harassment. >> this is imani khalife. the algerian boxer who got gold medal in the recent olympics. and she has now read all the stuff you. if you've missed this, you've been living under some kind of rock , but obviously some kind of rock, but obviously all the fuss about whether this person is actually male or female. she was banned by one one boxing committee. she was . one boxing committee. she was. but the ioc, the olympics one said no, that's fine. her passport said she was a female. so she is therefore a female and can fight women in the ring. however, it does appear we don't know for sure because we haven't seen the medical records that she has x y chromosomes. that's right. which basic biology? andrew means male boy. you're a boy. that's right. you're

definitely a boy. >> so and so. the people she's taking the legal action are against a fascinating elon musk. the world's richest man. yeah, but actually she's taking, i think, against his twitter. twitter us x yeah. haha jk rowling. yeah, probably billionaire. >> she's she's got a few bob, think. >> i think so. and donald trump who's got a few bob more than a few bob. so i mean we don't know who's funding her action but and what is the point but and you think i'd have thought you'd won your gold. go away and be happy. well, exactly. you're a national hero in algeria. but this is just going to drag it on. >> but this is being filed in the french courts accusing jk rowling elon musk and donald trump, as you do, of acts of aggravated cyber harassment. >> let's talk to the human rights lawyer, david hague, who's talks directly to this program . david, good morning to program. david, good morning to you. >> good morning. morning to you both. morning. >> so this is an allegation of criminal cyber harassment. is it a criminal offence to talk openly on social media or on tv

or radio about this person's, gender when this person was banned by a major international boxing body last year from taking part in female boxing because they decided she was more male than female, how does that make it criminal effectively? >> what's happened here is that lawyers acting for the boxer have filed a criminal complaint in front of the paris prosecutor's office at the start, unnamed persons. but that gives them a wide ability to research other people and include them. but they specifically named people like j.k. rowling and elon musk in that complaint. j.k. rowling and elon musk in that complaint . so it's as you that complaint. so it's as you said, it's for aggravated cyber harassment. and they specifically stated in their racism and sexism. according to according to her lawyer. so in france, if you can obviously make out that as an alleged offence, it is a criminal offence. now, of course, this gets complexity. when you look at the location of where j.k. rowling was presumably not in

france at the time, and elon musk, so does the paris court. if they proceed with this, the paris prosecutor have the reach jurisdiction to come to other countries and if that is the case, that then is a very concerning development, because you can have countries around the world basically policing social media in other countries. so it could be a very, very significant case both in free speech, the use of social media. but also in gender politics, essentially. and what is and what isn't. a man and a woman . what isn't. a man and a woman. >> so that will, that will that, that will also test this. this case will test whether what you say in one country on social media can then be applied all over the world. we don't know that. we don't know the situation on that yet. >> absolutely. if it proceeds, that's one of the things that you look at now, we used to see in countries like dubai and, you know, states like dubai and saudi arabia, arresting people from foreign countries for social media. that's something we're used to . but are now are

we're used to. but are now are we're used to. but are now are we now going to see france trying to extradite or issuing arrest warrants for the j.k. rowling or other people for events that happened in, you know, for people that were in their country at the time, even though the people that allegedly made these offences weren't. i think it's, you know , it's think it's, you know, it's a very, very slippery slope and it could become quite, quite a very significant case. >> and it was also, i mean, the idea that this would silence somebody like j.k. rowling, who has become this is almost a cause celeb for her. this issue of women in sport and safe places for women. i'd have thought this will just fuel her campaign. david >> i mean, i think i think, you know, i think a lot of it is for publicity. and as a human rights lawyer, we, you know, in the past and this has always been against dictators, we've used countries like paris, sorry, france and germany. and we filed criminal complaints against various dictators for human rights abuses in those countries. but we knew at the time we were not going to get anywhere. but it was more for pubuchy anywhere. but it was more for publicity to, you know, to bring attention to the human rights

abuses of various people. so we've done that. but this case is a little bit different because it's not against the dictator. it's not against a country. and i think, you know, if it proceeds and that's a big if, it could have significant ramifications. like i said, for all the all those areas . but all the all those areas. but also, i think, you know, whether or not there has been harassment, you will then have if it proceeds a debate on what is and isn't a man or a woman in the courts if it proceeds, i think a lot of it may have been publicity. >> david, that brought me to my next question. so if this case does proceed, will imane khelif have to prove once for and all whether she is biologically male or female? and i'm using her preferred pronoun, as in she at the moment. >> yeah, that could well happen, because what it depends what the prosecutor proceeds with. if they do and what they need to see as evidence. but if part of whether or not there has been harassment and abuse comes down to whether or not the boxer is a man or a woman, and, you know, that's obviously that will evidence will need to be put forward on both sides of that.

that's from a cursory look at this and the comments of her lawyer, something that i think could happen . and, and, you could happen. and, and, you know, obviously that would be very, very significant step. >> the whole thing out of court. i mean, if they are proven to have xy chromosomes, i.e. be biologically a man, does that mean the whole thing is null and void? >> well, yeah. again it will come down to what happens in the court on that day and that that will be the thing. so, you know, if you're if their claim is that, you know, she obviously if she isn't a man, they're saying that she is a man. and because of that, that is that is effectively a cyber harassment. and it's proven that she in a court process, as far as they're concerned, is a man. then is there a criminal offence, someone calling a man a man? you would assume not. i mean, you know, i'm not a french lawyer, but so that it could become very, very significant. like i said, you just i just i wondered if it might have been more david, an area for defamation lawyers rather than criminal lawyers rather than criminal

lawyers . absolutely. i think lawyers. absolutely. i think that's very, very good point . that's very, very good point. and a lot of countries though. and a lot of countries though. and but again , you usually see and but again, you usually see this in the middle east, things that would normally be defamation are actually criminal offences. right and you have this kind of grey area and paris is one of those countries, you know, where you can have criminal complaints like this. but i think i really think that this could be a very significant case if it proceeds. and it's also very important for people that use social media, because we hear now having this conversation, if this goes on to social media and, you know, have we said something that could cause us to have criminal complaints filed against us in france, in algeria or in any other country? it's very worrying development. >> david, just quickly, one final question. there's the thought of this is positively terrifying for me, if this goes ahead , could jk rowling elon ahead, could jk rowling elon musk and donald trump countersue i mean, if it is proven that this person is biologically a male, could those people sue in return? >> i mean, at the moment it's a

criminal complaint. so, you know, if it proceeded, you know, if the criminal complaint was successful and it proceeds to civil and there's some damages that they could claim, you know, there's a possibility for that. but i think, you know, one of the more worrying things, if this does proceed and they do want to interview, let's say, j.k. rowling or elon musk, and they don't go voluntarily, you could potentially see arrest warrants, you know, from france, it is a criminal, criminal investigation. and that's absurd, you know, but it's if it goes ahead, that would be a logical step. >> donald trump will be praying that there's an arrest warrant issued for him in france, because what terrific publicity that would be for him in his campaign against kamala harris, who is the next wishy washy on these very issues. david, always good to talk to you. thanks david. hey, the human rights lawyer, it would be a gift for trump, wouldn't it? >> god, absolutely any of them. i mean, as you say, j.k. rowling is going to be loving this. bnng is going to be loving this. bring it on. >> and elon musk too. yeah. so i don't know who's advising this. this boxer. but i think it's bad advice i. >> yeah. no absolutely. >> yeah. no absolutely. >> take your gold medal and

enjoy your hero status in algeria, which she's got. >> and because you're going to have to go through all the biological messages as well. so, you know, if all this is about i'm a woman, i'm born a woman. i lived as a woman. prove it. good luck with that one. but she's got gold medal. yeah. up next, a woman hasn't got a gold medal for that. >> we're going to be discussing the pretty shocking rise of violent crime against women and girls on britain's trains. why is it happening? don't miss you're with britain's on gb news

>> hello. >> hello. >> concerning statistic here, isn't it? violent attacks against women on british trains have doubled in two years. >> yeah, women and girls. i mean, there's a one story and it's the. what paper does it say? one of the papers today has this exclusive. and there's one story on there about a mum who was taking a 14 year old daughter. she's got braces on

her teeth, literally almost in school uniform. and there was a man opposite her who was just filming her. disgusting. this was quite obviously a child. yeah, yeah. >> well, this has all come out in the british transport police authority's annual report, there were 7500 offences against women and girls on trains in 2021. now, more than 11,000 last year. >> the number of sexual offences jumped 10% over the same period, while sexual harassment reports doubled. what is going on out there? well hopefully to explain a little bit of what she thinks is going on is feminist activist and writer jean hatchett. jean lovely to see you. thank you so much for joining lovely to see you. thank you so much forjoining us this much for joining us this morning. this is a shocking report. what do you make of what we've learned? this morning from this? >> well, i mean, obviously we've known we've known for many years that violence against women and girls, male violence against women and girls has been been escalating, i mean, i think there's a number of contributing factors. i think, you know , we factors. i think, you know, we cannot discount the impact of porn on the, the dehumanisation of women. and that has been, made more and more accessible.

it's become more and more violent and we cannot expect there not to be an increase in, in attitudes of, of sort of dismissive attitudes towards women, but that will turn aggressive and progressively more aggressive. and i think also, you know, the courts and, cps referrals are so low for, crimes of violence against women that, you know, they've become almost permissible now that it's become legalised to, to hurt women . and if it's happening on women. and if it's happening on trains, it's happening everywhere . and we know that everywhere. and we know that that's the truth, because the national police chiefs council released figures just recently saying that there were 2 million attacks a year on women, 2 million crimes of violence against women per year. this is huge. and they declared it a national emergency , and i think national emergency, and i think it is. >> do you think i mean , one of >> do you think i mean, one of the suggestions in this report is the fact that women are feeling more confident about reporting these attacks, and these crimes do you think that's

why we're seeing the rise, or do you think they are actually happening more? >> i think they're actually happening more. i mean , you happening more. i mean, you know, perhaps women are feeling more confident to report , but is more confident to report, but is thatis more confident to report, but is that is that really the case when, when? so many crimes do not go with an effective punishment? you know, i think a lot of women still do not report . lot of women still do not report. so if they actually were i think these these statistics would be even higher. >> i wonder as well, jean , i >> i wonder as well, jean, i very rarely see on a tube or a train and i use both a lot. i very rarely see a transport police officer. well, very rarely. and you do wonder again. it's like the bobby on the beat if there is a police presence, if there is a police presence, if it might deter some of these attacks , attacks, >> possibly. but i, you know, i'm a big believer that you have to tackle this at root. and so, you know, you have to start with the education of young boys, the eradication of porn, anything that encourages this attitude towards women. and, you know, currently just last week, we saw two men hitting women in the olympics. and whether, you know, men identify as women or or or or not or whatever that

situation is. and i think they are just men hitting women. that's been made permissible. and the language of the bbc report has made that permissible. so all of these things together feed into, you know, the dehumanisation of women targeting them for you know, availability to treat in this way. >> jean, as you mentioned, the olympics, i mean, imani khalife, who she says she is a woman, her lawyer , a lawyer in the french lawyer, a lawyer in the french court today is, going to take elon musk, jk rowling and donald trump to court over what they have said about imani. i mean, i know you've also made comments on social media about the boxing situation. what do you make of that development, >> it's just a big tantrum, isn't it? and, you know, if the ioc had acted appropriately, if they had, put in place sufficient regulation, then this wouldn't be happening. but, you know, i don't really understand where that can go, because for that to be an effective ,

that to be an effective, effective prosecution, i don't even know what it would be prosecuted as. then imani would have to provide proof that they are female. and i don't think that's possible. >> i do worry about it is, of course, jean , that, if this goes course, jean, that, if this goes aheadin course, jean, that, if this goes ahead in the french court and in the in the unlikely event the french court were to find for her, that means what people say on social media and countries around the world can be impacted by a court ruling in a completely different country . completely different country. >> absolutely. you know, this is this is just, mass silencing of women and women like myself who , women and women like myself who, as you've got me here today talking about violence against women, won't be able to speak about violence against women, because you can no longer define what a woman is , and you know what a woman is, and you know that you're effectively gagging the lot of us. but you know, frankly, take me off to jail. i'm not calling a man a woman at any point. you know, i'm quite old now, and i don't think i intend to start calling men women. >> do you think, jean, that given everything we've discussed this morning so far, the olympics, this this horrific report about, violence against women on public transport, do

you think the situation overall for women is getting worse, that our rights do ? i mean, i feel our rights do? i mean, i feel personally as a woman, i feel like my rights are being eroded in some way. >> absolutely. you know, the, you know, the prosecution, the effective prosecution of men who hurt women is so low and so ineffective in this country. now that it can only encourage further violence against women. and something else about this situation on the trains that's perpetrated by the a cross demographic of males. so you're not going to see any rioting about this particular issue because, you know , where have because, you know, where have the rioters been before now, when women of all demographics have been targeted? and that's another thing that's come up over the last couple of weeks, is the hypocrisy of who objects to which violence against women . to which violence against women. and i don't trust those men at all to be to be tackling this en masse again. >> jane, another subject that you've mentioned there, and i'm pleased you did. i mean, we have seen rioters against receiving sentences of 4 to 5 years. occasionally we saw the just

stop oil protesters being sentenced to 4 to 5 years. and i was just reading this morning of a horrific sexual assault where the attacker received 18 months. >> yeah , this is the thing. it's >> yeah, this is the thing. it's what gets the focus and it very, very frequently isn't , women, very frequently isn't, women, you know, it's that evasion of how prolific male violence against women is that certain things are targeted. these reports come out . everybody, you reports come out. everybody, you know, shakes their head and feels very sorry about it. and then the next year they come out again and the statistics have increased. and still there's no tackling of the root cause of this problem. >> all right , jane, thanks for >> all right, jane, thanks for joining us. >> that's the famous actor and writer jean >> that's the famous actor and writerjean hatchett, and that one, as you say, the boxer will run and run. still to come? absolutely. labour is set to cut millions from the budget to modernise our armed forces. does this worry you? >> yes, of course it does. this is britain's newsroom on gb news. and i think, alex, with the weather now, fingers crossed. at least that's cheerful .

cheerful. >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar sponsors of weather on gb news >> this morning. here's your met office weather forecast for gb news. we are going to see some wet and windy weather approaching northwestern parts tomorrow, but ahead of that through today, there's a good deal of sunshine around for some of us not all across central southeastern parts of the uk. it is going to be quite grey. quite cloudy through this morning and there will be some drizzly rain, but some of that cloud and that rain is going to break up as we go into this afternoon. so some brightness developing. also some hefty showers possible to elsewhere towards the north and west. a good deal of dry and sunny weather around and in the sunshine. not feeling too bad . sunshine. not feeling too bad. temperatures generally getting into the high teens to low to mid 20s towards the south as we head into this evening. and yes, there could be some hefty showers, particularly across parts of the southeast, but they'll be fairly hit and miss. most of us will avoid them further west across parts of

wales, south—west england. lots of late sunshine to look forward to. also across northern england too. but for northern ireland and western parts of scotland it is going to be turning cloudier and windier as a system starts to push its way in some heavy rain arriving to the hebrides as we go through the evening. but eastern parts of scotland, likely to have some fine sunny weather to end the day here overnight we are going to see more wet and windy weather spilling across parts of scotland and northern ireland. so quite a blustery wet picture here, but otherwise across much of england and wales. yes, some cloud towards western and northern parts and a few spots of rain. it is generally going to be largely dry with some clear skies, temperatures, perhaps a little bit lower than some recent nights, so not too uncomfortable for sleeping through tomorrow. we are going to have a very wet story across parts of scotland, northern ireland and north northwestern england too, even some rain feeding into parts of wales too. those rainfall totals could build up could cause a little bit of localised disruption towards the south southeast, though . lots of fine weather and though. lots of fine weather and it is going to be a brighter,

sunnier day than today. and with that probably feeling a little bit warmer too, with temperatures getting into the mid 20 celsius towards the southeast. see you later . southeast. see you later. >> that warm feeling inside from boxt boilers sponsors of weather on gb news

>> go away . >> go away. >> go away. >> good morning. it's 10:00 >> go away. >> good morning. it's10:00 on wednesday. the 14th of august. live across the united kingdom. this is britain's newsroom with him, andrew pierce and me. dawn neesom in for the lovely bev turner. >> farage under fire. senior tories are taking aim at the reform uk leader saying he endangered the police after his comments about the southport knife attack. >> and this is a great story. olympic boxer lawsuit after winning gold at the olympics in may day, khalife is getting ready for a legal bout against elon musk, donald trump and j.k. rowling. >> j.k. rowling that one? and as an italian sprinter , becomes the an italian sprinter, becomes the first transgender paralympian.

what does this mean for disabled female athletes? >> spoiler not good news. meanwhile, work shy britain has more than 9 million people are neither in job nor looking for one. are we a nation of scroungers and a street cleaner from beckenham has won a holiday to dodge his employer's ban on gifts. >> we're hoping to find paul spiers on his round this morning. i love that . morning. i love that. these people are pretty mean spirited. i know. >> it's just such a heartwarming, lovely story round. >> loved him so much. they crowdfund to send him on a houday crowdfund to send him on a holiday and his employers say that breaches our contract with the local council. so a holiday company steps in and says, here's a competition that only here's a competition that only he can work. >> i know it's such a good story for certain age. >> yeah, yeah. >> yeah, yeah. >> right. surname? >> right. surname? >> name? yeah, absolutely. it's a lovely story of lovely people doing lovely things and

jobsworth. >> and if you've seen him, this morning, get in touch because we want to talk to him. >> yeah. what does that say? give us a call. any case, it's not all about our opinions. this show, it's really about yours. so it's very simple to let us know what you're thinking about. all the stories we're discussing today, you just go to gbnews.com/yoursay but first, i think we have to do the news headlines. we do. and here is sophia wenzler with them. >> dawn, andrew, thank you. good morning. it's 10:01. >> dawn, andrew, thank you. good morning. it's10:01. i'm sophia wenzler in the gb newsroom. the russian city of belgorod has declared a state of emergency after ukraine launched a surprise offensive that zelenskyy has admitted was easy and met with little resistance. ukraine has since claimed 1000km of russian land . russia said its of russian land. russia said its forces had contained the ukrainian army's advance actions in the kherson region, but ukraine claimed to have controlled more territory in the past 24 hours. meanwhile, us president joe biden has called

it a real dilemma for vladimir putin. evening standard defence editor robert fox says ukraine wants to keep the russians guessing. >> they're probing. they're pushing, yes, you said they've got into the kursk pocket, zelenskyy admitted with great ease. zelenskyy admitted with great ease . they're now probing now ease. they're now probing now away to the south and the east, to belgorod , which is where all to belgorod, which is where all this started, keeping the russians guessing again. the game at the moment is to throw the russians off balance for as much as possible . much as possible. >> now, officials in whitehall say they're working around the clock to keep britons in the middle east safe amid heightened tensions in the region . iran's tensions in the region. iran's president is thought to have told prime minister sir keir starmer he considered retaliation against israel of right after the assassination of hamas official ismail haniyeh in tehran. it comes as ceasefire talks due for today look set to fall through. the deal would see a pause in conflict in gaza and

see israeli hostages returned, but according to reports, hamas official ahmed abdulhadi has said the group will not participate in the talks. back in the uk, the latest figures show inflation rose for the first time this year to 2.2% in the 12 months to july. figures are up from 2% in june. the increase was widely predicted and is largely due to prices of gas and electricity falling by less than they did a year before. darren jones, chief secretary to the treasury said the new government is under no illusion as to the scale of the challenge we have inherited . a challenge we have inherited. a major incident has been declared after a toxic chemical spill in after a toxic chemical spill in a west midlands canal. walsall council said the environment agency told it about a spillage that went directly into the canal at pleck on monday. the canal at pleck on monday. the canal water is now being tested for sodium cyanide , which can for sodium cyanide, which can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness , confusion, changes in dizziness, confusion, changes in heart rate and loss of consciousness. the council

warned that there is a potential serious health risk, and are asking people to avoid the area, but they did assure that the drinking water will not be affected by the incident . affected by the incident. violent attacks against women on britain's railways have more than doubled since 2021. that's according to new data. the number of crimes against women and girls rose by 50%, and the number of sexual offences jumped 10%. unacceptable behaviour such as touching, upskirting or indecent exposure is being experienced by more women than even experienced by more women than ever, with 51% of female victims stating that other rail passengers intervened to try and help. jess phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, described the level of violence , harassment and sexual violence, harassment and sexual offences against women on public transport as unacceptable . a new transport as unacceptable. a new report says young people are studying a narrowing range of subjects after the age of 16, with the arts taking a

particular hit. the findings have been published as students across england and wales and northern ireland are due to receive their a—level results tomorrow. the take up of humanities and arts subjects has dropped substantially, which they say risks having profound impacts on the future and shape of disciplines. the research showed that 56% of students studied a humanities subject in 2016, and only 38% studied 1 in 2022, and finding purpose in later life may prevent memory loss. that's according to a new study. it found older people who feel that their life lacks purpose may be more prone to memory loss and thinking problems as they age. factors include relating positively to others, personal growth, self—acceptance , autonomy, and self—acceptance, autonomy, and mastery of one's environment. it adds to mounting evidence that linking psychological wellbeing to healthy ageing . those are the to healthy ageing. those are the latest gb news headlines. for now, i'm sophia wenzler more in half an hour .

half an hour. >> welcome back. this is britain's newsroom live across the united kingdom on gb news with andrew pierce and dawn neesom in for bev turner. well, this is how fascinating the tories are battling it out. >> of course, to choose their next leader. they announced the new leader on november the second. the american election is a few days later. so that's going to go well, isn't it? they'll get no publicity. apparently. nobody cares anyway, because 62% say just that in a new poll. they couldn't care less who becomes leader , less who becomes leader, including 36% of tory voters. >> you know what? i don't want to be mean, but i'm surprised anyone cares. >> well, let's talk to henry hill, who is the deputy editor of conservative home. henry morning . good morning. this this . morning. good morning. this this. i've talked to some of the tory leadership contenders. and i said to all of them, go away, sit under a big rock and be quiet , sit under a big rock and be quiet, because nobody wants to hear from the tories. this poll seems to bear out that advice . seems to bear out that advice. >> yeah. i mean, i think in one

way it's almost sort of saving the party's blushes because the party does need to have a real post—mortem for what went wrong. >> both at the last election and over the last 14 years. that is necessarily going to get ugly at points . so maybe maybe it will points. so maybe maybe it will end up being a good thing for the party. but not all that many people are paying attention. but you know, most people, quite understandably, not all that interested in politics don't want it dominating their day to day lives. the conservatives aren't going to be what? even evenin aren't going to be what? even even in contention for office theoretically for another five years? yeah it makes perfect sense for people to tune it out a little bit. >> are they going to ever tune back in? that's the worry for the tories that they've become. they're such a small rump. now that they become people, become indifferent to them, and perhaps they're more interested in the insurgent reform party. >> potentially. although, of course, the tories do still have something like 2010, 2020 times as many mps as reform. i think the interesting thing is compare it to 1997 and 1997. obviously

the tories have more mps, but parliament was much less marginal , so parliament was much less marginal, so everyone parliament was much less marginal , so everyone knew tony marginal, so everyone knew tony blair was in there for two terms, maybe three terms. this parliament is the narrowest in terms of seat majorities since 1945. a 1% swing to the tories could take 50 seats off labour. now, obviously that does swing the other way. the tory seats are also vulnerable. but if you look at, i think the way starmer is governing the way that rachel reevesis is governing the way that rachel reeves is governing, the way they've rowed back in almost immediately on all their manifesto promises on tax and all the rest of it. i think that come 20, 28, 2029, the public will want to at least hear from an alternative. and if they pull their socks up, the conservatives are best placed to be that alternative. >> henry, do you think people would be more engaged now if nigel farage and the reform party were merged with the conservatives >> hum. >> hum. >> more engaged? well, i mean, potentially, yes, because i think that would be a complete circus, and everyone loves a multi—car pileup in politics, as

in everything else. so i don't know if it would necessarily be a good thing for the party, but they would certainly be more people talking about it. >> all right, that's henry hill, deputy editor, conservativehome chris hope, our political ednon chris hope, our political editor, joins us in the studio. well chris mel stride, if people were watching, would have just seen some images of mel stride. he was the work and pensions secretary, the outsider for the tory leadership. he's been what's he been saying today? yeah, he's been on our politics podcast, chopper's political podcast, and he says that. >> no, he's very clear. nigel farage cannot join the tory party. this this question is relevant because rishi sunak was asked twice by me when he was prime minister, would you allow farage to join? he said twice. we were a broad church, didn't rule it out. well, i can tell you now that all six of the of the candidates are replace. rishi sunak have said they don't want him to join. tom tugendhat said no yesterday. mel stride said no yesterday. mel stride said no yesterday. mel stride said no to gb news today. jenrick said. robert jenrick has said no. james cleverly hasn't answered our question on this but had said no on the 10th of june. kemi badenoch says no and priti patel says no. they all don't want him back, in which is

interesting because although it might be a multi—car pileup, as henry hill suggested there from conservative home, but what? where does the party go? it can't afford to have a split right? and beat labour. so does it. how does it get into the kind of farage 4 million who voted for reform uk by not doing any deal, even discussing farage, doing anything with the tory party. it's interesting and it means if you go towards the middle ground, you get squeezed by labour and lib dems and so, so that is a dilemma for tory mps, who will put two on the short list for the members to choose. >> yeah, totally. >> yeah, totally. >> i think that the fact i mean, i think nigel farage hasn't helped himself with some bellicose remarks about the tory party and, you know, and there's several there say he wants to destroy it, but surely there has to be a way the right comes together to beat labour. and currently there is no attempt by any of the of the candidates to get any kind of olive branch to farage. >> but when you see how many tory mps lost their seats directly because reform stood , i directly because reform stood, i think jacob rees—mogg of this parish, there are many more . if

parish, there are many more. if you take out the reform votes, they would be the tory majority, they would be the tory majority, the tory would, the tories would still have lost chris. that's right. but nothing like as not like the same and much closer and that 1% swing giving the tories 50 seats as, as henry says, is fascinating. >> i think there's 98 seats where reform was second to laboun where reform was second to labour. so labour have a chance to get it into the into them. i mean, of course farage would tell you they aren't all tory supporters. they're angry , supporters. they're angry, working class former labour voters who want brexit to work and don't trust london. so it's and don't trust london. so it's a complicated picture with reform uk. but the fact that we have now got this , all of the have now got this, all of the future leaders of this party turning its face against farage when sunak wouldn't do it, is fascinating for the people that do care. >> who is the next leader, who is a smart money at the moment thatis is a smart money at the moment that is a great question and it moves around. >> but i was convinced. i thought mel stride as a complete outsider was quite convincing. he did very well in some hustings in cheltenham last weekend. he's well regarded, i think robert jenrick is probably

my favourite because i think he's someone who is neither right nor left. he's on a journey from the left to the right . on political on right. on political on immigration, resigning over the rwanda plan helps him. kemi badenoch james cleverly, for all these good reasons, i think tom tugendhat did a speech yesterday. i was less convinced by the speech. maybe he was nervous, yeah. i'm priti patel. we yet to hear from her properly. >> i think it's often it's often the, it's often the outsider chris, who is talking mel stride. if i was putting money on it, i'd put money on jenrick because i'd put money on jenrick because i don't think he was even, even an outsider before the election. but i think he's doing quite well. >> yes, since he resigned over rwanda. but most people wouldn't know him if he walked in this studio. >> no. >> no. >> and what do you want? do you want someone who can beat up labourin want someone who can beat up labour in the commons? that might be a james cleverly, a great performer, but is he? you know, his campaign fell apart after just a week last time. is he someone who can do that, i don't know . i he someone who can do that, i don't know. i think that, you know, there's lots of options here, and we, we haven't yet really got got through them all.

i mean, i think. yeah, i think jenrick is the one i'm looking at. probably. but don't forget. sorry but but david cameron was a 21 to 1 outsider the week before the party conference when he blew them away with that speech. david davis, you remember very clearly. >> that's right. he was the. but how did the tories become relevant again? chris, we've got a new government. people are wishing them well. i'm wishing this government well. how do they become relevant when you've got an insurgent farage party talking to a very senior person in number 10 yesterday? >> well, i've interviewed mel stride for my podcast. he started laughing. i mean , they started laughing. i mean, they just don't care who the leader is because look at those numbers two, four three and and five people voted in the last election. don't care who the leader is and a third of tory voters. i know that's the killer. >> don't care. how did the candidates feel? >> i mean, on a personal level, what is it like to know that i asked a question tom tugendhat yesterday. >> three and five. don't care and he didn't want to answer it. he got a bit shirty. >> yeah. oh did he. >> yeah. oh did he. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> chris and i were in edinburgh at the weekend and a lot of people asked us who's going to

be the next tory leader. and i said, do you care then? and they said, do you care then? and they said, well not really, but we're just mildly interested. yeah. >> i mean that was the sort of a bit of a bet on it. yeah. >> i'm sure. and in scotland they've got a tory leadership contest in scotland they've got six candidates. >> in scotland you need 100 members to stand. it's a very low bar. yeah. with this one you could put £200,000 into the party after the second round. so you'll raise a lot of money. and we're seeing that by robert jenrick. >> and you're used to a political experts. >> what i can't get my head around. right. do you want someone you've alluded to it there chris. do you want someone with personality that's really going to rally the troops like a bons going to rally the troops like a boris johnson character? would you want it or. yeah, i know, but. or do you want someone that's a quiet, unifying figure? what's going to be the best bet? >> well, you see i would argue that. so you look at keir starmer, he wasn't meant to be prime minister. no, he was meant to halve johnson johnson's answer. >> kinnock wasn't he. >> kinnock wasn't he. >> his kinnock and wes streeting takes over and he wins in 2028. so what's happened is because of the complete unexpected historic implosion by the tory party we have keir starmer as prime minister. that wasn't meant to happen. he was a unifying figure and that was all. >> and he's dull and boring. >> and he's dull and boring. >> it could happen.

>> it could happen. >> he's still a forensic forensic is he? that's what that's a polite word in polite and boring. >> and i think i think he'll struggle in number 10 because i don't think he's equipped for it. >> the policy is very aggressive, though. the stuff against the pensioners and old winter fuel allowance straight away they have and they've given money to the public sector workers. it's interesting i think. >> yeah. oh certainly is. yeah, perhaps tell us if you want to be tory leader and if you're interested, because we are going to get a tory leader is the timing as well. november the 2nd. are they completely mad because the story will be blown out of the water three days later by the election of trump or kamala harris and the budgets before that, and the budget for that. >> but apart from that, apart from that, up next, over 9 million people are out of work not looking for jobs . not looking for jobs. >> are we a nation of slackers? with britain's newsroom and

news? >> it's going well. >> it's going well. >> hello. it's, 10:19. >> it's going well. >> hello. it's,10:19. blimey, >> hello. it's, 10:19. blimey, this is britain's newsroom with andrew pierce. that's him. and i'm dawn neesom and he's not paying i'm dawn neesom and he's not paying attention. that's why i'm doing this bit. >> really? >> really? >> when you say it's him, do you think they might think i'm dawn neesom? >> well, you can identify as what? if you want. if you're in the olympics, it wouldn't. >> let's not go there. >> let's not go there. >> if you're in the olympics, it wouldn't matter. no. even with your chromosomes, which are, well, dodgy to be honest, i don't think they are. >> actually, i'm pretty clear what i am. >> it'sjust what i am. >> it's just the rest of us. >> it's just the rest of us. >> mike parry is here. he's pretty clear what he is. he is a thank you very much. what was it, babe? magnet >> babe magnet. middle aged babe magnet. we love that. >> hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. >> mike. middle age. you're going to live to round about 150 then. >> no no no no i'm entering early middle age and i'm told repeatedly that to a lady of a certain age, i'm a babe magnet, okay? >> and i love him for saying it. and there is the former labour mp, stephen pound. well, i'm a bit of a magnet down at age. >> concerned, to be fair. >> concerned, to be fair. >> yes. >> yes. >> let's talk about work shy britons. yeah indeed. that's it's the front page of the mail.

yeah it is 9 million. >> yeah. labour under pressure to tackle the worklessness crisis now. well the tories never did. they didn't they didn't. over all the years they were there. now remember the development on this since this story was published last night. is that unemployment is down as well. now try and put those figures together. i don't understand how can unemployment be going down when you've got 9.4 million people, neither in a job nor looking for one? it's an absolute outrage. 2.8 million are on long term sick benefit, okay. and over over half of them because of a redefinition of mental health issues . i because of a redefinition of mental health issues. i mean, it's scandalous that 10 million people in this country are economically inactive. how is the economy ever going to grow? >> the swinging the lead, swinging the lead? >> okay, stephen, the statistics work simply because in the context of an increasing population. >> so the statistics only apply if the population is increasing. but look in parliament we used to call this the third rail issue. it's when you touch at your peril. because the minute your peril. because the minute you talk about in the generality , you talk about in the generality, you talk about in the generality,

you talk about inevitably you've got 300,000. it's got to be at least 2% of them have got to be sky brown the minute you actually try to take it from that level down to the, you know, mrs. so—and—so down the bottom of the street there, it becomes absolutely toxic. the absolute hatred that i used to get in my surgeries and people say, how dare you say that? you know, my little son hasn't got adhd. and i said, i felt like saying he's actually a naughty boy, you know, or or an idle person who doesn't want to work. the point is, mate, the minute you say that you get the hounds of hell unleashed. >> yeah, yeah, because that's the other story today is the number of parents claiming disability disability benefits for children with conditions such as adhd. >> this has surged. >> this has surged. >> it's also a category i've never heard of before. >> 20,000 people are called discouraged workers. yeah, because they say there's no jobs available. >> there are plenty of jobs and they don't want them back. but what about this as a statistic with this within this report, the government figures indicate that nigerian and indian people have filled more vacancies than british nationals in this country since 2019. so we've got

9.4 million people economically inactive whilst we're still sucking in people from india and nigeria to take more jobs than those born in this country, we will continue to do so. >> i mean, basically this is the personification of bring on the boats because they're saying we've got jobs here, that we simply will not fill. yeah, but i mean, i don't think you can discount the pandemic. i think that certainly was a factor. but for me, the most chilling statistic in this whole report, i think, like you, mike, i've drilled down on it. yes. if you tend to be on benefits as a child, yes, you tend to be on benefits as an adult. there's very, very little time in which all that therapy, all those 1 to 1 sessions, all those cognitive behaviour therapy, all those things, very, very little evidence that they actually cure. >> iain duncan smith's centre for social justice when he was in 2010, did all these reports showing these families that have been on benefits for decades? that's right. >> generational, generational. >> generational, generational. >> it actually was generational. yeah. >> and how do you get them out of it. >> but but he actually started to reverse the trend didn't he. he was the one politician in the last 20 years who recognised that idleness can cause you

mental problems. it's a terrible way of life. encourage people to get back into it. and yet still we just keep piling up. those who don't want to work just say, as a pensioner in 1944, when the beveridge report came out about the setting up of the national health service, it was the five evils. >> and the first of those evils was idleness. really, that was what the nhs was actually set up to , to actually cure. but do you to, to actually cure. but do you remember duncan smith's spad, his special adviser, saying it's always a mixture of a stick and always a mixture of a stick and a carrot, but we'd quite like to actually use a carrot shaped stick on it. >> yeah, right. >> yeah, right. >> because, i mean, you're you think that if you go into some of them are retired, some have retired early. >> devil's advocate slightly on this one. >> nearly 3 million long term sick i don't believe no i don't believe it. >> and also i occasionally visit a public house near me. okay. just occasionally. yeah and sometimes some. yes, exactly. research. sometimes it can be before lunch because i might have been doing a breakfast show. so therefore, you know, that's later in the day for me . later in the day for me. sometimes it can be in the

evening because i've been doing an afternoon show and i've gone home, but the same people are there all day. no matter what time it is. and they and they probably do. and what i'm saying is , is that i don't care what is, is that i don't care what anybody says. i see with my own eyes. there is a culture of idleness in this country, and it's funded by an overdeveloped benefit system. >> benefits full time. how can they afford to be in the pub all day? >> well, they are, because they've worked out. they've worked out. if they come off benefits, they could easily end up with less money in their pocket. >> that was duncan smith's old theory, the idea you've got this cliff edge and you fall off the cliff. at a certain point, he actually introduced the tapering. he did? >> yeah. i think you mentioned the pandemic, steve. >> and since the pandemic struck, the number of economically inactive people has jumped by more than a million. now, who would have thought this right? a government tells you to stay at home and do nothing and pays you to do so, and then you think, right, okay, we'll just carry on doing this. yeah yeah. >> there's another odd statistic in this. two thirds of the people of this, this great cohort are actually british born, right. you know, so the idea that people are coming over

here and skiving on our benefits needs to be looked at a bit more carefully. >> no, but they're experienced skivers. they've seen their parents. no, no, i'm telling you, they've seen other people's skive. they've seen their parents live. one other figure. sorry. just before we move on this, there are 880,000 job vacancies in this country. how can there be millions of people not working? 880,000? just think of that. >> and yet we've got 27,000 of these discouraged workers because they say there are no jobs available, that they want to do. >> that's right. >> that's right. >> yeah. can i be your can i be your leftie to your righty just i would just say i would just say that some of the jobs that foreigners are coming over are very low paid care jobs. why don't we just pay the people doing the jobs, the caring jobs, which are so important ? more money? >> well, we've got a labour government now. >> that's all going to happen, isn't it? yes >> we've got to restructure it. >> we've got to restructure it. >> sunshine all the way. yes >> sunshine all the way. yes >> but there's another reason why the 20,000 you're talking aboutis why the 20,000 you're talking about is there's no suitable job. 27,000. 27,000. well, they won't let me work from home. well, they won't let me do a three day week. well, they won't let me choose my times to go to

work. some of the blokes running the business. but i wanted to work for me. i mean, that's that's the attitude. >> they should take a job in the civil service because they can work from home all week. >> yeah, they could every day. they could. >> and still, if they live in london, work in london, claim the london waiting list. >> yes, of course they can. yeah. and then when they leave in a highly paid job later on they get a golden pay off. i mean, it's an absolute scandal in my view. yeah >> how big are these pay offs these civil servants are getting these. >> it is ridiculous. right. it's a separate story. this. but it's all part of our busted economy. golden goodbyes are civil servants rocket to £134 million. taxpayer funded pay offs. shoot up taxpayer funded pay offs. shoot ”p by taxpayer funded pay offs. shoot up by 45%. but get this for a disgraceful, statistic. a total of £134 million in exit packages were lavished on departing officials at seven whitehall departments. right, but what about this one? the figure includes 14 million for officials at the department for work and pensions , which is the work and pensions, which is the department which is which is the department which is which is the

department which is stripping pensioners of their cold weather fuel payment this winter. >> mike, don't forget there's a there's a horrible story in the papers yesterday about a canon in blackburn who was paid £250,000 by the church of england. this is a man who is perceived to be a threat to children. yes. and they only think that the church should be rid of him. was to pay him off with a quarter of £1 million. so, you know, golden goodbyes are not unique. >> the law is an ass. >> yeah, the law is an ass. yeah, but this is public money, stephen. >> i mean, that money is the church of england money. and they've got a lot of money and they've got a lot of money and they were trying to hide the, you know, disgraceful situation, but this is public money. so they're taking money off taxpayers and saying we're not going to give it to pensioners anymore. all these civil servants who , by the way, servants who, by the way, statistically their performance in work is much lower than the private sector. they're not competitive at all in what they produce , and yet they're getting produce, and yet they're getting these huge payments. sorry. >> try and get your driving licence. try and get your passport. >> should we talk? >> should we talk? >> i think the passport office works quite well actually. >> it is actually improved enormously to be fair, from a fairly low base, people that

really are suffering financial discrimination. this is your story, stephen, from the daily express. cancer survivors. >> yeah. i mean , this this is >> yeah. i mean, this this is a horrific story. i mean, when somebody has actually managed to actually defeat cancer. i had liver cancer a few years ago and they say you're not cured, but you're in remission. and i said, how long will i be in remission? yeah, forever. now, fortunately, i was able to actually maybe because of some physical benefit, i could actually carry on working. although being a member of parliament might not always be classified as work. but you know what i mean. the problem is we have to actually give these people support. what's happening is the minute they stop the treatment, the minute they stop the chemotherapy or radiotherapy, then they're no longer considered to be in need of benefits. yeah. i mean, this is the complete antithesis of what we're talking about earlier on. people are not work shy. these are people who are physically, utterly incapable of working. and if ever, if ever, we should actually be helping and assisting people. i always think like, you know, when people talk about single parents, single mums , i always think of widows. mums, i always think of widows. when i think about sickness, i think of cancer survivors. >> yeah, i totally agree. >> yeah, i totally agree. >> fair play to the express for actually highlighting this and

fair play to gb news for actually bringing it up. >> yeah, i totally agree. when you get ill in this world compared to the world we live in, i always say don't get ill because you'll get left behind. because i was seriously ill for seven months, i had acute heart failure and by the time i decided to check myself out of hospital and turned down a heart transplant, my career was fast disappearing down the tracks because it doesn't stand still . because it doesn't stand still. somebody has got to come around and do the job that you can't do. so i agree with you totally, steven. there should be incentives to help people get back. >> can i just finish the story? yes, because one of the problems with this is, i mean, i'm going to america in november, december, hopefully, and i'm going to have to pay twice as much for my insurance because i had i had liver cancer. and so if my, my if, say , my aeroplane if my, my if, say, my aeroplane flight is £1,000, | if my, my if, say, my aeroplane flight is £1,000, i have to pay 2000 for that. so not only that, if you were a survivor, a cancer survivor, you often can't get a mortgage. no i totally agree. so it is that and when you actually go on, if people say, oh, you can get this insurance, you know, for health insurance, look at the list, it goes right the way to down stomach ulcers. >> i totally agree. there's a

terrible stigma about illness in hollywood. the reason why they have so many publicity people around them is that if you get ill, you've got to make sure nobody finds out, because if anybody finds out, you don't get off the big contracts anymore to do the big films, i'd quite like to crowdfund for my insurance. well, if i were you, if i were you, stephen, i wouldn't tell anybody. right? >> i mean, but then no , but at >> i mean, but then no, but at your age, it wouldn't matter if your age, it wouldn't matter if you couldn't get treatment in america. if i broke my leg in america, it would cost me, you know , possibly millions of know, possibly millions of dollars to find out, because it would be an exclusion. >> yes. >> yes. >> try not to break anything when you're out there. and if you'd like to crowdfund. steven, get in touch. >> send . send. >> send. send. >> send. send. >> steven, are you going up to the election? yes. are you? yeah he's going to win. >> well, kamala harris obviously on that note, i'm going to go to the headlines with sophia wenzler . wenzler. >> dawn thank you. it's 1031. >> dawn thank you. it's1031. i'm sophia wenzler in the gb news room. the russian city of belgorod has declared a state of

emergency after ukraine launched a surprise offensive that zelenskyy has admitted was easy and met with little resistance. ukraine has since claimed 1000km of russian land. moscow said its forces had contained the ukrainian army's advance actions in the kursk region, while ukraine claimed to have controlled more territory in the past 24 hours. evening standard defence editor robert fox says ukraine wants to keep the russians guessing. >> they're probing, they're pushing, yes, you said they've got into the kursk pocket, zelenskyy admitted with great ease. they're now probing now away to the south and the east, to belgorod , which is where all to belgorod, which is where all this started, keeping the russians guessing again. the game at the moment is to throw the russians off balance for as much as possible. >> the latest figures show inflation rose for the first time this year to 2.2% in the 12 months to july. figures are up

from 2% in june. the increase was widely predicted and is largely due to prices of gas and electricity falling by less than they did a year before. darren jones, chief secretary to the treasury, said the new government is under no illusion as to the scale of the challenge. we have inherited and more talks are being held today in a bid to resolve the long running train drivers pay dispute, which has to led strikes and huge disruption to passengers. leaders of the drivers union aslef are due to meet officials at the department for transport for the second time since labour won the general election. aslef general secretary mick whelan has previously expressed optimism that a deal on pay can be achieved, and that now can be constructive talks . those are constructive talks. those are the latest gb news headlines for now, i'm sophia wenzler more in half an 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 . slash alerts. >> cheers! britannia wine club proudly sponsors the gb news financial report, and here's a quick snapshot of today's markets. >> the pound will buy you $1.2841 and ,1.1652. the price of gold is £1,925, and £0.80 per ounce, and the ftse 100 is 8280 points. >> cheers ! britannia wine club >> cheers! britannia wine club proudly sponsors the gb news financial report . what? financial report. what? >> he's been pretty brilliant. no, i haven't because banksy has now left a trail of nine pieces of artwork over nine days in the capital city. >> but why banksy? male or female? do we know? >> i think well, i mean, it could be anything these days, couldn't it? but i think it's

probably a boy. i think it has x y probably a boy. i think it has x y chromosomes, but who knows? >> because we've never, ever seen him or her. this is britain's newsroom

gb news. 1037 britain's newsroom. >> and now we are going to a breaking story. actually, a major incident has been declared after a toxic chemical spill in after a toxic chemical spill in a west midlands canal. walsall council said the environment agency told it about a sewage went directly into the canal at pleck on monday. we're joined by our west midlands reporter, jack carson. i believe it's actually right next to the canal involved. jack, hello. good to see you , what's what's it, see you, what's what's it, what's it like up there? what's the canal like ? the canal like? >> well, we've seen members of the canal and rivers trust that have been patrolling this part of the canal in ryder's green. so we're about seven miles out from where this spillage took

place. but this is this is almost, you know, seven miles out, but we're still, you know, right at the edge of where this restricted area has, has , has restricted area has, has, has basically been made because of this major incident that's been declared due to sodium cyanide and that spillage that they council, walsall council, say was discovered on monday. the council leader, gary perry, confirmed the substance to be sodium cyanide, which of course we know can cause things like seizures, vomiting and loss of consciousness as well. so lots of warnings towards people and pets when around the canal system at the moment. there has been this area, 12 mile long—range of the networks of canals has been put in place telling people to avoid. i've beenin telling people to avoid. i've been in walsall and walsall earlier today as well, where there are police, there's a big police presence at entrances to parts of the canal, specifically where the spillage took place. of course, the walsall council

leader, gary perry, confirmed that they understand the public's alarm at this that their investigations are very active. they are still ongoing. they have come up with a plan. they have come up with a plan. they say, with the environment agency, to be able to test the water. but this is very concerning, particularly if this affected parts of the canal come into direct physical contact with members of the public as well . warnings to call 999 and well. warnings to call 999 and 111 if you are feeling unwell, having been in contact, particularly around whether any fish have been taken to the canal you've consumed, any fish that have been dead fish and photos of dead fish spread across social media from these parts of the canal, as well. as i said, that investigation remains ongoing and they say there are partner agencies now involved with this west midlands fire service , ambulance service fire service, ambulance service and west midlands police are all involved in this major incident with walsall council as they look to how these investigations go further and how they treat

this sodium cyanide spillage . this sodium cyanide spillage. >> jack, do we know how the sodium cyanide got in the in the canalin sodium cyanide got in the in the canal in the first place? >> no. so this is still part of the investigation that we're still waiting to hear more detail from. we are expected to have some kind of update this lunchtime, as well as to directly whether there has been any information that can be shared publicly around the spillage. all we know that the spillage. all we know that the spillage came from the pleck area in walsall. that's as far and as much as we know. but those investigations do remain ongoing . ongoing. >> fascinating, scary. all right. >> that's jack carson. he'll be back with us later in the program when we have more to tell you about. >> yeah, absolutely. >> yeah, absolutely. >> sodium cyanide. so be careful now. banksy. he's unveiled yet another animal art piece. this is his ninth in the capital in nine days. >> the artwork, located at london zoo's entrance. look, you can see it there. on your screen is a gorilla. it depicts a gorilla lifting the shutter to release birds with other animals eyes visible under the cloak of darkness. >> well, we're joined by the chief executive of grove gallery, james ryan. james, is this great art in your view ?

hello. >> very good morning to you, i think it's fantastic, it's got people talking, it's very humorous . and in my opinion, it humorous. and in my opinion, it confirms why banksy is admired by so many because he's the first to do it. you know, in this way , really, it's almost this way, really, it's almost like performance art. a mixture of, you know, a real good, strong body of artwork, but also it's performance art at its finest. and there's only one person that could pull that off. and i think that's him. >> james, the $64,000 question is, does he do it all himself? these days, or does he have a team of helpers ? team of helpers? >> oh, i mean, i would well, imagine there is a team of helpers sworn to secrecy, i was actually there yesterday myself at the london zoo when the artwork was actually getting protected, and they were talking about the camera footage. you know, being being gone through by the, the top chiefs at the london zoo. so maybe, maybe they

could tell you a thing or two. but there's no way he could do it on his own . it on his own. >> it's part of the interest in the art, james not just because it's interesting art, but because it is done by this mystery figure. we don't know what he looks like. we don't know how old he is. we suspect he might be from bristol because that's where the art started. >> yes. yeah absolutely. i think that's really what captures people's imagination is they have almost a connection to someone they do not know. the, the, anonymous side of things makes it that little bit more interesting. i would say, you know , but i even saw a clip know, but i even saw a clip where, someone was actually defacing one of the recent works that he'd put together and people were booing. people were actually booing them, you know, so although they don't know the true identity, ultimately , true identity, ultimately, there's a real buy in from the general public, and it's not it's not just the uk. obviously, he's a worldwide phenomenon as

well. there was plenty of sort of, you know, foreign news channels that were covering it yesterday too. so yeah, i would say say that really. >> i know where that one is. i've seen i'm just saying we're seeing the three monkeys that's in, in shoreditch up brick lane. i know where that one is. and james. yeah, james, how much do you know the banks is that you can actually take home? how much do they go for? >> i mean, in truth, there's actually this piece behind me here, that's called a flying coppen here, that's called a flying copper. it's like one of. i don't know what it's about 100 odd. they're there or thereabouts, and it's about £100,000. wow, for a print. so again, it's not just, the value of the artwork, whether you like it or not, it's the brand that banksy is, you know, and that's what people are buying into is the fact that. and also what i think the these recent works confirms is he's still got it. if that makes sense. you know, there's interactions on each of his , his pieces that have over a

his, his pieces that have over a million people talking and commenting, you know, so, so again, that would ultimately confirm he is the best at what he does. >> james this is a flurry. it's a very unusual for banksy to do so many so close together . and so many so close together. and it feels like it's building up to something. are you getting that impression as well? >> yeah, yeah, absolutely . yeah. >> yeah, yeah, absolutely. yeah. i mean, i was torn in the first few. i thought there was a lot of sort of political, statements made with certain ones. and then by the end of it, it just all makes sense that you've got the gorilla. that's that's letting all the animals out and running wild around london, so i think it's very, very clever indeed. but there's. you couldn't write banksy off. you just don't know what the what the next thing is. but like i say, it's all theatre, and so much so that we have sort of changed plans with our gallery and we're actually doing a paying homage to banksy exhibition next week. so we're going to get a lot of reactions there and, you know, and try and have a real good feel factor there to celebrate. >> and where is your gallery,

james, >> it's in fitzrovia. so new cavendish street, so you're more than welcome to come down. and i'm sure we'll give you both a glass of champagne and a bit of food or two. >> james, can i make you an offer on that banksy of £100,000? but it won't be quite. it won't be quite in that region, i'm afraid. >> do you promise to have it behind you at all times? yeah, the whole time. the whole time. fine. all right. let's talk about that. thanks so much . about that. thanks so much. >> we might come and see you next week. that's that's james ryan, chief executive of grove gallery in london's fitzrovia. brilliant. £100,000. well, he is the most talked about artist in certainly in britain but but, but but there have been stories. >> i'm not going to do a spoiler here, but there have been stories naming a person, a man quite a posh man who is banksy. evidently he's very political as well. i think he's very political, very left wing. >> the intrigue is that we're not quite sure who he is. >> no, i think so. and do you think that would devalue the work of art you're about to buy for £100,000? >> i was thinking of offering about £25. >> oh, cheapskate. i don't think, i think i was thinking i

know that the monkeys on the bndge know that the monkeys on the bridge that's on my walk to the gym. i'm going to go up there with a chisel and see if i can knit one of the monkeys. you would as well. yeah, i would, yeah. >> now we're crossing over to saint andrews beach in scotland, where seagulls are stealing from those beachgoers. this is britain's newsroom live

>> hello? it is. what's the time ? >> hello? it is. what's the time? it's 1050. indeed. this >> hello? it is. what's the time? it's1050. indeed. this is britain's newsroom on gb news. now we told you about that amazing story about a sandwich shopin amazing story about a sandwich shop in saint andrews, scotland that introduced a seagull insurance. as the birds were nicking punters cheese toasties. well so our own reporter scotland. >> scotland reporter tony maguire, is with him in edinburgh last week he is at the cheesy toast snack looking for greedy seagulls . greedy seagulls. >> tony, we love you tony. we don't want you to get attacked

by a seagull, but it makes really good telly, so go for it . really good telly, so go for it. >> yeah, these conversations have already been had with the air, don't you to worry about it. but just before we are here in saint andrews, we're at the cheesy toast shack. and i just wanted to bring in. i've met, i've met two gb news fans and in fact, fans of yours , andrew. and fact, fans of yours, andrew. and i just thought this was too good an opportunity to miss. come on in, you two. what are your names? isabel. hi, i'm pierre, and we're talking about the toastie tax today. £1 guarantee. your toastie. is that quite a good deal? yeah. >> we don't mind that because the seagulls are just a nuisance. yeah, we don't mind that. >> terrible where you are in london. the country as well. >> we live in the country and they're even important in the country. >> it's a lot worse than what it used to be up until about a year ago, there was no such thing as seagulls. it was just crows. but now the seagulls have got into the food chain. so they managed to get in there as well now. >> terrible. well, listen, you two, enjoy your beach today, okay? thank you very much .

okay? thank you very much. >> andrew. pierre. >> andrew. pierre. >> oh, there you go, andrew. big fans up here in saint andrew's. but of course i was talking earlier on to the owner about this, you know, rather unique. intention of theirs to introduced as £1 tax. and what resorted in quite a huge viral outbreak. and let's listen to what kate said earlier on today. >> it's called the £1 seagull insurance. >> it's been misreported that it's a tax. it's definitely not a tax . it's an optional £1 a tax. it's an optional £1 spend. and we're asking customers if they would like to do that in order to protect themselves. if they do get attacked by a seagull whilst down here at the cheesy toe shack in eastern saint andrews, there's been so many seagull attacks they've just been ramping up over the last couple of years . of years. >> let's be clear there is no viral outbreak . it was, of viral outbreak. it was, of course, the story that went viral up here in saint andrews. and that's because the gulls here have become such a nuisance that a small family business was losing money until they

introduced their small pound. and speaking to customers today, as you've just heard, you know, and you're hearing the gulls now because it's been awful quiet here. this morning. but suddenly, as kate was telling me earlier on, they're going to come out strong at lunchtime. so i've got my kevlar in the car , i've got my kevlar in the car, certainly, and i'll be on the hunt for some, some and hungry, hungry seagulls, i think. >> tony, they may think that microphone you're holding is dinner. so do be careful . oh dinner. so do be careful. oh dear. dinner. so do be careful. oh dear . they are horrible. dear. they are horrible. >> and they certainly one one of the huge things around here and speaking to different customers is all of the methods that have been put in place on the beach haven't actually worked. so we've got kate's representing birds of prey. there's some alarms with noises , but it would alarms with noises, but it would seem that the smell of the cheese , especially as you can cheese, especially as you can see behind me and a really warm day like this. well, these goals, they really can't just

help themselves, you know? and i must say, i'm sort of on the lookout for the big one. i've been hearing all about. the one with the anchor. you know what i'm talking about. tattooed on, on the wing. and the bully of the pack. so we'll wait and see. but so far, so good. no blood has been shed here in saint andrews today. everyone is just out enjoying the surf and the sunshine. all right, tony, will you say stay? >> that's tony maguire, who's our scotland? >> i love cheesy toast shack. i don't want him staying safe. >> i want him waving a baguette around and see what the seagulls do. >> they might attack him, but that's the point. >> it's good telly. >> it's good telly. >> come on, would you do it? i would, right, well, there we are. i would, and i'd pay the tax. >> yeah. i don't like new taxes. no, i don't like new taxes. >> you'd probably fiddle it as well. you'd probably actually eat it. and then say no seagull nicked it. can i have the money back? >> they're a pest. i'm afraid they're gonna have to get a grip to it. still to come, we're going to be finding out why the newbie words in scrabble are creating things like sich. what doesit creating things like sich. what does it mean? >> i'll find out soon.

>> i'll find out soon. >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar, sponsors of weather on . solar, sponsors of weather on. gb news. >> morning. here's your met office weather forecast for gb news. we are going to see some wet and windy weather approaching northwestern parts tomorrow, but ahead of that through today, there's a good deal of sunshine around for some of us, not all across central southeastern parts of the uk. it is going to be quite grey, quite cloudy through this morning and there will be some drizzly rain, but some of that cloud and that rain is going to break up as we go into this afternoon. so some brightness developing. also some hefty showers possible to elsewhere towards the north and west. a good deal of dry and sunny weather around and in the sunshine. not feeling too bad. temperatures generally getting into the high teens to low to mid 20s towards the south as we head into this evening. and yes, there could be some hefty showers, particularly across parts of the southeast , but parts of the southeast, but they'll be fairly hit and miss. most of us will avoid them

further west across parts of wales, southwest england. lots of late sunshine to look forward to. also across northern england too , but for northern ireland too, but for northern ireland and western parts of scotland it is going to be turning cloudier and windier as a system starts to push its way in some heavy rain arriving to the hebrides as we go through the evening . but we go through the evening. but eastern parts of scotland likely to have some fine sunny weather to have some fine sunny weather to end the day here overnight. we are going to see more wet and windy weather spilling across parts of scotland and northern ireland. so quite a blustery wet picture here, but otherwise across much of england and wales. yes, some cloud towards western and northern parts and a few spots of rain. it is generally going to be largely dry, with some clear skies, temperatures perhaps a little bit lower than some recent nights, so not too uncomfortable for sleeping through tomorrow. we are going to have a very wet story across parts of scotland, northern ireland and north northwestern england, two even some rain feeding into parts of wales too. those rainfall totals could build up could cause a little bit of localised disruption towards the south southeast, though. lots of fine

weather and it is going to be a brighter, sunnier day than today. and with that, probably feeling a little bit warmer too, with temperatures getting into the mid 20 celsius towards the south—east. see you later. >> that warm feeling inside from boxt boilers . sponsors of boxt boilers. sponsors of weather on

gb. news >> morning. it's 11 am. on wednesday. the 14th of august, live across the uk. this is britain's newsroom with andrew pierce and dawn neesom in for bev turner indeedy. >> now farage under fire. senior tories take aim at the reform uk leader saying he endangered the police after his comments about the southport attacker and a major incident has been declared after a toxic chemical spill in after a toxic chemical spill in a west midlands canal with reports of cyanide in the water. >> jack carson has more and well. >> the public have been urged to avoid 12 miles of the walsall canal as west midlands police,

fire service and police declare a major incident here. i'll have the latest from walsall and violent attacks against women on trains have risen by more than 50% in the last two years. >> how do we make the railway safer? >> work shy britain more than 9 million people are neither in a job or looking for one, so labouris job or looking for one, so labour is under pressure to tackle the worklessness crisis and olympic boxer lawsuit . and olympic boxer lawsuit. >> after winning gold at the olympics, imani khalife is getting ready for a legal bout against elon musk. donald trump and jk rowling. >> and as an italian sprinter , >> and as an italian sprinter, becomes the first transgender paralympian. don't you just want to groan when you hear it? what does this mean for disabled female athletes ? female athletes? you can hear donald trump in america. i was thinking, bring it on. >> well, exactly. >> well, exactly. >> i mean, bring it on.

>> i mean, bring it on. >> he's going to sue. >> he's going to sue. >> huge publicity for me. i've got a presidential campaign and there will be clear blue water between him and, what's her name ? between him and, what's her name? kamala harris. >> harris? >> harris? >> who's much more wishy washy. >> who's much more wishy washy. >> and it's not like elon musk and jk rowling will be scrabbling around for the money to pay for a defence, i think. good luck. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> exactly right. okay. but it's not about what we're wittering on about. it's about what you want to witter on about. and it's very to easy get involved. you just simply go to gb news. com forward slash usa. but first i think it's time for the news headunes i think it's time for the news headlines again with the very lovely sophia wenzler. >> dawn andrew, thank you . good >> dawn andrew, thank you. good morning from the gb newsroom. it's just gone 11:00. your top story this hour. the russian city of belgorod has declared a state of emergency after ukraine launched a surprise offensive that zelenskyy has admitted was easy and met with little resistance. ukraine has since claimed 1000km of russian land.

the belgorod region governor says daily ukrainian shelling is destroying homes and killing civilians. russia said its forces had contained the ukrainian army's advance actions in the kursk region, but ukraine claimed to have controlled more territory in the past 24 hours. evening standard defence editor robert fox says ukraine wants to keep the russians guessing. >> they're probing. they're pushing, yes, you said they've got into the kursk pocket, zelenskyy admitted with great ease. zelenskyy admitted with great ease . they're now probing now ease. they're now probing now away to the south and the to east, belgorod, which is where all this started , keeping the all this started, keeping the russians guessing again. the game at the moment is to throw the russians off balance, for as much as possible. >> back in the uk, the latest figures show inflation rose for the first time this year to 2.2% in the 12 months to july. the figures are up from 2% in june, and the increase was widely

predicted and is largely due to pnces predicted and is largely due to prices of gas and electricity falling by less than they did a year before. chief secretary to the treasury darren jones said the treasury darren jones said the new government is under no illusion as to the scale of the challenge. we have inherited . challenge. we have inherited. local people in birmingham have been reacting to the news. >> a small increase, but it's massive. not a lot of people can already afford food. i've got a decent job myself so i struggle as it is, so i only worry about the people on universal credit or the little part time jobs who have to actually look after kids. >> inflation is really affecting me because i'm homeless, right? because i'm struggling to live day by day because of inflation. right? because, you know, to afford anything whilst you're on universal credit, it's very difficult . difficult. >> now more talks are underway today in a bid to resolve the long running train drivers pay dispute. leaders of the drivers union aslef have been meeting with officials at the department for transport for the second time since labour won the general election. aslef general

secretary mick whelan has previously expressed optimism that a deal on the pay can be achieved now that constructive talks are being held . dead fish talks are being held. dead fish have reportedly been pictured in a canal that is being tested for sodium cyanide after a toxic chemical spill in the west midlands. walsall council said the environment agency told it about a spillage that went directly into the canal at pleck on monday. a major incident has now been declared and people are being warned to avoid the 12 mile stretch of canal leading to birmingham. sodium cyanide causes headaches, nausea, changes in heart rate and a loss of consciousness. the council have assured , though, that the have assured, though, that the drinking water will not be affected by the incident. in other news, violent attacks against women on british railways have more than doubled since 2021. that's according to new data. the number of crimes against women and girls rose by 50%, and the number of sexual

offences jumped 10%. unacceptable behaviour such as touching , upskirting or indecent touching, upskirting or indecent exposure is being experienced by more women than ever, with 51% of female victims stating that another passenger intervened to try and help. jess phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, described the level of violence, harassment and sexual offences against women on public transport as unacceptable . a new transport as unacceptable. a new report says young people are studying a narrowing range of subjects after the age of 16, with the arts taking a particular hit. the findings have been published as students across england, wales and northern ireland are due to receive their a—level results tomorrow. the take up of humanities and arts subjects has dropped substantially, which they say risks having profound impacts on the future shape of these disciplines and finding purpose in later life may prevent memory loss. that's according to a new study. it found older people who feel that

their life lacks purpose may be more prone to memory loss and thinking problems, as they age. factors include relating positively to others, personal growth, self—acceptance , growth, self—acceptance, autonomy, and mastery of one's environment. those are the latest gb news headlines for now. i'm sophia wenzler more in half an hour 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 gb news. >> com forward slash alerts . >> com forward slash alerts. >> com forward slash alerts. >> thank you sofia, and welcome back. this is britain's newsroom live across the united kingdom with andrew pierce. that's him. and dawn neesom in for bev turner. now the reason i'm saying that's him pointing dramatically over there. because that last clip about seagulls, i discovered that andrew has a fan club. i mean, who knew andrew? i learned more about your fan club

than i did about seagulls. and thanks for reminding me. they're not actually seagulls. most of them returns in any case, but. right. >> yeah, well, take a listen. >> yeah, well, take a listen. >> apparently you have andrew here, but. well, what's not to. what's not to? >> it was very quick. well i mean blink and you miss it. did tony payer. yeah. hold on. >> i've missed it. >> i've missed it. >> it's very it's very quiet. they've deleted it. see, the production team have deleted it because they couldn't stand your ego. >> i've removed it. it's going on my website. >> oh, hold on, hold on. they're coming here. >> we love andrew. peer to peer . >> we love andrew. peer to peer. >> we love andrew. peer to peer. >> is that going to be your ringtone ? ringtone? >> we love it. we love it. i'll tell you something. we do love. we love justin urquhart stewart, our favourite economic expert who is in the studio. >> justin, one of the great the let's put it another way, one of the things rishi sunak could cling on to as prime minister because he had his five targets to stop the boats, cut nhs wages ,

to stop the boats, cut nhs wages, getting inflation down. he got it down to the target of 2%. what's happened? >> well, that's unfortunately not exactly what was in the plan. i started to go up again, but beware. you see, he wanted to cut interest in inflation like that, but it wasn't actually in his power anyway. this was global inflation. this wasn't inflation. typical british inflation caused by consumers going out and having a boom. i don't think we've had one of those for 20 years. that's a normal is it. this was inflation caused by what was happening around the world because the supply chain issues, the war in ukraine, what was happening in china? dodgy ships stuck in the suez canal, all those issues. you know, once you get that seizing up, the global supply chain, that's when you saw prices rising and so but nonetheless, he should have still twigged. well, he did twigged the fact that actually inflation was going to be coming down anyway, so long as those supply chains repaired themselves, which they have done to most extent. now be careful. it could easily reverse the other way because of what we've been seeing in ukraine or any other elements. so we're still in a rather dangerous position at the moment. but this is one of the problems where they sit there and say, well, inflation

of course, can be controlled by the bank of england. it can't be because the inflation for the bank of england, it would be if it was a consumer boom, because you actually try and stop people spending so much money because the cost of money, if the inflation is coming from outside the country, the bank of england can't do very much about it. and this is one of the problems telling the bank of england, well, you've only got one tool for them to use, which is interest rates, is actually actually giving them the wrong task. >> so the bottom line i just want to because i'm a real thicko when it comes to economics. you might have spotted that. what does it actually mean for the pennies ? actually mean for the pennies? and they quite literally are pennies these days in our pockets. what does it mean for our mortgages? what does it mean for our pensions? what what are we meant to do with this information? >> well, actually, what you're finding is, of course, that basically the price of goods are going up. that's inflation and the value of actually what you're getting then can be devalued. because actually what the inflation is doing is eroding that value. what you could buy so much with a pound two weeks ago. you can now buy less today. so if you've got a lot of money saved and suddenly you find that you've got 10%

inflation or go back to horrific days of late 60s, early 70s where we got 25% inflation for a very short period of time. i remember seeing my father's fixed pension scheme dropped by 25% in a year. now people were devastated by it . until the devastated by it. until the students now they don't believe you. surely would never have that because they'd never been through this. one of the problems we had was after the banking crisis, we never got off the emergency banking rate. they should have been starting to raise rates beforehand so that when they needed to, they could cut them again. instead, you've encouraged people to go and buy huge amounts of money at one 2%, and now they've gone up to a price of 4 or 5%. and that's painful. it's interesting to justin because one of the i wrote this after the election, one of the factors in pushing rishi into the early election , rishi into the early election, which clearly was a mistake because they were destroyed in the election, was that each month around 135,000 people were getting a new mortgage deal because the five year fixed they had when interest rates were so low. >> and this and sometimes the mortgage was going up, hundreds

of pounds every month. and this was tory voters hitting them hard. and they were saying, oh, who's to blame for this? not external factors. is it that liz truss. is it rishi sunak? which is why he went for the early election. was a big factor, a really big factor. >> now, i mean things have changed over 20 years. there are less people with mortgages than before. and of course the majority of people are actually depositors. but, you know, as old people like me sitting there with our money on there, you know, haven't been earning money on a deposit account for a lot. in fact, you've been losing money only now you see it going up. you're getting a bit of a return, but still against inflation really not making a lot. so therefore actually what you've got is those people that the next generation coming through, finding themselves in a position where they cannot afford to buy, they can't afford this, this level of debt. the debt systems themselves, there's enough money around. what they need to be able to do is actually use some more initiative in terms of the services provided , for instance, services provided, for instance, as we've seen in america, long term debt, 30 year lifetime mortgages or even family mortgages or even family mortgages going across the generations. so actually giving

it greater flexibility. so the imagination is needed here. unfortunately, our banking system, i'm afraid is still stuck in a world which is well, this is how we did it in the 70s. well, i'm afraid that things have changed now, so i hope we're going to be seeing some more imagination here to give more flexibility for the next generation coming through, because they can't afford not so much that the capital some actually interest rates when you've got actually low levels of pay coming through, it's going to be very, very difficult for them. >> is this going to be how big a headache is this going to be for the new chancellor? >> it's going to be quite difficult because where does she get the growth coming from. now bearin get the growth coming from. now bear in mind we have got some good news here. remember, we're very good at starting smaller companies. we're very good at starting smaller companies in technology. look at those technology. look at those technology hubs around the country. you know, silicon, glen fen, all those are bits and pieces and from those you do get spinouts. now, we're not very good at doing spinouts. the americans come along and actually say, that's very good. we'll take it to off california. so that's again is where we lead. so that's again is where we lead. so the issues we had when we had the british investment bank, that was sort of lurked around for years, you know, it's been

there, but it's never really broken through. we really do actually need to be able to have actually need to be able to have a better idea of being able to have more sovereign wealth, not run by the government, but actually providing access to investment for investment into businesses. and again, it's all dominated by london, actually. you'll find a lot of these technology places are dotted all over the place. saint andrews is a good example. apart from the seagulls. and so they put the money out there. don't get the government actually organising it in terms of letting it out, but actually provide those facilities and also provide the tax breaks for it. you've got enterprise investment schemes, provide regional enterprise investment schemes . there's no investment schemes. there's no shortage of money. all that pension money is sitting there. but someone took the plumbing away. they changed the plumbing so you don't get everything is now focused too much on london. >> all right justin urquhart stewart, even you can understand it now. >> well, just about it makes it crisp, sexy and full of impact. is my favourite phrase when he comes on talks economics and he wears nice braces as well. he looks very smart. so much smarter than you . okay, shall we smarter than you. okay, shall we move on? yeah. otherwise you go

on about your fan club again, won't you? oh, right. now you're jealous. it was only two people. get over yourself . a major get over yourself. a major incident has been declared after a toxic chemical spill in a west midlands canal. we're joined by our west midlands reporter, jack carson to bring us up to date on this story . this story. >> yeah, yeah. good, good morning to you both. i mean, we're on the edge of basically this 12 mile network of walsall canal this 12 mile network of walsall canal, which has been warned to members of the public to stay away from. you can probably see behind me where there's been some, some red tape put across and an aware and warning sign as well on the canal lock here. they've blocked this off in terms of access for any boats. this is a popular canal network in the midlands. plenty of boats that come down here use this lock system to get around. of course. historically used for transporting all kinds of industry and products across the country. but it's been closed off because walsall council say

they were alerted to a spillage of what's been confirmed as sodium cyanide on monday into parts of the walsall canal in pec, and quite a big stretch of the canal that they say has been affected because of we've got this exclusion zone where we are is seven miles out from from where the spillage is thought to have happened and that that rough area we've been in walsall today that has there is a police presence directly closer to where the spillage happened, stopping people from entering the canal network here. we've been able to come down to the area here now. there have been reports from from people online spreading photos of dead fish actually in the water, which has been confirmed as being part of this canal. so there have been dead fish shown to be floating on top of the water. now sodium cyanide. we know can cause seizures, vomiting, loss of consciousness in more serious circumstances and more serious volumes. fatal. of course, now gary perry, who is the walsall council leader , confirmed the council leader, confirmed the substance to be sodium cyanide

yesterday said that they understand the public's alarm with this and take the. they say they're taking the right precautionary measures in order to protect individuals now sodium cyanide and the problem they've got is that this, of course, dissolves in water. it is usually a white kind of crystal looking, solid and of course, it's usually used in metal cleaning, plating extraction, and can be used in photography as well. there are investigations ongoing, so we're not still clear of yet exactly where this has come from. but they are working, they say with multiple agencies to try and sort this problem out. >> jack, just one very quick question that a lot of people are asking who are watching and listening to us. is there any form of it, maybe a sabotage thing going on here? >> there's been no indication of that to us so far. as i mentioned, that there are investigations ongoing, and the environment agency today have set up a system in order to be

able to test the water. so when they test the water and find out exactly the makeup of it, the levels of things like sodium cyanide, i'm sure we'll be able to say in more detail. and because this has been declared a major incident by the emergency services in this region, west midlands police are taking a very active role within this investigation. at the same time. and if they do, of course believe that that might be a line of enquiry. i'm sure we'll get those details a little bit later on. >> fascinating isn't it? it's very worrying . very worrying. >> it's very serious. yeah. do you think how long that big that exclusion zone is? >> yeah. and jack. sorry. one very final quick question. how easy is it to i know there's a big exclusion zone, but how easy it is to contain it in that canal. >> well, thankfully, because of the lock system, they've been able to essentially block off the water in order so it doesn't keep spreading further out and further out. but where we are, you already go past multiple junctions where it can go into things like the birmingham canal and closer to other parts of the area because of how huge the canal network is here, of

course. so they've tried to contain it. they say it has been contained as much as as much as possible. and of course, those investigations continue to ensure that they've been managed to contain it and contain the spillage . but those warnings spillage. but those warnings still to the members of the pubuc still to the members of the public to be careful for yourselves. and of course, things like animals, if you are using these towpaths when walking your dog. >> brilliant. jack carlson , >> brilliant. jack carlson, thank you very much. our west midlands reporter there with that term toxic chemical spill, ihave that term toxic chemical spill, i have to say, i mean, i'm rather concur with some of those people who've been emailing and texting us because i thought, is that sabotage? >> because if it was a chemical lorry, where is the lorry ? yeah. lorry, where is the lorry? yeah. >> and how many businesses use this chemical in that area? sodium cyanide. that difficult to locate it any case. right. okay. right. okay you're not believe what the ex tory deputy pm therese coffey has applied for. i can't believe . this is britain's newsroom on gb news.

>> you'll have to peer to peer to peer, i think. >> i think we've seen quite enough now that. >> just shoot me now . >> just shoot me now. >> just shoot me now. >> well, if you like. who would you like to do it? we've got stephen pound to here do it or mike parry. we've got the panel with us and we are going to be talking australia. >> can i just can i just ask, are you part of the andrew pierce fan club? >> gentleman andrew pierce fan club? listen, as a fleet street journalist, i have nothing but tremendous respect for mr pierce and for you, dawg. the only person on this panel who's not really in the clique and in the club is. >> i'm sorry. >> i'm sorry. >> i've got former mp. >> i've got former mp. >> i've got former mp. >> i've heard that there is an unsigned copy of your book out there somewhere . there somewhere. >> could we talk about the joys of australia? because apparently if you live in australia, you live longer. yeah. well, are we all going to move there? then? >> why would the times put this on the front page of today's paper? no worries mate, head to australia for a life. two years longer. >> so this is the hand of murdoch, isn't it? well, i mean, murdoch, isn't it? well, i mean, murdoch is now 120 years old. yes, but he's officially a wife,

number five. >> but he's officially an american now. anyway, he gave up australia the day he wanted to invent fox tv and thought, i don't want to be australian anymore . i mean, but listen, anymore. i mean, but listen, years ago when i went to australia , i thought it was the australia, i thought it was the most fun country in the world. okay. sydney in particular. and i'd go out and i'd party all night and then wake up, you know, 6:30 am. on bondi beach and all that kind of stuff. the middle age babe magnet, the middle age babe magnet, the middle aged babe magnet. but the last time i went about three years ago, it's now one of the most woke countries in the world, and all the bars in sydney close at 1030 at night. okay they've got all these stupid speed restrictions all over the place. there's notices all over the place in a pizza shop. don't buy too much pizza. you shouldn't gorge yourself on pizza. >> no, really. >> no, really. >> nanny state. and can i say this? and this is an apology in advance to any australian friends i've got. have you ever really met an interesting australian apart from mr rupert murdoch? of course. >> clive james. >> clive james. >> well, he's not with us anymore. >> is barry humphries. yeah, yeah. >> you couldn't put rolf harris

in that category anymore . in that category anymore. >> oh, but there used to be a marvellously right wing politician called pauline hanson.i politician called pauline hanson. i remember, and pauline hanson, she represented, she was worked with john bjelke—petersen in queensland. >> he was a terrible old racist. >> he was a terrible old racist. >> she actually said, how dare you say i'm homophobic? my house is immaculate. >> oh, yeah. >> oh, yeah. >> but the problem with australia is, is that it's a huge land mass, but only about 5% of it is habitable. so the rest of it nothing happens. and if you ever end up in sort of alice springs or something like that, you, you, you literally go back about six generations to what life used to be like at the turn of the 20th century. >> the trouble is, getting back to the theme of old people. i mean, my perception of australia was always formed by skippy the bush kangaroo . bush kangaroo. >> yeah. no, no. what's that? >> yeah. no, no. what's that? >> skippy? they're strapped down the old opal mine or the flying doctor . doctor. >> you are showing your age? >> you are showing your age? >> warrnambool based a flying

doctor, mrs. mckenzie is looking a bit crooked, but you've forgotten the fashion leaders of the day, daktari. >> oh , yeah. >> oh, yeah. >> oh, yeah. >> wasn't daktari the home of the cross—eyed lion? oh, no . the cross—eyed lion? oh, no. >> this has been a presentation by the australian tourist. >> yeah, yeah. that's right. >> yeah, yeah. that's right. >> don't go to australia. >> don't go to australia. >> i did go to melbourne because melbourne is described as the cultural icon in australia. it was so boring. there was nothing to do. i agree. and the only theatre show that was on was the a regional tour of grease. yeah, well, it is a very greek city which is owned by jeffrey archer, by the way. you know, jeffrey archer owns the touring rights of grease all around the world. yeah he owns it. >> i know that tony. >> i know that tony. >> tony hancock went to australia and he died there, didn't he? >> yes he did. yeah, yeah, we should give australia some positives from this report. >> a study has found australians outlive their peers in wealthy engush outlive their peers in wealthy english speaking countries, including britain, america, canada , ireland and new zealand. canada, ireland and new zealand. the outdoor life . the outdoor life. >> it's of course it is outdoor life. >> but in all those other countries, there's more sort of

commerce, there's more culture, there's more going on. and i think people in australia have extended lives through sheer boredom. >> well, isn't that the thing about, you know, if you give up smoking, you give up sort of wild sex, you give up partying, you know, you you may not live longer, but do you ever have wild give up? >> did you ever have wild sex to give up? >> well, can we clarify? >> well, can we clarify? >> can we get mrs. can we get mrs. pound on the line? >> i've still got the scratches on it. stop! >> enough. that's all right. i shouldn't have asked that question. >> no. exactly. in any case, i want to ask a question. if you were steady on you, if you were going to go to australia, would you, as men of a certain age, wear flip flops? >> no. now, this is a very good call. >> them thongs, don't forget. >> them thongs, don't forget. >> and i would not wear. >> and i would not wear. >> don't you start again. they are. >> that's what australians call flip flops. >> you've hit on a very good story. i saw that this morning. report that flip flops are the new fashion shoe and all that. >> for me. >> for me. >> well, i tell you what, i've seen a report. i did this about a year ago that flip flops are the most dangerous form of footwear you can possibly wear. not only are they damaging your

legs by the fact you have to use muscles to keep them attached to your feet, but they're unstable that people slip on rocks . that people slip on rocks. honestly, there is a catalogue of terrible injuries that people have suffered, and i thought it was irresponsible for the feature. i read this morning not to point out that there is a catalogue of terrible injuries, that people hang on a second, as a former politician, i'm very familiar with flip flops, but but particularly under your current labour leader. >> but surely the dangerous ones would be jemmy shoes or christian louboutin. >> i'm just glancing down now. >> i'm just glancing down now. >> these are very, very safe. >> these are very, very safe. >> these are very. she likes showing her leg off. come on, let's see them. >> i can't i can't get my leg overin >> i can't i can't get my leg over in these trousers. >> look at that shoe. >> look at that shoe. >> oh >> look at that shoe. >> on now is that more dangerous than a flip flop? i would say yes. >> did you know it's not in australia? >> they do actually have high heeled shoe races. >> they have women racing in high heeled shoes. >> it's a thing every year, only this much information, because australia is so boring, >> do you know, did you know that it's not against the law to drive in flip flops in this country? >> and of course it should be. it should be. it should be. of

course, because you do. >> you know, a flip flop is only attached to the human body by about one third of a square inch of plastic. >> we've touched a nerve here, haven't we? we really have. >> between your big toe and your toe next to it, they are immensely dangerous. and my advice to all the millions of listeners watching this is don't wear flip flops except on a sandy beach. >> good, good or on a pebbly beach, actually, or on a pebbly beach, actually, or on a pebbly beach because it protects your feet as you go in the sea, beach, sandy beach, but anywhere near a road or anywhere near seagulls or anywhere near seagulls or anywhere near seagulls or anywhere near seagulls or andrew pierce fans. >> but you know, you can pay nearly £800 for flip flops now. >> well, you must be mad. >> well, you must be mad. >> yes, you must be mad. >> yes, you must be mad. >> i would go and get some treatment for anybody who thinks that paying £800 for a flip flop is a good idea. >> yeah. how much would you pay for those shoes, by the way? >> they were half price in the summer and i'm not going there, my husband's watching, right? >> oh, right. i can see him on embarrassing occasion. >> i was introduced to an italian lady of a certain age, and i was admiring her crocodile skin shoes, and she said, oh, dean skin shoes, and she said, oh, dear. actually, i'm in bare feet because your jokes actually get

worse every week. >> as ever, the charmer. >> as ever, the charmer. >> can you change the subject for us, mike? of course we can rely on you to change the subject and raise the tone. >> tesco for support. anti shoplift tags on tea bags. what? >> yes. on shoplift tags on tea bags. what? >> yes. oh yeah. >> yes. oh yeah. >> and the tea is in fact yorkshire tea. >> which is the best tea. >> which is the best tea. >> my favourite tea. >> my favourite tea. >> my favourite tea. >> my favourite. >> my favourite. >> i don't want people going around nicking tea but the thing is that it's not just tea bags. now this is an illustration of how serious is getting olive oil, toothpaste, blocks of cheese , toothpaste, blocks of cheese, tins of spam. >> shoplifting has gone nuts, hasn't it ? hasn't it? >> it's gone absolutely nuts. and do you know, i saw a letter in a newspaper, yesterday from somebody who'd been to holland who said they had an epidemic of shoplifting. and what they've doneis shoplifting. and what they've done is shops now. no matter how big or small they are, are being fitted with, railway station style entry and exit, and you can only get out from the inside if you've got a barcode. >> it shows you paid, which shows you paid absolutely a barcode on the corner shop. >> i still remember i was shaking a tin outside tesco's

imperial one christmas for doing the collection, and some bloke grabbed a bottle of vodka and raced out and he drank the vodka as he's running across the car park, pursued by two people. but i mean, this is bad news for tea leaves, obviously, but the idea of tea bags, i mean, as far as i'm concerned, can we just say barry's breakfast tea is the finest tea? it is better than yorkshire. >> no, yorkshire tea is the best. but actually this is a serious problem for shops, actually, because if you're a small, if you're a small sole trader, this is your profits are going disappearing. >> and okay, don't get too political, but two tier policing include shoplifting. >> in my view. >> in my view. >> because how can they suddenly get all these police on the streets to stop a riot? that's not going to happen. yeah, yeah. and then say, but we haven't got any policemen to patrol the pavements of our cities and our towns to try and deter shoplifters. >> i think there's two categories there school kids actually, you know, steaming into a shop. and i'm afraid that does happen, particularly when the schools come out. you see, kids will actually rush into a shop. but the other thing is, we saw in the paper yesterday about a woman who had actually travelled from spain to steal

handbags. yes she's gone to prison. >> this has been your gb news newspaper and story roundup brought to you by stephen pound and mike perry. sponsored by the australian tourist board. now it's australian tourist board. now wsfime australian tourist board. now it's time for the news headlines with sophia wenzler. good luck, sophia . sophia. >> dawn. thank you. it's 1131. >> dawn. thank you. it's1131. i'm sophia wenzler in the gb news room. the russian city of belgorod has declared a state of emergency after ukraine launched a surprise offensive that zelenskyy has admitted was easy and met with little resistance . and met with little resistance. ukraine has since claimed 1000km of russian land. moscow said its forces had contained the ukrainian army's advance actions in the kirkis region, but ukraine claimed to have controlled more territory in the past 24 hours. evening standard defence editor robert fox says ukraine wants to keep the russians guessing. >> they're probing, they're pushing, yes, you said they've got into the kursk pocket, zelenskyy admitted with great

ease. zelenskyy admitted with great ease . they're now probing now ease. they're now probing now away to the south and the east, to belgorod , which is where all to belgorod, which is where all this started, keeping the russians guessing again. the game at the moment is to throw the russians off balance for as much as possible . much as possible. >> now, the latest figures show inflation rose for the first time this year to 2.2% in the 12 months to july. figures are up from 2% in june. the increase was widely predicted and is largely due to prices of gas and electricity falling by less than they did a year before. darren jones, chief secretary to the treasury, said the new government is under no illusion as to the scale of the challenge we have inherited . a major we have inherited. a major incident has been declared after a toxic chemical spill in a west midlands canal, walsall council said the environment agency told it about a spillage that went directly into the canal at pleck on monday. the canal water is now being tested for sodium

cyanide, which can cause headaches, nausea, changes in heart rate and a loss of consciousness. the public have been warned to avoid the 12 mile stretch of the canal that runs to birmingham . those are the to birmingham. those are the latest gb news headlines. for now, i'm sophia wenzler more in half an hour 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 . >> 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 a quick snapshot of today's markets. >> the pound will buy you $1.2847 and ,1.1656. the price of gold is £1,924 and £0.47 per ounce, and the ftse 100 is at 8271 points. >> cheers, britannia wine club

proudly sponsors the gb news financial report . financial report. >> thank you very much, sophia. the voice of reason on frankly, an insane morning. we have discovered that andrew pierce has a fan club. does he really? exactly exactly. two people. two people? >> two people. are they related? >> two people. are they related? >> or they're husband and wife? but they're not related to me that i'm aware of. i don't think they've got an exponential growth. i don't think i've got . growth. i don't think i've got. >> i thought you were about to say you had some sort of canbbean say you had some sort of caribbean island where there was a tribe that worshipped you. >> well, i think that's a possibility. >> tom always goes off on this weird tangent about every story. i get weird and weird. >> prince philip had a cargo cult. yeah. >> did good afternoon britain with tom navalny coming up now, what have you got in your show? apart from admiring andrew pierce, >> i have to say we have had to bump the andrew pierce, the daily admiration segments , so, daily admiration segments, so, so apologies. it's always tomorrow . there's always tomorrow. there's always tomorrow. there's always tomorrow. and we'll get. we'll get the flags and bunting out.

but there is actually real news going on today, not least the number of people on disability benefits seeming to soar. i haven't noticed the number of disabled people in the country massively rise. there seems to be a question about what's going on here, particularly children. >> this is actually shocking. and this is since lockdown. yeah, 40% rise in things like autism, disability payments for adhd and other issues like that. adhd and other issues like that. a huge, huge rise. what is this? is everyone legitimate? all of these claims? no. >> and should everyone. >> and should everyone. >> this massive surge 200,000 more in just a couple of years. it's crazy. so what is driving this? of course, there'll be a lot of people there who desperately need help with disability allowance for their children. but surely what on earth is this this surge due to? >> and how much did locking children up in their homes for two years of lockdown, but also does everyone with a bit of anxiety or slightly on the

spectrum , need state money? spectrum, need state money? >> no. really? no. i mean , have >> no. really? no. i mean, have we forgotten high functioning people? i mean, you know , i people? i mean, you know, i think i think there is a question about the threshold for this sort of stuff. and actually the idea that sort of is a diagnosis, always the best route. i mean, do we want to be dividing people up into ever smaller groups? >> tom, it's partly during the pandemic. the government gave so much money away. people have got used to it. now they've got the handout the whole time and also expect cost of living, right? >> people need more money in any way they can. yeah and this sort of thing might be the reason why so many people have signed up for this when they might not have previously. yeah but also life on mars. question mark. >> question mark. tom's favourite subject? >> yeah, well, this this is slightly gone on the radar this week, but scientists have actually discovered liquid water on mars , which which is quite extraordinary. >> it is. i mean , we we've known >> it is. i mean, we we've known for a long time that there's been sort of that there used to been sort of that there used to be water on mars. there's all

sorts of, you know , rivers and sorts of, you know, rivers and all the rest of it that are sort of there in the dust. but they found liquid water. now there . found liquid water. now there. >> and the big thing, what do we deduce from that? >> well, the big thing that scientists have always presumed is that where there is water, there's life. there can be life. >> martians, essentially. >> martians, essentially. >> now, this doesn't this doesn't mean that there is life there. it might mean that there was life there. it might mean that we now know where to send our next rover to. but it's pretty darn exciting. >> it's very exciting because if everything collapses in this country , we know where to go, country, we know where to go, where to go. >> we know where to go. >> we know where to go. >> it's a bit hot up there. >> it's a bit hot up there. >> you can have a drink of water. of course it's cold. it's cold. very cold. >> well, that's fine. tom and emily coming up with good afternoon britain. straight after this programme at midday. now, we have just had some breaking news for you. we can confirm an 11 year old girl stabbed and seriously injured in an attack in london's leicester square is an australian tourist. we'll have more reaction to this today on gb news. is britain's newsroom on gb

hello. welcome back. it's 1141. this is britain's newsroom on gb news with andrew pierce. and dawn neesom. >> now that breaking news is very disturbing. so the little girl we reported on gb news yesterday was stabbed repeatedly. she was near a lego store on leicester square in london's leicester square. major tourist attraction leicester square with her mum. she's now been identified as an 11 year old with a mum tourist from australia. now that is what sort of signal does that send out to the rest of the world? and i was looking last year, 1.2 million australians came to britain last year , spending £1.6 billion year, spending £1.6 billion there. a huge part of our tourist industry. >> and weren't australia one of the countries that did put out a warning about travelling to the uk because of the riots and things like that ? so it's just things like that? so it's just you just can't imagine, can you? going on a holiday, taking your little, your child to a queuing

outside a lego store? >> i know that liquor store very well and there's always a queue there. i've been in there myself actually to buy lego for nephews and nieces , but she was stabbed and nieces, but she was stabbed repeatedly in the face and in the armpit, and it was a security guard nearby who disarmed. well he i think he literally sat on the attacker and for four minutes until the police got there. young lad called abdullah. that's right. yeah. and he's been hailed a hero. it's an extraordinary story, but what a terrible thing for mum, who was was covered in blood as she was trying to. >> well, she was trying to protect her child. >> i mean, this was just a random attack as far as we're aware. so far, there is no known relationship between the attacker and the victim. the alleged attacker has been arrested and charged , and is arrested and charged, and is a romanian of no fixed abode. that's right. but also, i believe, has a child in this country. so it's just the absolute horror of it. and, you

know, you have that excitement of coming over here on a holiday and this happening. and it's what how does this happen? how is this still happening? >> she's going to need plastic surgery because he she was held in a headlock and stabbed eight times with a steak knife . she's times with a steak knife. she's going to have to undergo plastic surgery. that was according to the court, the he was the attacker was is has been named as ian petrou, 32, of no fixed abode. he's been charged with attempted murder of the child in leicester square. he was held by members of the public mark white, who's our head of security, joins us. it's always shocking, but to think that this is a little girl on holiday with her mum from australia. mark. >> yes, indeed. like so many people in leicester square just visiting that 2.5 million people a week pass through leicester square. it is an iconic site for people. it attracts so many people. it attracts so many people to that area, and that's why it's particularly shocking because it's known to so many people. but you're right,

australia from new south wales, this 11 year old girl is from she was there with her 34 year old mother just touring around old motherjust touring around the square when this attack happened , and we heard at happened, and we heard at westminster magistrates court yesterday that this romanian national, luan pintado, is alleged to have grabbed this 11 year old in a headlock before repeatedly stabbing her, according to the prosecution, eight times around the face of the neck, the upper body, her wrist , and the neck, the upper body, her wrist, and the the neck, the upper body, her wrist , and the latest from the wrist, and the latest from the hospital from sources there suggest that she will require plastic surgery. so it's absolutely horrific. of course . absolutely horrific. of course. and, you know, that doesn't even begin to address the mental trauma that she will have suffered in this attack as well . suffered in this attack as well. it's a live case. of course, we have to be a bit careful, but this 32 year old romanian

national was remanded back into custody to appear at the old bailey. he'll appear at the crown court for his next court appearance. but as far as the motive is concerned, we didn't hear much about that. police had said that they are not treating it as a terrorist attack, but quite what the motive is. that will go eventually before the courts. we'll have to wait and see. but an absolutely horrific incident certainly is. >> that's white and plenty more to come. don't go

gb news. >> you have until peer to peer to peer. >> right. i think he's had quite enough of that. thank you very much. now, if you're a scrabble fan, you may be interested to know there are 2000 new entries to the scrabble dictionary, which is presumably going to

make it easier to play the game. so we're going to meet . so here so we're going to meet. so here we are. you're going to yeet my pen at these newbies changing the english language. >> come on. this is a very serious sitch. we find ourselves in. >> but we're going to be joined now by the 2016 scrabble world champion, brett smitheram. brett good morning to you. rather help us out here. first of all, do we need 2000 new words and share some of them with us? >> well, yeah. thanks for having me on. i think one of the beauties of scrabble, unlike most board games, is that it constantly changes according to how the language, which is the base of the game, changes. so, as we evolve in our communications, so of course must, must scrabble to reflect that, so to answer the first question, yeah, we do need these new words, and actually some of those words for a lot of people, they'll be surprised they weren't already allowed . so for weren't already allowed. so for example, covid covid has now

been brought in. you know, one of the big things of all of our lives for the past few years, headbutt always used to be two words. believe it or not, you could only play butthead up until now, but now you can play headbutt as well. and things like sea lion, which is a famous phoney that everyone thinks was one word, is now, but is now actually one word, so a lot of these words that really should have been added sooner, there are a few, inevitably, that will cause outrage from people who are more traditionalist when they approach language , so they approach language, so things like uw, you believe it or not, or 0 w o, things like uw, you believe it or not, or 0 w 0, which are kind of, if you think about it, they look like faces. so they're on social media to express cuteness or surprise, i've just written that down. >> yeah , yeah, >> yeah, yeah, >> yeah, yeah, >> they will be controversial , >> they will be controversial, no doubt, but we have to bear in mind words. >> are they? well if we go back, let's go back to shakespeare's time. >> shakespeare used to just invent words randomly. okay. so

invent words randomly. okay. so in in objective, what we know of the language. maybe they're not real words, but actually they have become. it's a new way of people expressing themselves. so scrabble has to reflect that, but scrabble is a servant of society, not vice versa. that's the important thing. >> okay, so the words we use in our intro , right? okay. sitch our intro, right? okay. sitch and newbie . now sitch is and newbie. now sitch is situation . yes. yay! and newbie situation. yes. yay! and newbie is newbie . is newbie. >> yeah, and we've had various spellings of that. so we've had any wp that's been allowed and any wp that's been allowed and any wb. but now newbie for the first time in that spelling, o. first time in that spelling, 0. double yeah. and it's because the so the lexicographers they keep an eye on common usage. so obviously they've judged now that newbie spelt with a00 is used enough to be considered a standard word for inclusion . standard word for inclusion. >> brazier a word that you're surprised by, i mean , you're the surprised by, i mean, you're the expert on this. is there one word you thought, oh god, you're

having a laugh. that's ridiculous, >> well, i've kind of. yeah. i mean , uwu i, i did kind of mean, uwu i, i did kind of question, there are a couple from a scrabble point of view that surprised me. and one of them is a really awful word. it's been in the news recently, but mpox, if we think about that strategically , pox never used to strategically, pox never used to take a letter on the front. now you can just whack an m on the front so the game will change with these 2000. but yeah, uwu is probably the one that will make me break out in a cold sweat when i have to play it. >> tell us what was the word brett which won you the world championship? which was the word which you finally won the game? what was the word? >> yeah, that was that was braconid, so braconid which was, a kind of wasp that lays its eggs inside caterpillars. so when they hatch, they eat the caterpillar, actually, one other thing. i should mention with the update last time i was on, on, gb news, one of your colleagues said how she was going to fangirl or she was fangirling

about me appearing fangirl at that point. was a noun. it is now a verb. so you can be fangirling, back then you could only be a noun. >> that's why . that's why he's >> that's why. that's why he's the world snooker. world scrabble champion. and we're not. brett, thank you so much for joining us. and that word we won the world championship with i've never heard of it. >> me neither. right. okay. we've got to go. >> limited education. limited education. that's it from britain's newsroom. up next. good afternoon. britain with tom and emily on. >> good afternoon britain. much more on that developing news. we now know the 11 year old girl stabbed in leicester square on monday was an australian citizen here on holiday. we'll have reaction from here and overseas and we've seen a record high number. >> new official figures show a record high number of children on disability benefits. some with conditions such as adhd and also autism. what exactly is driving this record surge ? driving this record surge? >> it looks like things are

heating up boxt boilers sponsors of weather on gb news. >> morning. here's your met office weather forecast for gb news. we are going to see some wet and windy weather approaching northwestern parts tomorrow, but ahead of that through today, there's a good deal of sunshine around for some of us, not all across central southeastern parts of the uk. it is going to be quite grey, quite cloudy through this morning and there will be some drizzly rain, but some of that cloud and that rain is going to break up as we go into this afternoon. so some brightness developing. also some hefty showers possible to elsewhere towards the north and west. a good deal of dry and sunny weather around and in the sunshine. not feeling too bad. temperatures generally getting into the high teens to low to mid 20s towards the south. as we head into this evening. and yes, there could be some hefty showers , particularly across showers, particularly across parts of the southeast, but they'll be fairly hit and miss. most of us will avoid them further west across parts of wales, southwest england. lots

of late sunshine to look forward to, also across northern england too. but for northern ireland and western parts of scotland it is going to be turning cloudier and windier as a system starts to push its way in some heavy rain arriving to the hebrides as we go through the evening. but eastern parts of scotland likely to have some fine sunny weather to have some fine sunny weather to end the day here overnight we are going to see more wet and windy weather spilling across parts of scotland and northern ireland. so quite a blustery wet picture here, but otherwise across much of england and wales. yes, some cloud towards western and northern parts and a few spots of rain. it is generally going to be largely dry with some clear skies, temperatures, perhaps a little bit lower than some recent nights. so too not uncomfortable for sleeping through tomorrow. we are going to have a very wet story across parts of scotland, northern ireland and north northwestern england, two even some rain feeding into parts of wales. two those rainfall totals could build up. could cause a little bit of localised disruption towards the south southeast , though. lots of fine southeast, though. lots of fine weather and it is going to be a brighter, sunnier day than

today. and with that probably feeling a little bit warmer too, with temperatures getting into the mid 20 celsius towards the south—east. see you later. >> that warm feeling inside from boxt boilers sponsors of weather on

gb news. >> good afternoon britain. it's 12:00 on wednesday the 14th of august. i'm tom harwood and i'm emily carver. the department of foreign affairs and trade has confirmed 11 and 11 year old girl stabbed in leicester square is an australian tourist. we'll bnng is an australian tourist. we'll bring you the latest on this tragic development and the number of parents claiming for disability benefits for their children is expected to hit a whopping 1 million by 2029. >> now the number claiming for conditions such as adhd and autism has surged by 200,000

since lockdown