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 . since lockdown. >> well, a much loved street sweeper in beckenham will be getting his holiday after a bureaucratic battle between his bosses and bromley council threatened to stop paul spiers from getting away this summer. they've stepped in some fundraising efforts have been managed. he'll get his holiday, i'll have all the latest coming up this hour. >> oh, good news there. but violent attacks against women on trains have risen by more than 50% just in the last two years. how do we make the railways safer and are female only carriages? the solution ? carriages? the solution? >> and just as we begin the show of course we learn this terrible news from the australian foreign ministry that the 11 year old

girl was an australian tourist. the 11 year old girl stabbed in leicester square in broad daylight. >> yes , shocking. and we're >> yes, shocking. and we're hoping to get some reaction from australia. it's the evening there, of course, in sydney, to find out what perception australians have, how they're reacting to this tragic news in their country , it appears as their country, it appears as though there may well be quite a lot of australians who will be worried to visit our capital city as a result of this, so we're going to be speaking about this, getting the very latest from our home and security editor as well, of course. but what does it say about the state of safety in our country? >> well, that's the thing. the international reputation of the united kingdom has taken a battering in recent weeks when people think of the united kingdom , perhaps a few years kingdom, perhaps a few years ago, they would have thought that this is a safe liberal, tolerant country where you can say what you want, where you can walk the streets without fear or

favour. can we really say that today when tourists, when little girls are getting stabbed, when we're seeing disorder on the streets and also we're seeing people around the world mocking the state of our liberties, the state of our freedom of speech . state of our freedom of speech. all of it ties together into a sense of , into all of it ties together into a sense of, into a sense of a questionable reputation on the world stage. >> well, absolutely. and it links to the other story we're going to be talking about today, about this rise in violent crime, violent assault on women and girls on our trains. i mean, what is the answer here? how can we make sure that little girls aren't stabbed in the streets and women and children aren't sexually assaulted going about their daily lives? gbnews.com/yoursay is the way to get in touch. let's get your headunes get in touch. let's get your headlines first with sophia . headlines first with sophia. >> emily. tom. thank you. good afternoon. from the gb newsroom.

it's just gone 12:00. your top story this hour, as you've been heanng story this hour, as you've been hearing an 11 year old girl has been stabbed and seriously injured at an attack in london's leicester square. is an australian tourist. australian consulate officials in london are offering consular support to the girl's family. it has also been reported that the victim , been reported that the victim, who suffered eight stab wounds to the face, neck and upper body, will likely require plastic surgery and some breaking news from ukraine, where ukraine's top commander says 100 russian prisoners of war have been captured in the kursk region. it's after ukraine launched a surprise offensive that zelenskyy has admitted was easy and met with little resistance. it comes as the russian city of belgorod has declared a state of emergency amid daily shelling, that the governor says 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 , >> they're probing, they're pushing, yes, he said. >> they're probing, they're pushing , yes, he said. they've pushing, yes, he said. they've got into the kursk pocket , 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. >> 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. local people in birmingham have

been reacting to the news. >> small increase but it's massive. not a lot of people can already afford food. i've got a decent job myself so i'll 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 to afford anything whilst you're on universal credit, it's very difficult . difficult. >> in other news, more talks are underway today in a bid to resolve the long running train drivers pay dispute . leaders of drivers pay dispute. leaders of the drivers union aslef have been meeting with officials at the department for transport for the department for transport for the second time since labour won 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. now that constructive talks are being held dead, fish have 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 been declared and people are being warned to avoid the 12 mile stretch of canal leading to birmingham. sodium cyanide, which causes headaches, nausea, changes in heart rate and loss of consciousness. the council have assured, though, that drinking water will not be affected by the incident. 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 exposure is being experienced by women more than ever, with 51% of female victims stating that another rail passenger intervened to try and help. jess phillips, the for minister safeguarding and violence

against women and girls, described the level of violence, harassment and sexual offences against women on public transport as unacceptable 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 to prone memory loss and thinking problems as they age. factors include relating positively to others , personal positively to others, personal growth, self—acceptance , growth, self—acceptance, autonomy, and mastery of one's environment . those are the 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 alerts by scanning the qr code, or go to gbnews.com forward slash alerts . slash alerts. >> good afternoon britain. it is

eight minutes past midday and as we've been saying in the last few minutes, the australian foreign ministry has confirmed that the 11 year old girl, stabbed in central london in broad daylight on monday lunchtime, was an australian citizen. we'll be getting more on that a little bit later in the program. >> we will indeed, but a record number of parents are now claiming disability benefits for their children. now, more than 730,000 under 18 are now claiming disability living allowance. that's a 40% rise just from november 2019. >> well, while claims to support children with conditions like autism and adhd have more than doubled since before the pandemic, it comes as the government faces pressure to tackle unemployment as nearly 10 million brits are out of work and not even looking for a job. >> so worrying picture. let's get the latest from our political correspondent olivia utley. these new official figures are quite shocking. just the number of children whose

parents are claiming disability allowance on their behalf. conditions like adhd and autism surging dramatically just since lockdown . lockdown. >> well, absolutely . and this is >> well, absolutely. and this is a problem that we've seen among adults for a very long time now. and by the end of the last government, the prime minister and his ministers were beginning to start to address it. we saw some measures in jeremy hunt's last budget , designed to last budget, designed to incentivise people on long term sick pay and benefits to go back to work. obviously, there's a there's a dual problem here when you have adults out of work and on benefits, you have a problem with productivity. you have a problem with employment, which shnnks problem with employment, which shrinks the economy. and that could be part of the problem that we've seen in recent years. and also on top of that, you've got the enormous cost of paying welfare to an enormous number of adults in some cities in the uk,

including liverpool and birmingham, 1 in 5 adults of working age aren't working and are on long term benefits. we're now seeing that the same is happening with children. you have children , parents claiming have children, parents claiming benefits for conditions like adhd. it is a really , really adhd. it is a really, really difficult for a labour government to try and crack down on this. that's one of those issues which the conservatives were a bit more willing to do something about, because on the whole, their voters were were a little bit less sympathetic to those causes. i think keir starmer will have a really tncky starmer will have a really tricky time addressing this, but he does need to address this because over the election campaign he really painted himself into a corner with finances. he promised to not raise taxes on working people. so national insurance, vat or income tax and lots of people suggested over the campaign that that meant he would have to cut benefits, cut public services , benefits, cut public services, etc. are we going to start to see that politically it would be very tough for him, but

financially it might be his only option. >> yeah , really difficult >> yeah, really difficult situation given the stretched finances that we have. the many millions being poured into these increases. i'm struggling to think how how we have suddenly developed such a, such a more poorly population. i mean, i sort of had understood that mental health conditions were more likely to be genetic than anything else. so the sudden diagnosis of a lot of this, i mean, tom raises some questions. >> claims to support children with behavioural disorders have more than doubled to 182,000 since before the pandemic. that's just behavioural disorders for which you can claim disability allowance. >> i guess the question, olivia, is are we overmedicalising how children have always been ? children have always been? >> well, that is certainly one way of looking at it. and jeremy hunt was definitely hinting at that in the in the adult sector, if you like, over his last

budget , there was a suggestion budget, there was a suggestion that perhaps some of these people on long term sick leave, particularly those claiming mental health benefits , didn't mental health benefits, didn't really need to be there. the other way of looking at it, of course, is that this is since lockdown and we do know that lockdown and we do know that lockdown itself had a colossal effect on children's mental health. there were children spending years and years out of education, out of school and expert after expert has spoken to gb news and spoken widely about the impact that has had on children's mental health. so it could be that it's a bit of a combination of more diagnosis, you know, more, more parents would seek therapy for their children these days if they're noticing a problem. that's probably a progressive change, generally, but you might get people being over diagnosed, then you might have a legitimate problem of children facing more mental health problems as a result of lockdown, and then of course, what the conservatives have been hinting at a little bit over recent weeks. there could just be parents who are

keen to get more benefits and are playing the system, which has become much, much easier to play has become much, much easier to play in recent years, particularly since lockdown. >> goodness me, some big, big questions there for the government. olivia utley thank you so much for explaining all of that for us. well, joining us now is len shackleton, an educator , an editorial and educator, an editorial and research fellow at the institute of economic affairs. len are we getting more ill or are these benefits being abused, or were we just not diagnosing enough people a few years ago? >> hi. good afternoon tom. i think it's probably a mixture of all those things . all those things. >> certainly, you know, the long term fallout from lockdown is, you know , is a disaster. but we you know, is a disaster. but we would hope, i guess, that that this increasing trend would tail off a little bit as lockdown now becomes, you know, a rather sad

memory. but i think part of the thing is that there are a lot of interested parties in this who push the diagnosis of children and also push the availability of benefits. i mean, it's not quite on your mainstream here, but my 14 year old has very recently been diagnosed with type one diabetes. and one of the first things the diabetic nurse, i must say the nhs has been very, very good on this , been very, very good on this, but one of the first things the diabetic nurse did was plonk down on our kitchen table , a down on our kitchen table, a form to claim disability living allowance, which we haven't taken up , but allowance, which we haven't taken up, but it does allowance, which we haven't taken up , but it does show that taken up, but it does show that these things are being pushed quite strongly, and there are a lot of, professionals now in schools associated with schools who have, you know, the responsibility of helping the diagnosis , diagnoses, helping diagnosis, diagnoses, helping

with children and so forth. so it's become a sort of it's medicalised, as you said, but it's also become professionalised. and there's a big bunch of people really who need to , as it were, get a need to, as it were, get a throughput of people all the time. so i think it's a mixture of things. i'm not downplaying the fact that there are real problems for many children , but problems for many children, but diagnosing children in this kind of way, attention deficit and so forth. i'm sure it's not doing them any favours in the long run, because one of the things we know is that people who are stigmatised in this way in their youth will go on to have difficulties in their adult life and may well end up, you know , and may well end up, you know, long term unemployed or worthless in, in adult life. so i think we do need to get a grip on it. >> yeah. and there isn't, you know, an endless money tree to shake. so the government needs to prioritise. and if this bill

is just rising hundreds of thousands more children on disability benefit allowance , disability benefit allowance, then presumably, you know, you can't target it as well. for those with severe conditions, which may be something that costs a lot more in the future. but of course, if we talk about the economics of this, this is going to be a huge headache for the new chancellor. how on earth does she get this benefit bill down? >> yeah. well this is just a small subset, of course, of the benefit problem. but you will find very , very you know, find very, very you know, i think people have very little conception of how difficult it is once a benefit has been introduced to ever remove it. we've seen this at the moment, of course, around the removal of the, the, the, the pensioners benefit winter fuel allowance, which many of us have argued for a long time, is probably wrongly targeted. it's available to everybody and so forth. but you

try taking it away. we're finding that all manner of groups are coming out with stories of people who have been disadvantaged and so forth. there is a ratchet effect with benefits . once they're benefits. once they're introduced, you can never get rid of them , and i think we rid of them, and i think we should be much more careful in future about the you know, there's always demands for new benefits and so forth. we should benefits and so forth. we should be very, very careful in bringing forward any more of them. we've got quite enough already, i think. >> benefits and taxes, income tax of course, introduced as a temporary tax by william pitt the younger just for the napoleonic wars. and here we are today, len shackleton, thank you so much forjoining us. and talking through that that concerning issue. >> and here we are today. yes. now we're going to return to the news that the 11 year old victim stabbed in leicester square was in fact is in fact an australian tourist. gb news home security edhon tourist. gb news home security editor, mark white is in the studio with us now. mark, what do we know now? >> yeah, the australian department for foreign affairs and trade has confirmed that

they are offering consular assistance to the family of a woman and, well, two australians. they describe it as who were injured in london on monday. so we understand that this 11 year old and her mother are from new south wales and australia. they've been visiting leicester square on monday morning when this attack happened. morning when this attack happened . and we're also told happened. and we're also told from hospital sources that this young girl, given the extent of her injuries, may require plastic surgery going forward. so absolutely horrific. what happened to her. we of course heard yesterday the news that a 32 year old man, a romanian national by the name of elianne pentarou, appeared at westminster magistrates court charged with attempted murder and also possession of a bladed article. that blade that was

recovered by police at the scene was described in court as a steak knife, and now he is charged with assisting with that attempted murder and possession of that knife . he used a of that knife. he used a translator to speak in court because clearly he couldn't speak english to the standard required in court anyway, so a translator was called in during his appearance in court. translator was called in during his appearance in court . we his appearance in court. we don't have much else in the way of background on this individual. we probably wouldn't get it at this stage anyway. and what we haven't heard from the metropolitan police or indeed prosecutors is any indication as to the motive of this horrific attack on monday morning. but in that prosecutorial, evidence that prosecutorial, evidence that was put before the magistrates at westminster magistrates court are really disturbing. information about

the fact that , according to the the fact that, according to the prosecution, this 11 year old was held in a headlock as she was held in a headlock as she was stabbed some eight times around the face, neck, upper body and her wrist. so a terrible, terrible ordeal. and now, of course, the people of australia who i noticed actually on monday when i was reporting from leicester square, there was a team from channel nine news in australia. there they didn't know at that point that one of their citizens had been caught up in this terrible event. but now, of course, it's being reported very widely across australia that are tourists from their country. was the victim in this terrible attack. >> it's a shocking story. i don't know if it makes it perhaps more shocking that these were people coming clearly on a on a summer holiday to london to somewhere they thought was safe. let's get that statement up from the department of foreign affairs and trade in australia. they say, of course, they're

providing consular assistance to two australians injured in london owing to privacy obligations. we cannot provide further comment. so that's from the australian government. >> yes. and this is beginning to be, publicised and reported on in australia on the australian news network. so we're hoping to get some reaction from australia because i'm sure a lot of people over there will be very shocked to hear that this happened in broad daylight in london. >> yeah, of course , many people >> yeah, of course, many people from australia come to visit london. they are in and amongst the 2.5 million people that pass through leicester square on an average week and that gives you an indication of just how iconic this area is. the very fact that it wasn't just channel nine news australia, but crews from all around the world were there. it's such a well known, iconic tourist attraction in central london. it will undoubtedly and understandably concern people who visit london about the

potential to be caught up in violence. what i would say is that the police, because there are crowded places , that's what are crowded places, that's what they're known as in sort of security parlance . there are security parlance. there are crowded places in central london where the security risk is just that bit higher. there are very significant police patrols in those areas. but, you know, small comfort obviously, to those very concerned about the potential for violence in this those very concerned about the potential for violen(of n this those very concerned about the potential for violen(of course, violent unrest. and of course, that multiple stabbing in southport. >> but mark, thank you very much for coming in. we're going to have more on this story , of have more on this story, of course, a little bit later in the program , so please don't go the program, so please don't go anywhere. this is just a very short

break. good afternoon britain. it's 26 minutes past midday. we're going to return now to that news that the 11 year old girl stabbed in leicester square earlier this week was, in fact an australian tourist. >> yes. in the last half hour, the australian government has released the following statement. they say i believe we have the statement here. if we can find it, we'll read it out. but essentially they say that they've confirmed an australian tourist, 11 year old girl, was stabbed and that they can't give any further comment at this stage. but let's get more reaction now from the media commentator adrian falk, who is in sydney. adrian, this is something that presumably will shock a lot of people in your country to hear that an 11 year old girl on a holiday to central london could be stabbed like that. this, in broad daylight. >> that's right. good afternoon,

tom and emily, and thanks so much for having me. yes here in australia, just about an hour ago. it has been reported that dfat has come to the assistance of two australians, an 11 year old girl who was in a dougie beattie shop in leicester square and a 34 year old mum that had been stabbed. and in a horrific to hear that she was held in a headlock, stabbed eight times by a romanian man who apparently they did not know . and don't they did not know. and don't forget australians. we're still. >> we must . >> we must. >> we must. >> we must. >> we mustn't impugn any guilt. this is, of course, still an active legal case. so a suspect rather rather than any definites here. >> yes. that's correct. sorry, we're still reeling here in australia. it wasn't too long ago that the westfield stabbings here just happened. not too far from where i am. where five innocent shoppers, including a

young baby, were killed by a man, which, stabbed , you know, man, which, stabbed, you know, five innocent shoppers on a on a saturday afternoon. and it's horrendous to think you know, that you go across the other side of the world for a holiday and this happens, you know , and this happens, you know, again, with, with another stabbing and essentially, you know, the uk is like, you know, second home to us here in australia with 89,000 aussies calling the uk home and more than 730,000 australians visit every year, interestingly enough , every year, interestingly enough, our government has a smart traveller website , and just on traveller website, and just on the 5th of august they actually increased their level from level one to level two, advising, us australians to be careful of terrorism in the area of the whole of uk. so they have upped their terrorism warning for travellers just from the 5th of

august. now, we're not saying this is a terrorist attack, of course, but obviously there's been a lot of unrest with the recent southport stabbings as well . and, yeah, everything well. and, yeah, everything that's being reported overseas there it is . there it is. >> it is shocking, adrian, to hear of course, that that australians have been in effect , australians have been in effect, warned about the united kingdom, warned about the united kingdom, warned about the safety in the united kingdom, do you get the sense that that the reputation of britain has fallen in recent weeks? >> look, obviously from everything that we see across headunes everything that we see across headlines here and the world, there's a lot of unrest, not just in the uk, but also, you know, the taylor swift concert that's been cancelled in vienna, everything that's going on in the world, you know, i think unfortunately, the world currently seems to be in a bit of a political upheaval . and

of a political upheaval. and everywhere, no matter which shows, no matter where you go, is probably not safe anymore , is probably not safe anymore, unfortunately, especially the uk. as i said, like many australians, we consider the uk a second home. it's just, you know, an extension of , of, of know, an extension of, of, of our country. so to have this in such a busy place, as reported in it's a main tourist attraction, yeah. it's really concerning to hear, i mean, adrian, you mentioned stabbings in australia. >> are you seeing the same sort of spike in this type of violence ? violence? >> so the one that happened in westfield in april, obviously was really unprecedented. like here. obviously guns are illegal, unlike the us . so, you illegal, unlike the us. so, you know, when there's something nothing's ever happened. you know, where of that nature for a long time , where five shoppers long time, where five shoppers have been killed. it's not like but then not so long after there was a stabbing in an assyrian church which was deemed a terrorist attack. and then not so long after that, at sydney

uni, there was a student that was stabbed that was also deemed a terrorist attack. so, obviously you know, the events aren't connected in any way, but knife stabbings unfortunately seem to be on the rise. >> it's a really concerning situation on all in all hemispheres, on all sides of the planet. adrian falk live from sydney. thank you so much for joining us and giving us that australian reaction to this, to this developing story. >> yes. well, we've got lots more coming up on today's show. mel stride has become the latest conservative leadership hopeful to distance himself quite publicly from nigel farage. we're going to get more reaction after your . news. after your. news. >> good afternoon. it's 1232. i'm sophia wenzler in the gb newsroom. and as you've been hearing, an 11 year old girl stabbed and seriously injured in an attack in london's leicester square is an australian tourist. australian consulate officials

in london are offering consular support to the girl's family. it has also been reported that the victim, who suffered eight stab wounds to the face, neck and upper body, will likely require plastic surgery. ukraine's top commander says 100 russian prisoners of war have been captured in the kursk region. it's after ukraine launched a surprise offensive that zelenskyy has admitted was easy and met with little resistance. it comes as the russian city of belgorod has declared a state of emergency amid daily shelling that the governor says is destroying homes and killing civilians . destroying homes and killing civilians. evening standard defence editor robert fox says ukraine wants to keep the russians guessing . 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 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. >> 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. 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 changes in heart rate and a loss of consciousness. the pubuc a loss of consciousness. the public have been warned to avoid the 12 mile stretch of the canal that runs to birmingham . those

that runs 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, or go to gb news. >> com forward slash alerts . >> com forward slash alerts. >> com forward slash alerts. >> well, it's been a bit of doom and gloom on the programme so far, so some uplifting news now. the beloved street cleaner who was denied a holiday paid for by local residents , is going away local residents, is going away after all. yes. >> so the people in beckenham. beckenham. they crowdfunded a trip for paul spiers, only for his bosses to say no, no, no , his bosses to say no, no, no, you can't have that holiday because he couldn't be gifted or something, anything anyway. however, using a loophole, a houday however, using a loophole, a holiday company have come to the rescue with a competition rigged for only one man to win. so we're on the hunt for paul. >> well, we're joined by our national reporter, charlie peters. he's in beckenham and

can tell us more. charlie, a peculiar but slightly definitely uplifting story . uplifting story. >> definitely uplifting. emily and tom, did i hear you say a figged and tom, did i hear you say a rigged competition? i'm not sure about that. it was hard fought competition to make sure that paul spiers won that trip to portugal, and that's where we understand he'll be taking that holiday. flying off with his brother david. now, paul is a much loved member of this community as he is a street sweeper who is known for his local charm. he plays out music on a portable speaker and gets involved when he marches around these streets, keeping them clean and tidy. i spoke to him earlier today. he was delighted with what he's achieved here with what he's achieved here with what he's achieved here with what has been given to him by the local community, because they raised £3,000 for him to take that trip . he's only been take that trip. he's only been abroad once before and that was for his 60th birthday. but now, aged 62, it looks like he'll get that second holiday in shortly.

but for a while there were fears that that might not happen because his employer veolia said that due to the contracts that have with bromley council and its staff, it wasn't able to allow private gifts to be handed over via fundraisers. but then bromley council fired it back to veolia and say actually it was a matter for them. the local mp stepped in. liam conlon, the labour mp, said that this was a matter he wanted to see sought out, but it seems like there's been a solution in the end. with on the beach dotcom setting up, as i said, that toughly fought competition for a man aged between 62 and 64 to have a surname spears, and to be a fan of elvis, to take a holiday. well, funnily enough, paul spears did win that well earlier today i spoke with lisa knight, the woman behind the fundraiser thatis the woman behind the fundraiser that is going to see paul take that is going to see paul take that holiday. >> last monday, i bumped into him after work. it was a 30 degree day and he'd been working all day. so we stood and had a chat. like we often do, and he explained to me that it was his

birthday on tuesday and he wanted to save up to go to portugal because he's only ever been abroad. >> once, for his 60th birthday and after he left, i decided to make the go fund me . make the go fund me. >> i, i checked with him that he was happy for me to do so before going live. he said yes, so we shared it on the local beckenham appreciation group on facebook, which is huge and is a real local community standpoint for us. and it just flew away . so us. and it just flew away. so many people got in touch, so many people got in touch, so many people got in touch, so many people donated. the following day i saw him and went over all of the donations and how many people had contributed, but also left really nice comments. so we first went over it. we both had tears in our eyes just at the outpouring of love for paul, which was really, really sweet. paul said to me yesterday that he had no idea how much he was appreciated, or that he even was, and now people are coming up to him in the street . somebody asked for his street. somebody asked for his autograph last week. another person asked for a selfie with him, so he's been really blown away by it. so it's really,

really nice. >> and of course there was a small issue with it being blocked for a moment by his company, but it sounds like there's good news back on the cards here for paul, with another company coming in and filling in that holiday opportunity on the beach. >> .com had an amazing idea to run a competition whereby paul would be the winner and he had to be aged between the age of 62 and 64, be loved in beckenham, have the surname spears and love elvis . he have the surname spears and love elvis. he completed all of those. and so he's won the houday those. and so he's won the holiday and he still gets to go on holiday. >> tough competition for him to win. >> yeah, he was really blown away. he said yesterday he forgot that he'd entered it so really sweet . really sweet. >> well, a veolia spokesperson said that they understood that paul had won this competition as a private individual . they're a private individual. they're happy for him to take it. they also said that for the £3,000 that had been raised by lisa and her friends on facebook, they're going to match that amount and

give it to a charity of paul's choice. but when i met paul earlier today, he said he was delighted to see so much outpouring of support for him, but said he wasn't allowed to do interviews because veolia said he couldn't go on camera while he couldn't go on camera while he was wearing his interview, wearing his uniform and couldn't do it on working hours. but they still said that he was able to take the holiday. then they phoned me about ten minutes ago and said they changed their mind. he is now able to be interviewed in his uniform . it's interviewed in his uniform. it's fair to say they think they've probably got a busy week in the press office for viola on this story, but i will be looking for paul spiers off to see if i can have another chat with him and see if i can bring you that later this afternoon. oh wonderful, a challenge, a challenge. >> by the end of this programme. we want that interview. >> we absolutely do. >> we absolutely do. >> we'll let you go and get it. >> we'll let you go and get it. >> i sense that their pr department hasn't had to deal with anything like this before. no, it's quite a unique, unique story. it really is. >> but i can imagine some some poor person in an office who

just really doesn't know what to do. there are all have to follow, or can't possibly allow people to, you know, charitably help out our. oh yes you can. well, the rules, the rules are mere a mere guidelines. >> good pr for that on the beach company inconvenience. >> anyway, in other news, and this is not so uplifting. >> well, not at all. emergency services are dealing with a major incident in walsall after a toxic chemical spilled into the canal. >> well, the substance is thought to have entered the water in the pleck area on monday . local authorities are monday. local authorities are asking the public to avoid the extended area while the environmental agency conducts urgent tests. >> okay, well, we're joined by our west midlands reporter, jack carson. jack, what's the latest on this? i mean, how much water is contaminated and what is the substance ? substance? >> so this is very much the answers to the questions that everyone is making, not only here people that live here in

walsall, but across the country as to how something like this could well have happened. we are in walsall. we're just on the edge of this exclusion zone of these waterways. the walsall canal these waterways. the walsall canal, which there's 12 miles of that network which has been listed by walsall council to say that it's an exclusion zone that people should avoid going near the towpaths , going near the the towpaths, going near the water, particularly for people and they're obviously animals that they might well be walking as well. the latest we've got is from the interim director of pubuc from the interim director of public health at walsall council. nadia english. now she has confirmed that they are testing today and this morning and continuing into the afternoon, all points of the affected area. currently they say they are going to be reviewing those results as soon as they come through. and they hope that they will start to be able to remove restrictions. but this was a major incident that was declared yesterday by all of the relevant emergency services here within the west midlands, they say, and the, the interest

in nadia english says that she is confident that there is not a risk to health as long as people stay away from the water. it was confirmed as sodium cyanide, as the chemical that they say they were alerted to having, having spilled into the pleck area , spilled into the pleck area, into the canal there. now sodium cyanide is essentially it looks like a white crystal when a salt when it's solid, it has a kind of faint almond odour. if you are near it and within, of course, it is very can possibly be fatal if ingested in large amounts and particularly inhaled as well as a salt. now it's used in industry and of course in this kind of area that's very much what it's used, is most likely going to have been how it exactly spilled into the canal. those investigations are ongoing. we must stress that. but it's used in industry for things like metal cleaning, for plating, for extraction. some also parts of the photography

industry also use it as a chemical as well. so the investigations are ongoing. walsall council say they say they are active as to how exactly this spillage took place. as i mentioned, the emergency services have declared this a major incident. west midlands ambulance service urging people if they have been near the water, have maybe taken fish from the water over the past 24, 48, 72 hours even do not obviously consume those fish, but also if there are any signs of feeling ill to call 999 to call 111 immediately, and of course, this spillage has come very much out of nowhere. there is a lot of concern here within the local community. the council say they are working to contain this as much as possible. their investigations are underway and that water is currently being tested. >> okay. well, thank you very much indeed, jack carson, for bringing us the latest there from walsall in the west midlands. thank you very much indeed. >> well , mel stride, he's the >> well, mel stride, he's the

latest conservative leadership contender to distance himself from nigel farage. he claims reform the reform leader's comments on the southport attack put the police in danger. >> well, yes, the shadow work and pensions secretary also joined tom tugendhat in saying he would not allow nigel farage to join the conservative party if he becomes leader , adding if he becomes leader, adding that the mp for clacton had made no secret of his desire to destroy the tories should we discuss this further now with gb news political editor christopher hope? i mean, one of my thoughts is why are they talking about nigel farage when they've got a labour government that they need to come up against? >> they're being asked about nigel farage. that's what what's happening here? 4 million people voted for reform uk in last month's general election. so what do you do with those numbers? are they all are they tory supporters or disengaged with the party? are they ? some with the party? are they? some of course are labour supporters. nigel farage would say so. mel stride has told our podcast , stride has told our podcast, chopper's political podcast that he will not allow to farage sit on the tory benches. tom tugendhat said i said that yesterday. it now means that all

of the six successive two, hopeful to rishi sunak, have said they will not allow any engagement with farage. all six, all six. so the door has been closed on him. farage himself says it is of no interest to me whatsoever, so this is in contrast to mr sunak, who told gb news twice late last year that his party was a broad church and he would allow farage to join if he wanted to, he also had a go at farage over his remarks that mr farage made in the wake of the killings in southport. of those those three young, young girls, he said then, didn't he? i wonder whether the truth is being held from us. i don't know . whether the truth is being held from us. i don't know. in whether the truth is being held from us. i don't know . in the from us. i don't know. in the interview, mel stride told gb news that that could have put more officers at more risk. here's what i had to say now. >> is it helpful when you've got police officers going out there risking their lives in a rioting situation to be questioning whether they're being truthful with the for public example? >> it's completely it's likely to lead to more police officers

ending up getting in more trouble than they would otherwise. >> so his remarks are not responsible. his remarks are putting the safety of police at risk. >> i think his remarks about the police, not being truthful, potentially around what happened, let me put it like this. >> were deeply unhelpful to those officers that were then having to go out and deal with the consequence of the rioting . the consequence of the rioting. >> given all that, would you allow him to be a member of the tory party? if you were leader? >> no, not i made that very clear. so no deals with nigel farage. look, nigel farage wants to destroy the conservative party >> there's no deals there, tom and emily, between farage and anyone who becomes the next leader of the tory party because they've got a question. these these six individuals, do they go off to the right , unite the go off to the right, unite the right against labour? do they go into the middle ground and get squeezed by lib dems and labour and labour itself? not easy, but clearly there's no chance here of farage helping them out of

their hole. >> do you get the impression that they know what they should be doing in order to get back into government? well, we're trying to find out. >> that's why we're doing interviews on our podcast, which you can listen to if you want to, or watch emily and tom, but, and other programs too, across gb news, we're trying to find out what is the future of the tory party and where do they go? do they try and tack the right and pull back some of those voters? and that's why we see, don't we, tom tugendhat, quite a moderate, successor to sunak. if he wins, he's saying i won't let a foreign court bully push me around . is that withdrawing from around. is that withdrawing from the european convention on human rights kind of. maybe. >> goodness me, it's interesting. >> i was raised by tom harwood there because there's difference here between policy and personality. >> and i suppose it's entirely in line with the strategy of trying to win over reform voters to say , oh, it hasn't. nigel to say, oh, it hasn't. nigel farage put his foot in it and isn't he saying silly things whilst perhaps delivering a policy prospectus in a way

that's sort of a carrot and a stick to the voter to say that you should , pop to one side you should, pop to one side rather than the other. i suppose it doesn't necessarily mean that they've sort of thought, we need to go after the labour lock rather than the reform lot. i mean, it could be both. >> it could be both. i mean, the contrast , though, between what contrast, though, between what sunak said, broadchurch twice to us, he was talking about some itv crime drama. he was saying you can come and join us if you wanted to. farage pre—election that has now ended. i just wonder whether, whether that leaves them, they've got to work out how they tax the right sort out how they tax the right sort out there. yeah, get try and draw in those people who abandon the party. i mean a third of tory voters, ipsos mori said yesterday who voted tory last month. don't care who the next leader is. a third of them now, chris, this may be just my perception, but it feels as though nigel farage is rather isolated at the moment . why do isolated at the moment. why do you say that? >> well, following the comments he made about us sharing misinformation or whatever about the or adding to that conversation, it seems that, you

know, he's been spoken to by the media a lot about this. i don't know, i, i think that conservatives probably were more close to him previously or at least more supportive of him than before, than now . than before, than now. >> so maybe, maybe two missteps over the election. the putin remarks weren't helpful and that allow the tories to say, well, he's not patriotic, didn't mean he's not patriotic, didn't mean he didn't win five mps at the election, by the way. more recently, those remarks post the southport riots when he wondered whether the police is telling the truth from us. you know, he would say, well, mps should call these things out and just question it and try and help the police say things more quickly and indeed, the police did in fact clarify the nature of the alleged killer or his background. but equally, he's maybe as an mp, he's got he can't really take the positions he might have taken in the past. those comments, of course, about the killer were made on his x account, not on gb news. they're made by himself as an mp. so yeah, i think he's finding his way himself as an mp. to me,

fascinating , fascinating, >> well let's let's hope there's some there's some more interest popping up- >> i'm interested to know what. i'm interested to know what our viewers and listeners make of it all. do any of these tory leadership candidates stand out to you? do you think any of them could take the fight to? keir starmer have they got it? whatever it is, and should they be trying to appeal to reform voters? should they be trying to move to the centre? what what on earth should they do to try and regain power? >> goodness me. >> goodness me. >> big question, christopher hope. >> thank you so much forjoining us. they're going to hop across to saint andrew's now in scotland. well it's introduced a seagull insurance. one of the shops there as birds have been nicking punters toasties. >> scotland reporter tony mcguire is there at the cheesy toast shack. a clue in the name there. what they sell . tony. there. what they sell. tony. what exactly is this? insurance. then >> good afternoon. well, the cheesy toast shack behind me, they have had quite a few run ins with seagulls, and the owner ,

ins with seagulls, and the owner, kate carter, was telling me that on one day they had actually 30 seagulls, swooped down and nicked the toasties of their customers, so something had to be done because before the shop here was actually just handing out replacement toasties for no additional cost. so that unfortunately was was putting a damper on the business's finances. so they introduced this sort of tongue in cheek seagull toasty insurance. and the idea is that if a seagull does come and swipe your toastie after you've paid the £1 discretionary fee, then you're actually able to go back no questions asked , and get your questions asked, and get your new toastie. now, i've been here since fairly early this morning. the seagulls are apparently keen to come out around lunchtime, and so far it's sort of been all quiet, so i kind of had to try myself and see what these toasties were so good that the seagulls were putting themselves in great danger for. but indeed , in great danger for. but indeed, nevertheless, i spoke to quite a lot of customers and i asked them, you know what they thought

about this £1 seagull insurance ? about this £1 seagull insurance? >> also, i thought you could probably even give it to them halfway through and just get another sandwich for free. genius >> yeah. my work, they like to steal stuff , so that's good. at steal stuff, so that's good. at least then to get get something backif least then to get get something back if they do get thieved. >> yeah, it was a day like this and i sat outside and i had the tray with my tea in a pot and i had a muffin , and the next thing had a muffin, and the next thing was a seagull came and so nicely with his beak, picked my muffin up and flew away. >> what do you think? >> what do you think? >> that's good to know that your poundis >> that's good to know that your pound is pretty good. yeah yeah, it seems like someone's got experience with gulls. >> greedy gulls. >> greedy gulls. >> well, there was one time i had a monkey nicked my food. we were in a tent. and where was that? gibraltar. and there was a monkey. just absolutely ripped it out of my hand. so i've had experience with animals, but not a seagull in particular. >> so there we have it.

certainly it's proven to be a bit of a hit here with people and lots of people here telling me about their own personal experiences. the irony is, of course, that that £1 sort of joke insurance was supposed to, ease some of the business burden on the finances. after giving out all those toasties. but it's been so popular that they've actually decided to give much of it to charity. so all quiet for me today, but we'll see how the afternoon progresses. >> absolutely genius. genius. tony maguire, thank you for joining us from saint andrews beach. >> we've got lots more coming up on today's show. we're going to reflect on those shocking statistics about the number of children on disability benefits. at the moment, a huge rise since lockdown. and of course, get your views in about this tory leadership contest. does it interest you? is there anyone that stands out? stay with . us. that stands out? stay with. us. >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar sponsors of weather on gb

news . news. >> hello. good morning. welcome to your latest gb news. >> weather update brought to you from the met office. >> sunny spells for many of us through today, but it is a bit cloudier across eastern areas in particular, particularly through the rest of this morning and things will change across north western areas into this evening. >> but for the time being, there's a weather front still lingering across the south and east, bringing cloudier skies for here much of the rest of the day and the risk of some drizzly outbreaks of rain. >> we could see some heavier showers later on this afternoon, but for most of us it is going to be a dry day, particularly across northern and western areas. wales. much of scotland, northern areas of england. it will turn a bit cloudier across parts of northern ireland and the west of scotland, as the breeze picks up later. but in the sunshine, temperatures climbing into the low 20s, we could still see 2425 degrees in the southeast. we still got fairly warm air here, so that will bring a slightly muggy feel through this evening. i think it will be a slightly brighter end

to the day compared to this morning, and plenty of sunshine across parts of wales, northern england, much of scotland. but as i said, turning a bit cloudier from the north and west into northern ireland and the western isles in particular, as wet weather will spread in through wednesday evening and overnight into thursday. but for many eastern areas it should stay fairly dry and bright through much of the evening. this evening, however, this wet weather will spread eastwards overnight, bringing a spell of rain to much of scotland and northern ireland. it's going to unger northern ireland. it's going to linger across a lot of scotland through thursday as well. to the south of that, a drier night to come, clear skies for much of central areas of england, the south and east still holding on to some of that humid air. but it's really becoming much more restricted to the far south and east. but it's going to be the rainfall that's going to be the big watching point through thursday, a very wet day for northern ireland, scotland, northwestern areas of england. we could see some localised flooding issues from that rain. there's going to be fairly persistent and slowly sinking south and eastwards into

northern areas of england, parts of wales , some central areas. of wales, some central areas. ahead of that in the southeast, it should stay dry and fairly warm. >> that warm feeling inside from boxt boilers . sponsors of boxt boilers. sponsors of weather on

>> well . >> well. >> well. >> good afternoon britain. it is 1:00 on wednesday the 14th of august. i'm emily carver and i'm tom harwood now. the australian department of foreign affairs has confirmed an 11 year old girl stabbed in leicester square is an australian tourist. we'll bnng is an australian tourist. we'll bring you the very latest. >> the number of parents claiming for disability benefits for their own children is expected to hit 1 million by 2029, the number claiming conditions such as adhd and autism has surged by 200,000 since the pandemic , and violent since the pandemic, and violent attacks against women on trains

have risen by more than 50% in the last two years. >> how do we make the railways safer and are female only carriages? the solution really ? carriages? the solution really? i mean, this was an idea that jeremy corbyn spoke about and he was slated for it. this idea of having female only carriages, lots of feminists saying how patronising it is that if we've got an issue with sexual assault, the, you know, the solution is to not separate women from men. a number of countries have done this, or at least tried to do it. it hasn't worked particularly well. i don't think. i mean, in russia, where people are just going to go on to any train, a carriage, aren't they really? countries like mexico , japan, indonesia, like mexico, japan, indonesia, malaysia , brazil, all sorts of malaysia, brazil, all sorts of different countries have tried this sort of thing, a mixed bag. yes. there's not necessarily a link between them. >> all of those countries do

those countries again, which which ones were they. >> okay. so i'll get my list. so brazil. brazil. >> okay. >> okay. >> japan. >> japan. >> interesting. >> interesting. >> malaysia. let me remember again. uae. >> the uae. yeah. well, they segregate everything. don't they? >> well. and other countries? i will refer to my list when i have it in front of me. but there are a number of countries that have done this. but is this really where we are? but women are so at risk of being assaulted on public transport that this idea is even out there. >> it does seem like it's sort of trying to treat the symptom rather than the problem. but maybe drastic solutions aren't it? we'll have the debate a little bit later in get your views in. very interested to hear what you have to say about this. should we start segregating all of the trains , segregating all of the trains, even some of them? gb news dot com forward slash your c is the way to get involved. >> yes, but let's get the news headunes >> yes, but let's get the news headlines with sophia . headlines with sophia. >> emily. tom. thank you . good

>> emily. tom. thank you. good afternoon from the gb newsroom. it's just gone 1:00 your top story this hour. ukraine's top commander says 100 russian prisoners of war have been captured in the kursk region. it's after ukraine launched a surprise offensive that zelenskyy has admitted was easy and met with little resistance. it comes as the russian city of belgorod has declared a state of emergency amid daily shelling that the governor says is destroying homes and killing civilians. evening standard defence editor robert fox says ukraine wants to keep the russians guessing . russians guessing. >> they're probing, they're pushing, yes , you said they've 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. >> now the australian department

of foreign affairs has confirmed an 11 year old girl stabbed in leicester square is an australian tourist. australian consulate officials in london are offering consular support to the girl's family. it has also been reported that the victim , been reported that the victim, who suffered eight stab wounds to the face, neck and upper body, will likely require plastic surgery . violent attacks plastic surgery. 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 exposure is being experienced by women more than ever , with 51% women more than ever, with 51% of female victims stating that other rail passengers intervened to try and help . safeguarding to try and help. safeguarding minister jess phillips says violence against women and girls is a national emergency. >> the government have made it incredibly clear that tackling

the scourge of violence against women and girls is part of its core mission. we consider it to be a national emergency and that that won't just change overnight. this is going to take the levers of government working across every government department, making sure that in our education system , for our education system, for example, that the attitudes that end with men on our transport systems harassing and assaulting women are dealt with at source . women are dealt with at source. >> in other news, dead fish have been pictured in a canal that's 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 been declared and people are being warned to avoid the 12 mile stretch of canal leading to birmingham. sodium cyanide can cause headaches, nausea, changes in heart rate and a loss of

consciousness. the council have assured , though, that the assured, though, that the drinking water will not be affected by the incident. 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 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. 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. 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'll 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. >> the inflation is really affecting me because i'm homeless, right? because i'm struggling to live day by day because of inflation, right? because to afford anything whilst you're on universal

credit, it's very difficult. >> and 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 pay can be achieved now that constructive talks are being held. 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 gb news. >> com forward slash alerts . >> com forward slash alerts. >> com forward slash alerts. >> good afternoon britain. it's 2:07 now. the uk inflation past

one. goodness me to correct you . one. goodness me to correct you. >> it's all good. don't want to confuse anyone. they might think they're running late. >> i clearly clearly i'm talking about french time still in the olympic time zone. but the uk's inflation rate it's gone up for the first time this year. >> yes. the official figures show overall prices rose by 2.2% in the year to july, going above the bank of england's target. >> well, while falling energy pnces >> well, while falling energy prices have contributed to a lower inflation rate over the past few months, recent escalations in the war in ukraine and uncertainty around energy prices have contributed to this recent increase. >> well, should we get the latest from our political correspondent, olivia utley olivia, have we had any political reaction to this rise? 2.2 slightly above the bank of england's target. are there worries that this could continue to rise , or is this a is this to rise, or is this a is this a bup? to rise, or is this a is this a blip? is this nothing to worry about? >> well, gone are the days back in the later days of lockdown, when people said that inflation was going to be transitory. we

have seen huge inflation since 2022 and only in the last sort of six months or so has it started to tail off. in terms of political reaction. it's a really mixed bag. it's quite interesting what you're seeing now. you've got darren jones, who's the chief secretary to the treasury saying essentially that the conservatives have left labourin the conservatives have left labour in an awful mess in terms of the economy. and that is why inflation has now creeped up over the bank of england's target rate of 2%, up to 2.2. he's sort of laying the ground today for potentially more economic shocks in the future. and for the fact that the cost of living crisis probably won't be substantially eased any time soon. it now looks likely, as a result of this news today, that the bank of england probably won't lower interest rates in september, although they might do it later in the year. on the other hand, you've got jeremy hunt, the shadow chancellor essentially saying that actually these results are quite good. 2.2% is only a little bit above the bank of england's target

rate. and actually it's a bit lower than what economists were forecasting just a few days ago. they were talking of 2.3%, 2.4%, he says. jeremy hunt, that the labour should take this as a sign that the government should carry on in the footsteps of rishi sunak and hunt himself. he says that it proves that the conservatives were on the right track. so you've got two very, very different ways of reading this news today. you've got the slightly sort of dour , gloomy slightly sort of dour, gloomy labour way of looking at it, which is this is bad news and potentially sets the ground for more bad to news come. or you've got the conservatives saying, actually, this really isn't too bad at all. 2.2% really, not very much above the bank of england's target rate . it's england's target rate. it's a sign that the tories were doing well and labour should carry on doing what they were doing. >> it's also perhaps a warning sign that we're not entirely out of the woods and that work needs to be done to keep inflation low. the numbers can go up as well as down. and i just wonder with these 5.5% public sector

pay with these 5.5% public sector pay awards across the board and over 22% pay rise for junior doctors handed out by this government , could that have an government, could that have an adverse effect on the direction of travel for inflation? >> well, i think that is a really, really interesting question. as you'll remember over the past year or so, the conservative government really held out against those public sector pay rises. they were willing to let these awful strikes blight the nation, because jeremy hunt and rishi sunak were so worried that pay increases across the board would lead to rising inflation. i think there is quite a real danger of that with the pretty substantial pay increases that keir starmer is giving public sector workers here. i think another problem for keir starmer is that how much money does he really have in his, in his, in his coffers for these pay rises? he has said over and over again

that he won't be raising taxes for working people . will it be for working people. will it be that these pay rises for public sector workers end up coming out of the budgets of core departments? we've seen already that there could be a big cut to defence spending in the science and research budget, the modernising the armed forces budget that was that was reported by the telegraph today. keir starmer really, really doesn't have much wiggle room here and he is depending on a big upsurge in the economy. and as you say, tom, at the moment we're not really seeing that inflation okay. it might not be soaring, but it's proving to be very, very sticky indeed. and thatis very, very sticky indeed. and that is a tricky backstop for a prime minister who has painted himself into a corner financially. >> and olivia, they've got this sky high benefits bill to contend too . with we found out contend too. with we found out the other day that it's now 9.5 million people who are not working, nor looking for work, that doesn't exactly contribute to the economy. in the same way as if all of those people were

in employment . we've also found in employment. we've also found out that the benefits bill for child disability has risen hugely since lockdown. this is going to be very difficult for this new labour government to try and balance all of these different competing bills, essentially . essentially. >> well, absolutely. and it took the conservatives a long time to even have the courage, if you like, to be able to talk about the issue of people on long term sick leave who perhaps some conservative ministers, by the end of the their term in office, begun to say perhaps some of those people didn't really need to be on benefits. perhaps some of them could be in work. and jeremy hunt made some sort of tentative moves in his last budget to try and incentivise people on long term sick leave back into work. but that was a difficult message for a conservative government to give. i think it's going to be an even harder message for a labour government. there are plenty of labour mps who , you know, say labour mps who, you know, say very openly that they got into politics because they liked what

they liked, the sort of bigger budgets that the labour party was giving to the welfare state. and they will be deeply, deeply worried at any indication that keir starmer is interested in cutting benefits. even if we have seen that benefits, budget. absolutely balloon in the years since lockdown, 1 in 5 adults in some cities in the uk now out of work. and as we found out today, more and more parents claiming benefits for their children for care, for cases like adhd. this is a really, really tough one for keir starmer to fix. but fix it he must. because as i say, he doesn't have very much wiggle room in his financial plans. he can't go giving out bigger and bigger benefits. >> no, certainly. well, olivia, you have marvellously set us up for our next segment. thank you so much forjoining us here on good afternoon britain olivia utley. our political correspondent. >> yes. as we were saying, a record number of parents now claiming disability benefits for their children, a massive surge in adhd, autism and benefits

associated with those conditions. should we speak to child psychologist professor sam vass , who joins us now to try vass, who joins us now to try and understand what's going on here? a huge surge in claims since lockdown is that the cause, is that the cause? is it lockdown that's caused this? >> well, it's very, very hard to be sure about that. >> and adhd diagnosis rates have been going up since well before lockdown. >> a massive amount of kind of research has gone into the question, you know, is this just because we're diagnosing it more lightly, or is it because the symptoms are actually going up? >> and honestly, it's very, very hard to be sure. so for things like anxiety, we can be reasonably sure that actual symptoms are going up over time. so there are certain kind of questionnaires looking at things like, do i lie in bed at night kind of unable to sleep because i'm worrying about stuff and things like that, where we've been giving exactly the same questionnaire for about 50 years, and we can see that kind of responses on those to answers on those questionnaires are going up over time. so for anxiety, we think that it is actually the symptoms that are

going up. it's not just that we tend to diagnose it more, but for things like adhd, it's very, very hard to be sure it's diagnosed off, you know, a very, very simple list of questions. you know, does my child sometimes have problems paying attention to things ? do they attention to things? do they have sometimes have problems kind of sitting still. and it's very hard to be sure, you know, kind of how every child. >> sam. >> sam. >> yeah, exactly. i know that's what i think every time i read the adhd diagnosis things, you know , it tries to be as know, it tries to be as scientific as it can be, you know, to a degree beyond their normal developmental level. they need to have a certain number of kind of six out of 12 symptoms in order to get a diagnosis. but it's very, very hard to be consistent. you know, we also know that adhd diagnosis rates vary massively across the developed world, isn't it? >> adhd is adhd a disability , >> adhd is adhd a disability, i've never i think a lot of people won't won't see adhd in that way. is that only if it's extremely severe? or can it just be general attention deficit disorder ? disorder? >> so that's a really, really tough question. you know like

pretty much everything. you know it's talking about something the ability to pay attention to things that are there to a greater or lesser degree in everybody across the whole world, just as autism is looking at, you know, social skills and how how easy you find it to work out what someone else is thinking. anxiety is looking at things that everybody has to a degree. you know, everybody worries to a degree. so it's very, very hard to be sure. you know, the other thing that's true with adhd is there are lots and lots of different routes into a diagnosis of adhd. you know, it very heavily comorbid with things like tourette's, which are definitely a really distinct medical condition. you know, we know the neurology of things like tourette's very, very strongly. it's very heavily comorbid with a lot of other diseases like, you know, anxiety and depression. so kind of i would say the short answer is it vanes would say the short answer is it varies a lot. and there's no one thing that is adhd. you know, lots of different reasons why children are having problems concentrating , coming from concentrating, coming from completely different causes, which of course doesn't make any eafien which of course doesn't make any easier. the question of what do we actually do about it? >> this is fascinating because of course this all underpins the policy response, and it seems to

be that the government is basically chucking money at anyone who's being diagnosed with these things , whereas what with these things, whereas what you're saying is there's a very big spectrum on that, on on which people can be diagnosed. some will live completely normal lives in need of literally no state support , and others will state support, and others will clearly need some help . are we clearly need some help. are we are we just taking this whole big spectrum and lumping it in the disabled category, when perhaps we need to be more discerning? >> yeah, definitely. and the other thing i think, you know, personally for up to me, i think the really big difference that i think is it makes a massive difference what this is spent on. you know, if we are claiming disability benefits to get additional resources for our children, you know, are we using it to buy more toys for them? which i would say, certainly there's very little evidence that that's going to be at all helpful with children with adhd. are we using it for things that i would put a lot of value in, like one on one care? so, you know, if it is back to the question that you started with, if it is about, you know, covid and things that have happened to do with covid that are causing

increased diagnosis rates, the big causative factor is lack of one on one attention. so there's a massive evidence that just for children doing things one on one with an adult helps them to pay attention and is good for their attention. >> development long term. >> development long term. >> if we're spending disability on that, i'd say it's a good use of money. >> yeah, i've heard that some parents use the disability allowance to pay for things like 1 to 1 allowance to pay for things like 1to 1 swimming lessons for 1 to 1 swimming lessons for example, things like this. just how easy is it to , to be how easy is it to, to be diagnosed with something like adhd? because it seems to me that depending on who you speak to, it's either the most difficult thing ever to get a diagnosis and then get this disability allowance. others say it's easy and you can sort of scam the system. where are we with this ? with this? >> yeah, that's a really, really tncky >> yeah, that's a really, really tricky question. and it does. it's one of the questions that unfortunately at the moment it vanes unfortunately at the moment it varies massively depending on where in the country you are. you know, i've been presenting an early years setting, so i do an early years setting, so i do a lot of work with early years teachers and up in certain areas of the north, you know, i remember one person saying, she teaches classroom of 13 children

and she actually has 17 adults in the room with her as she's doing it because you know, 14 of her children have got one on one provision. so they've got that additional provision to have a one on one carer. whereas in other parts of the country that's completely out of the question. you know, you, you say that to early years teachers kind of in other parts of britain, they can't believe you. so it massively varies. you know, we know that sadly camhs waiting lists are very, very long, pretty much everywhere in the country. so, you know, our secondary and tertiary mental health care are oversubscribed. but of course, then if you've got the money to pay for private, then it's a very different picture. so it's very, very variable. much too variable i think in my opinion. >> well it seems like certainly there needs to be some sort of assessment of where we are and, and potentially what's happening is too many people on the lighter end of things are denying resources to people on the more serious end of things. sam boss, thank you so much for joining us. now, child psychologist and professor. thanks. thanks for your time. really appreciate it. >> yeah, very interesting. it seems like it's a very complex picture. there are people who aren't getting enough support with children who have severe

disabilities, a lot of money, perhaps going towards very minor issues.i perhaps going towards very minor issues. i don't know. let us know. perhaps you have experience of trying to receive these types of benefits for your child or grandchild. please do get in touch. how difficult is this process? is it easy? is it hard? you know, there's a lot of sort of oh, people must be taking the mick because the numbers have gone up. is that the case or actually, did lockdown cause so much damage that now a lot of children have mental health problems, have behavioural issues as a result of not enough interaction, i don't know. let us know. gbnews.com/yoursay >> well, there's much more to come up on today's show up next, we're going to be talking about violent attacks on women on british railways. they've more than doubled in two years. what should we do to keep women safe? should we have a female only train carriages

>> well good afternoon britain. it is 124. and, violent attacks against women on british railways have more than doubled in two years. >> figures from the british transport police authorities 2024 annual report show that the number of crimes against women and girls rose from 7500 in 2021 to just over 11,000 in 2023. >> yes, and the number of sexual offences jumped 10% over the same period, while sexual harassment reports doubled. so let's get reaction to these numbers from the minister for violence against women and girls. jess phillips. >> my initial reaction to the data is not one particularly of surprise, but just of upset that it it seems that there just is a continuing trend of women being under attack wherever they are, whether that is in their homes, on buses, on trains , or as they

on buses, on trains, or as they go about just their ordinary lives. there is there will be a mixture of an increase in reporting, but there is undoubtedly we have to look at it and say there is an increase, there is a 20% increase in women suffering violence on our transport networks and take that incredibly seriously. i mean, it would be very easy for me to just say, well, you know, there is one silver bullet to this particular issue, but the government have made it incredibly clear that tackling the scourge of violence against women and girls is part of its core mission. we consider it to be a national emergency. >> so if this is a national emergency, how do we battle it? >> well, when it comes to trains, should we keep women safe by having female only carriages certain politicians have been suggesting this policy and to debate it, we're joined by broadcaster khadija khan, who believes that they aren't the

appropriate solution, and journalist caroline farrow, who thinks they are . caroline will thinks they are. caroline will start with you. why? why would it be a good idea? >> because as the figures show, violence has against women and girls on trains has jumped sharply and women and girls need underlines the importance of a safe space for women and girls. >> and by women and girls. let me be very clear what i mean. i mean nato females, you know, women and girls are the ones who are the victims of violence from men. and this is why it's so important. you know, firstly, we all understand what a woman is, what she's at risk of, and that she has safe spaces where she can go, which are not invaded by men. and i think we would see if we actually had female only carriages. and we also had things like more british transport police , more guards to transport police, more guards to enforce this. so we didn't have men entering, women carrying female carriages then actually women could feel a lot safer.

>> well, khadija khan, what do you say to that? i know other countries like india, japan , countries like india, japan, mexico, malaysia have tried similar things. what are your thoughts ? thoughts? >> violence against women and girls has risen more than 50% over two years. >> i mean, the figures are staggering, but it's not unprecedented. i would say that this is a very short term solution to have segregated carriages for women. and this we need to understand the crimes, attacking women or sexually. these sexual assaults , they are these sexual assaults, they are not, crimes committed because of women's presence. women's presence. >> women's presence. >> the onus of responsibility does not fall on women. it is a part of this kind of mindset is a is an extension of the same misogynistic mindset that is prevalent in countries like iran and saudi arabia and other muslim majority countries and india, as well, where they think that the problem is not

predatory men , but women. so predatory men, but women. so just segregate them. and the problem will be solved. this is not true. i think the recent survey done by national police chiefs council reveals that 2 million women will be affected by male violence every year. it's a pervasive problem. it's not about having segregated carriages for women will solve this problem. so i think we need to look at the root cause of this problem. and what is the root cause? let me tell you. let me explain this root cause is there is a culture of misogyny prevalent in police, in british police departments where they're, not believing the victim is just a norm. so many women, they don't want to report, you know, these sexual assault cases and they just try to, pretend as if nothing happened and they don't go to police to report these cases. there is a lack of confidence in

the police . in british police. the police. in british police. we need to understand this thing. >> interestingly, caroline, you're nodding your head there. yeah. what do you what do you say to the argument that this is treating a symptom, not a cause ? treating a symptom, not a cause? >> i have a lot of sympathy, actually, and i think that's right. and we need to be really, really clear. it is never women's fault, misogyny is not women's fault, misogyny is not women's fault. and it is not women's fault. and it is not women's fault. and it is not women's fault that, you know , women's fault that, you know, they are targeted for this type of violence . now, although i of violence. now, although i think you're correct in that this only solves the symptoms i think we have to solve. you know, if we have a problem when we go to the doctor, we have something to treat the symptoms and the underlying cause . now, and the underlying cause. now, what i also would like to see, and i think would be very interesting when we analyse these figures. so i've been subject to harassment on trains and i've seen young women be subject to harassment on trains. and almost all of the time it has been perpetrated by groups of men together. i know you

can't generalise, but i think it would be very interesting if more analysis was done on who is committing these types of assaults. what? what does it look like? is it individual solitary men? is it groups of men who who is picking on these women? you know what's actually happening ? and sure, i really happening? and sure, i really understand the idea that if you have a female segregated , space, have a female segregated, space, it almost it can almost lead into this idea that women are bringing it on themselves and women are second class citizens. i really understand that. but i think at the same time , we have think at the same time, we have to address the cause is not going to be, you know, the cause is not going to be solved overnight. so we solve the symptom. but i completely agree that the police are misogynists, that the police are misogynists, that the police have lost the, you know, trust . i mean, that's you know, trust. i mean, that's that's a bit of a generalisation. >> we're just running out of time. so i'm just going to put the last thing to khadijah. i mean, we have a little idea of

some recent issues on the trains. december last year, a man jailed for raping a 20 year old woman as she slept on an underground train in front of other passengers. absolutely extraordinary. another man found guilty of one count of rape. attempted rape, two counts of sexual assault, one of outrageous outraging public decency. sentenced to nine years in prison . july another man in prison. july another man jailed for 20 months having admitted sexually assaulting a woman on the elizabeth line as it approached reading station. i mean, perhaps the sentences need to be stronger , to be stronger, >> i, i as i, as to be stronger, >>i,ias|,as| to be stronger, >> i, i as i, as i said that we need to address the root cause and yes, making the whole system more efficient will prove helpful in this regard in preventing these kind of attacks on women . we need to understand on women. we need to understand this thing that it was a lack of competence on the part of police department, and this is the reason why many people feel emboldened. i mean, the daughters of this nation have suffered a lot in grooming gang

scandal. and what was the root cause that why these girls were not protected. one of the cause was that police was not believing the victim. so i think we need to emphasise on this thing there is no silver bullet. i agree with that. there is no such silver bullet and there is nothing is going to happen overnight. but we cannot ignore that unless we address the root cause. we make the whole system efficient and, you know, responsive, right way to these kind of incidents when they are reported and women are believed who are coming forward. i mean, it takes a lot for a woman to go to the police and report the sexual assault case. and when they are not believed, they feel let down by the police . and i let down by the police. and i think this is a huge problem in our society , and we need to our society, and we need to understand this absolutely . understand this absolutely. >> and khadija, we'll have to leave it there. but it's been really interesting to get both of your perspectives agreed on. quite a lot as well. khadija khan and caroline farrow really great to speak to you both. yes. i don't think segregation is the

way forward, not very progressive and lots of other things we could do. >> first, i imagine i should, i should think so, but this is good afternoon britain on gb news. lots more to come on today's programme, tv personality freddie flintoff is the first, is back for the first time since his life changing injuries following a near—fatal crash on top gear. we'll hear what he had to say. don't go anywhere . anywhere. >> good. good afternoon. i'm sophia wenzler in the gb newsroom with your headlines . newsroom with your headlines. just after 130, the australian department of foreign affairs has confirmed an 11 year old girl stabbed in leicester square is an australian tourist. australian consulate officials in london are offering consular support to the girl's family. it has also been reported that the victim, who suffered eight stab wounds to the face, neck and upper body, will likely require plastic surgery . ukraine's top plastic surgery. ukraine's top

commander says 100 russian prisoners of war have been captured in the kursk region. it's after ukraine launched a surprise offensive that zelenskyy has admitted was easy and met with little resistance. it comes as the russian city of belgorod has declared a state of emergency amid daily shelling that the governor says is destroying homes and killing civilians. 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. >> dead fish have 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 been declared and people are being warned to avoid the 12 mile stretch of canal leading to birmingham. sodium cyanide can cause headaches, nausea, changes in heart rate and a loss of consciousness . the latest consciousness. 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 the 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 . those are the latest inherited. 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

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>> good afternoon britain. it's 20 to 2 now. you've been getting in touch about that last debate we have. should there be women

only carriages on trains up and down the country? a park sparked quite the response. >> yes , adrian says maybe they >> yes, adrian says maybe they should be. there should be more transport police on trains rather than female only carriages. yeah. i mean, that would be a good start. ian says female only carriages. really? this coming from the same people who in skirts into women's changing rooms. yes. lots of you have actually have to say . have to say. >> well, someone calling themselves coral says that men are attacked as well. i want men in carriages to protect the women. most men will help women. >> yeah. and mary says, i think the idea of having a women's only train carriage is horrendous. if somebody did wish to harm women, all they'd need to harm women, all they'd need to do is hop onto the relevant carriage. a terrible idea, yes. what would you have a man sort of standing there protecting the women's only space on the carriage? yeah, i mean, it's going backwards , isn't it? it's going backwards, isn't it? it's going backwards, isn't it? it's going backwards. >> you were looking at some of the examples around the world where this has been tried in the past. i have to say, the

countries you listed didn't to me seem like they were the bastions of female equality. iran, yeah . it's, a strange iran, yeah. it's, a strange list, but also a deeply impracticable one, because it turns out that just about any time that you get to rush time in a busy train, guess what? everyone gets in every carriage. >> everyone jumps in. anyway, i mean, peter kind of makes that point. female only carriages in malaysia and the uae are probably for religious reasons , probably for religious reasons, not safety. yes, just segregation of women in general from from men. but keep your views coming in. also a lot coming in on the disability benefits for children. that huge rise in the number of people claiming these types of benefits for their children since lockdown. we'll get to some of those in a little bit a little bit later, but in the meantime, the boxer at the centre of the olympics, gender row, has launched legal action against elon musk and jk rowling for alleged aggravated cyber harassment . yes, iman khalife in harassment. yes, iman khalife in paris won gold in the women's boxing despite having xy chromosomes. although we haven't actually seen this evidence, we

haven't actually seen this evidence. this was one of the reasons given for why she was banned from a previous competition. >> well, we're joined now by the human rights lawyer shoaib khan. shoaib, what exactly is the grounds here? can can you sue someone for cyberbullying ? someone for cyberbullying? >> yeah, so that's the thing. it's not necessarily suing someone. and, you know, definitely not someone in particular. what the complaint is, is a harassment claim. as you said, it's cyber bullying as it's called . the point is that it's called. the point is that certain people and that's why those people are named there, those people are named there, those are the people who led and other others followed. and this led to this person allegedly being harassed. and so that's the thing. she's not necessarily, suing elon musk or j.k. rowling. what she's saying is that i have been bullied , i is that i have been bullied, i have been harassed online. i have been harassed online. i have been harassed online. i have been intimidated online. and it was mainly because of these people. so that's the bafis these people. so that's the basis of the claim. so it's not suing them directly or personally, but it's a claim that she's bringing. asking the french authorities to

investigate it or look into it and see if there's any, you know , and see if there's any, you know, legal grounds there. >> now, the difficulty is the world was told that this athlete was banned from a previous competition, the iba ruled that her . test results competition, the iba ruled that her. test results disqualified her. test results disqualified her from that competition. so this left things open to a huge amount of speculation, because as far as i know, no results have been released from this. there's a lot of speculation about whether this athlete has xy chromosomes, which are usually male. is this the problem that there's been a sort of a lack of transparency, a lack of information that if this athlete were to put forward these results or the iba, the other sports association, were to, then it would sort of clear things up. we've got a sort of lack of information , i think. lack of information, i think. >> so of course that is the main basis. obviously, if we had a, you know, medical result either way, then of course that would have clarified a lot of things, but the point is, i mean, i

still think that that does not justify the treatment that has been this this person has been dealt, you know, whether rightly or wrongly, she was allowed to compete by the authorities who were, you know, the ioc who is organising this tournament. if before that, you know, her opponents or anyone else had a problem, they should have raised it with them, as obviously they did during the tournament, or if not, if they think they don't have enough time, they want to, you know, but do that in a civil proper, you know, the legal, the official channels. so i think that's the issue. it's not about, you know, how dare anyone, dispute this. but i think, you know, some random, you know, the richest man in the world randomly said he has no idea what this woman's life is like , what she's been through, like, what she's been through, this person, this woman, however you want to describe her right now, but i think that's pretty despicable. really? all these millionaires and billionaires getting together, just ganging up on this woman. and that's the issue here, it's not so much. how do you, dispute it? the point is, there is a way of doing that. >> so, so in your, in your view, this actually might not clear up all of the confusion. after all,

if this is simply a case of harassment, almost the particulars are irrelevant. this person was harassed whether or not they've got x, y or z chromosomes or or were born one way or another, or some form of intersex or whatever. all of the speculation is , is that almost speculation is, is that almost irrelevant to the case? >> yeah. no, i don't think that is relevant. i mean, i think that's not relevant. it shouldn't be relevant anyway. it doesn't matter who she is, where she came from, you know, the point is the abuse, the vitriol, you know, everything she was subjected to online should not have happened. i don't care who she is. i mean, some people are saying, to be honest, i mean, she was actually subjected to more. i mean, we actually had an actual paedophile rapist competing in these olympics. and you go through , you know, the you go through, you know, the obviously there were complaints about that . people, you know, about that. people, you know, strongly objected to that . but strongly objected to that. but the personal abuse that seems to have been, meted out to this person, i mean, i think is much less than that. you know, actual convicted rapist. and i think that just shows it doesn't matter who she is. you know, who

he she is, the whole point is, you know, she shouldn't have been subjected to that. and, i mean, that's fair enough. >> and this athlete has been, you know, there's been a huge amount of vitriol. of course there has. but for a lot of people, it was a question of fairness in sport. and i will continue to argue that if it were more transparent about this athlete and the male female , athlete and the male female, whatever it is, the chromosomes and the tests that were done that banned her before from a competition, then it would put it to bed, it would put it to bed. but shoaib khan, thank you very much indeed for your legal expertise. very interesting to get you on. human rights lawyer. thank you. >> yeah. interesting stuff there. i think i think there is just a bizarre amount of , of just a bizarre amount of, of lack of transparency there. and i read something about the previous organisation that did the tests being not recognised by the international olympic committee because it's run by the russians. and i mean, you just don't know what to believe. and who to. >> we don't know what exact tests they did. it's still speculation that it was an xy chromosome issue. anyway, this

is good afternoon britain. we're on gb news. we've got lots more coming up including the ministry of defence facing cuts to its budget for modernising, modernising our armed forces. this is rather concerning. labour did promise that they were going to, you know, put money when it allows into our armed defences. so we shall see. is this a bid to fill labour's £22 billion financial black hole ?

>> good afternoon britain . it's >> good afternoon britain. it's just gone 10 to 2 now. the ministry of defence faces cuts for its budget for modernising our armed forces. >> yes, the government is expected to cut millions from budgets in a bid to fill a £22 billion financial black hole, but critics fear the armed forces are at risk of falling further behind adversaries in the coming years. yes, it all comes as the kremlin says the

prospect of peace talks are on a long pause after ukraine's incursion into russia enters a second week. >> well, let's get the lowdown now, with nato historian and ex reserve officer doctor peter caddick—adams, who joins us in the studio, first of all, modernising our armed forces , modernising our armed forces, clearly immensely important given how war has changed in recent years. >> well, as a rolling programme of modernising them. >> however, if you look at ukraine, the pace of modernisation is just, you know, something that we've never, ever encountered before. and if you look at, for example, the use of drones, we are, you know, with, with the use of drones in ukraine, we are where we expected to be in 10 or 20 years time. >> wow. >> wow. >> and you know , things are >> and you know, things are going at that sort of pace and with that, you need money to invest in new tech all the time and invest in your civilian infrastructure to make them all. and you know, these are all the gaps that are coming to the surface. so we don't have, we

don't have the sort of capability at the moment. the budget is too small. we went through all of this in the sort of run up to the general election. and, you know, the conservative view was that 2.5% now was what was needed , and a now was what was needed, and a lot of us were saying, well, 3% would actually be better, possibly 5% would help us to make up lost ground. but at the moment, the, the, the new government is saying we will commit to 2.5%, but not when. >> but it seems to be this budget for modernising the armed forces is science , technology forces is science, technology and research. and development. is that within the ministry of defence or is that separate to this? either way, it's working to improve our armed forces. >> well, it's come across the story has come across as being part of the ministry of defence. so a large chunk of it is the r&d budget that the mod spends grant shapps. >> the former defence secretary loved he couldn't stop talking about his new lasers and all the

different innovations, the jet packs that are navy now have and all the rest of it, looking at how things have changed in ukraine and actually looking at how the houthis are down in, down, down near the red sea have have been able to really quite cheaply attack some pretty expensive equipment. the asymmetry of modern warfare, clearly we've got to adapt. >> well, you've got to adapt, but you've also got to be able to cope with high intensity, heavy metal war of the kind you see in ukraine as well as asymmetric warfare that the houthis are doing further down in the red sea. and it's being able to do both and to be able to chop and change as you need and have the kit to do that, because one size doesn't necessarily fit all, and you've always got to be thinking of the next generation of military hardware. and that's what we're paying hardware. and that's what we're paying our boffins to do and come up with ideas. so you know, jetpacks or lasers or whatever it is, which is round the

corner. it's, you know, this is if you don't invest in your r&d, then you can kiss goodbye to all of that because it just won't happen. >> and what do you make of the recent developments in the ukraine war? well, that's been going on the offensive and taking control of quite a bit of land in russia? well, it's absolutely fascinating. >> okay . so it underlines the >> okay. so it underlines the value of surprise because this is the offensive that the ukrainians were trying to do last summer. but it never came off. and what they've done is they've attacked in a completely different area, which has caught the russians totally off guard. so surprise , big ticks, big, big so surprise, big ticks, big, big win. it in a week, the russians, the ukrainians have taken more russian territory than the russians took in the whole of the last couple of years. >> i mean, that's crazy to think, isn't it, considering how long this war has been going on andifs long this war has been going on and it's taken them a fraction of the casualties in in terms of men and materiel. >> so, you know, that's a big plus for them. why are they doing it? well, it's a great morale boost, they're trying to

draw russians away from the pressure on the eastern front, and get them to move some of their more experienced combat troops to attack this new incursion. and it gives them a bit of negotiating room. now, if there is some kind of settlement or anything else around the corner, then they've now got something to trade with putin. >> mr putin is no longer saying, let's just freeze the lines where they are, peter caddick—adams, thank you so much for talking through those two big defence stories for us here today. really appreciate your time. >> please come back more to discuss. i'm sure this is good afternoon britain on gb news. we've got lots more coming up but we're going to take quick look at the weather. so stick with

us. >> good afternoon britain. it's 2:00 on wednesday the 14th of august. i'm tom harwood and i'm emily carver farage under fire.

senior tories take aim at the reform uk leader saying he endangered the police after his comments about the southport attacker. we discuss an emergency . emergency. >> services are dealing with a major incident in walsall in the midlands, after a toxic chemical spilled into the canal . local spilled into the canal. local authorities are asking the pubuc authorities are asking the public to avoid the extended area, plus life on mars. >> well, we could be getting a lot closer to finding out as nasa make an important discovery. >> very interesting, very exciting . exciting. life on mars a okay, we should, we should, we should explain. >> we haven't found life on mars , >> we haven't found life on mars, but nasa seems to have located,

the conditions for life on mars, namely liquid water. it's the first time that liquid water has been discovered on mars. it's extraordinary. >> so if we have water that indicates that we have life, well, usually it's not as simple as that . as that. >> it's not. not quite, but it's an indication that this is the conditions where life could thrive, and, and we know that in the past there was water running on mars, but now we know that there is currently liquid water on that planet. and it's not just about sort of where life could be, where life might have beenin could be, where life might have been in the past. also about, you know, the ease of setting up base there in the future. does this make a mars colony all that bit closer? >> well, that's what got me going. you know, we've destroyed this world, so perhaps we'll have another option. perhaps we'll have another option . plan we'll have another option. plan b, i don't suppose it will be cheap to make your new life on mars, but who knows? who knows? >> perhaps mr musk, after all of his, all of his indignation from

from the politer corners of the world, he'll have to scuttle off to mars on one of his. >> this is the thing elon musk. he can say what he likes. he has options. he has options. he has opfions options. he has options. he has options anyway. get in touch. i mean, you can get in touch about life on mars if you like. or you can get in touch about nigel farage and all of these tory leadership contenders hopefuls trying to distance themselves from him. i mean, would nigel even be interested in getting close to them? >> and what will the salary, what will the tory membership actually make of it at the end of the day, it's the members of the conservative party who are going to vote for the next leader of the conservative party, are they thinking that actually it's the best thing to bash nigel the whole time? >> i mean, i remember when nigel farage turned up at tory party conference one year last year. i think it was he got such a reception he did from the members. they absolutely loved him. they were all over him taking selfies and trying to get chats and all sorts of things. >> although that was before he led an opposing political party.

>> that is true. things may have changed. things may have changed quite a bit actually. but let us know your thoughts gbnews.com/yoursay. but let's get the news headlines with sophia . sophia. >> emily. tom. thank you. good afternoon from the gb newsroom. it's just gone 2:00. your top story this hour. ukraine's top commander says 100 russian prisoners of war have been captured in the kursk region. it's after ukraine launched a surprise offensive that zelenskyy has admitted was easy and met with little resistance. it comes as the russian city of belgorod has declared a state of emergency amid daily shelling that the governor says is destroying homes and killing civilians. evening standard defence editor robert fox says ukraine wants to keep the russians guessing. >> they're probing. they're pushing, yes, he 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. >> the australian department of foreign affairs has confirmed . foreign affairs has confirmed. an 11 year old girl, who was stabbed in leicester square is an australian tourist, australian consulate officials in london are offering consular support to the girl's family. it has also been reported that the victim, who suffered eight stab wounds to the face, neck and upper body, will likely require plastic surgery. in other news, nigel farage has no future in the conservative party, no matter who replaces rishi sunak as leader. mel stride today confirmed that he would not allow him to sit on the conservative benches in the commons. it means that all the six candidates to replace rishi sunak as leader have declined to work closely with nigel. the position is in contrast to sunak, who twice told gb news

last year that mr farage could join the party, saying it was a broad church , violent attacks broad church, 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 exposure is being experienced by women more than ever, with 51% of female victims stating that other rail passengers intervened to try and help. safeguarding minister jess phillips says violence against women and girls is a national emergency. >> the government have made it incredibly clear that tackling the scourge of violence against women and girls is part of its core mission . we consider it to core mission. we consider it to be a national emergency and that that won't just change overnight . that won't just change overnight. this is going to take the levers

of government working across every government department, making sure that in our education system, for example, that the attitudes that end with men on our transport systems harassing and assaulting women are dealt with at source . are dealt with at source. >> now, dead fish have been pictured in a canal that's 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 been declared and people are being warned to avoid the 12 mile stretch of canal leading to birmingham. sodium cyanide can cause headaches, nausea, changes in heart rate and loss of inflation 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

july. figures are up from 2% in june.the july. figures are up from 2% in june. the increase was widely predicted and is largely due to the prices of gas and electricity falling by less than they did a year before. chief secretary to the treasury darren jones said the new government is under no illusion as to the scale of the challenge. we have inherited. local people in birmingham have been reacting to the news. >> small increase but it's massive. not a lot of people can already afford food . i've got already afford food. i've got a decent job myself so i'll 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 to afford anything whilst you're on universal credit, it's very difficult . difficult. >> those are the latest gb news headunes >> 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 . forward slash alerts. >> good afternoon britain. it is 2:07 and mel stride is the latest leadership contender to distance himself from nigel farage, claiming the reform uk leader's comments about the southport attack and the suspect had put the police in danger. yes. >> he also said he wouldn't allow the mp for clacton to join the conservative party if he were to become tory leader, meaning now all six candidates have completely closed the door on the possibility of farage joining the party. >> well, it comes a day after shadow security minister tom tugendhat also critically, heavily criticised nigel farage, claiming he'd been deeply irresponsible and dangerous in trying to amplify false information about the southport attack. >> right. well, to discuss this further is gb news political editor christopher hope. why are they all speaking out about

nigel farage then? >> well, we're asking them, emily, so we're asking them what? >> you're stirring it up. >> you're stirring it up. >> yeah, sorry about that. >> yeah, sorry about that. >> it's your fault. stirring it up. >> it is august. no, i mean , i >> it is august. no, i mean, i think part of the conversation the tory party must have with itself is what to do about farage. it's. it's a problem they've had for about 10 to 15 years now. how to respond to the kind of people who like him, like what he talks about. i'm intrigued that all six candidates say there is no future for farage in the tory party. the reform uk party, such as it is, is actually a company in which there are 15 shares. eight of them are owned by farage. he could easily wind it up overnight and merge it with the tory party if he wanted to. he's not going to. he said it's of no interest to me whatsoever today of what the tory candidates think about me. but, you know, the old. the former leader, rishi sunak, did say that the party was a broad church and they would. they opened the door to farage, rejoining the party that he did join years and years ago . and join years and years ago. and that's not going to happen now under any of the six leaders of the guys who want to replace

sunak. >> and you've been speaking to mel stride most recently. he's now he now completes the six. yes. which means, in effect, nigel farage will be banned from joining whoever wins. >> that's right. it's a ban on farage and i find this fascinating because those six face a choice. do they tack into the middle ground, go after the labour voters, lib dem voters , labour voters, lib dem voters, soft tories who like reform or if they try and unite the right and take on labour. and now some would say uniting the right is what you do first of all, and then you tack back towards taking on labour. but they're all saying that not not for me. and with with mel stride i should say he was quite outspoken about farage. he said that the comments by nigel farage when he questioned whether we were being told the truth by the police about the about what was being withheld from us, about the attack on those three girls shortly after, after the attacks in southport, he said that risked the safety of the police. here's what he had to say. >> is it helpful when you've got police officers going out there risking their lives in a rioting

situation to be questioning whether they're being truthful with the public? >> for example ? it's completely >> for example? it's completely it's likely to lead to more police officers ending up getting in more trouble than they would otherwise. so his remarks, it's not it's not responsible. >> his remarks are putting the safety of police at risk . safety of police at risk. >> i think his remarks about the police, not being truthful, potentially around what happened, let me put it like this. were deeply unhelpful to those officers that were then having to go out and deal with the consequence of the rioting. >> given all that. would you allow him to be a member of the tory party if you were leader? >> no, not i made that very clear. so no deals with no deals. nigel farage look. nigel farage wants to destroy the conservative party >> that was mel stride there on my podcast. our political podcast. chopper's political podcast, making clear no deals with nigel farage. and we do intend to speak to all of the five other candidates as best we can before the end of the month.

>> is this a mistake though, christopher? >> i mean, okay, a lot, a lot of things have changed. he started a new party, for one thing, but last tory party conference, i think you'll remember as well as i do just how much mobbed. he was. mobbed. he was mobbed. there was so much support for him from the membership. the membership clearly thought that nigel farage was on their side . nigel farage was on their side. so is this a mistake that this alienates some of the members ? alienates some of the members? >> good question. emily. i'm not standing for the tory leadership. i would say that it could be a mistake. i think if i was standing for the leadership, i would hold a doorway open to farage east people concerned about labour, the tories and went towards farage to say, well, we agree on so much, can't well, we agree on so much, can't we do some kind of agreement? the problem is farage has been saying things which do offend a lot of tories about putin, notably the riots, there's been some strong words on both sides, but were i standing in this election, i would not have said this. i think there's a chance there. you can pull him back in on some areas. and i think having this, you know, it does

it does mean you can only appeal to a certain group of people now going forward with the tory party. >> very interesting. christopher hope, our political editor. thank you very much indeed for that scoop. thank you. >> well, we're now joined by the political commentator andy williams, andy, frankly , there williams, andy, frankly, there are two big questions here. what should the tories do to claw their way back to power? and does anyone care? well, i think one of the major challenges they face is getting people to listen to them, because obviously, you know , this is a party that sunk know, this is a party that sunk to an enormous defeat, >> after 14 years in power and one of the principal reasons for their defeat was that people were jaded with them. people were jaded with them. people were sick of the conservatives. so getting people to listen will be a challenge. i actually do not think nigel farage is the answer. i don't think it's the conservatives in the conservatives in the conservatives interests. for him to be involved in the conservative party for two major reasons. firstly, he's not conservative, he's a

libertarian. he doesn't actually believe in conservative values and secondly, nigel farage, as we all know, if we're honest , is we all know, if we're honest, is only interested in nigel farage. so he will do whatever it takes to keep himself in the limelight and to keep himself relevant. but he's not a conservative he doesn't care about. >> there are there are lots of people in the conservative party who perhaps are neoliberal or who perhaps are neoliberal or who are libertarian, who aren't necessarily traditionally of the small c conservative variety of conservative. is it not a mistake to alienate supporters of nigel farage, who could potentially come back to the conservatives with the right leader ? leader? >> well, i think all election winning machines, whether they're labour or conservative, they're labour or conservative, they have to be broad churches. and i think actually labour did a very good job at this election of showing that you have to be open minded, you have to, you know, the most centrist party wins every general election. that's the story of the last 40, 50 years. there is a significant but quite small and very vocal

constituency for nigel farage's brand of politics. and i would compare it in many ways to jeremy corbyn. you know, jeremy corbyn was an incredibly popular labour leader with a minority of people. but for a majority of people. but for a majority of people he was an extremely alienating , people he was an extremely alienating, alienating and polarising figure. and i see farage in the same light. >> it is actually very interesting looking at jeremy corbyn, who of course very, very popular in islington , was able popular in islington, was able to win his seat as an independent, booted out of the labour party, he's now started being pretty chummy with those four other independents who were elected, mainly talking about gaza in the in the election. they've started signing letters together, calling themselves the independents. i wonder if i wonder if those sort of five people could be considered. well i don't want to say equivalent, but a similar nigel farage would dispute that very strongly that he's anything like jeremy corbyn, different in terms of politics, but in the way in which or perhaps different in terms of policy, but in the in

the way that if , if i could the way that if, if i could think of maybe three people who could fill an arena with their speaking. yeah. in this country it would be jeremy corbyn, nigel farage and boris johnson. easy peasy johnson. but but but maybe none of them today could actually win an election. andy i think that's exactly right. >> you look you look at these sorts of people and they command really passionate support, but not from a broad group of people. and i just think the reality is that and this is actually the great challenge come back to the original question about the conservative leadership. do any of these six candidates look like people who candidates look like people who can command mass popular support? i think that's a really difficult question. i mean, with all due respect to mel stride, who's very professional, seemingly very good chap, is he a prime minister? i don't think so. and i think if you look at these six candidates, you have to really look very, very closely and think, could any of these people genuinely win a general election? >> but a lot of people thought

keir starmer didn't stand a chance. keir starmer didn't stand a chance . and there he is with a chance. and there he is with a whopping great majority. andy. andy williams we'll leave it there. political commentator. thank you very much indeed. i wonder if we can bring christopher hope just just in very quickly to react off the back of that, nigel farage, a very strong support from, you know, a section of the public, could he turn that into a huge political force going forward ? political force going forward? >> he's trying to he's behind the scenes constructing a party, a campaigning function that can maybe do well in next year's local elections in may. he's on a 5 or 6 year project, he said when he took over, surprisingly back in june, he could do it. maybe. i'm intrigued by that comparison with jeremy corbyn. i mean, we have seen, of course, keir starmer win without the corbynistas we've had with jeremy corbyn having been kicked out of the party. so that could be the case. but i think the, the, the you need i mean, we heard from henry hill earlier a 1% swing to the tories gives them 50 seats from labour. so it's all to play for so

marginal, so marginal in the next election. i mean that is not hasn't really been priced into conversation yet. you've spoken to well yesterday you spoken to well yesterday you spoke to both mel stride and tom tugendhat. >> what do you get the sense that they they think they can win this? i, i sort of look at mel stride and think he's not trying to be leader. he's auditioning to be chancellor or shadow chancellor. and i look at tom tugendhat and why he's up for it. >> he nearly replaced jeremy hunt, didn't he? well, exactly. >> because because of course, he was the treasury select committee guy for a long time. and knows his numbers. i mean, i also look at tom tugendhat and i think, is he really standing to be leader or is he raising his profile? does he want to be shadow foreign secretary? he ran the foreign affairs select committee for a for a long time, i think, and was of course, security minister focuses on his foreign policy experience. are some of these candidates actually sort of perhaps running two messages? >> they would definitely say to, you know, tom harwood, you are cynical . we are seeing the pot cynical. we are seeing the pot stirring the pot in august. we are running this properly. yeah, you could say that, couldn't

you?i you could say that, couldn't you? i mean, i think i think it's quite wide open for who are you letting a leader of the opposition, james cleverly is quite good in the house of commons. are you letting someone be prime minister across lots of policy briefs, someone else? maybe robert jenrick could do that job better. who are you choosing is interesting. >> i mean, chris, lots of people getting in touch on this says the tory mps have not learned a thing, have they? they should be looking at the labour party and fighting them, not farage. why do gb news have everyone here on here against farage, especially the guest who is so biased? well, i think we're giving quite a fair analysis of what's been going on thanks to on that point, it's interesting. >> today robert jenrick has released a video not about nigel farage, not about any of his competitors, but his video on twitter is listing about labour, 40 things he says that labour has done wrong or has put their foot in it, or has messed up in the last 40 days that they've beenin the last 40 days that they've been in office. i suppose that's a different tactic, trying to almost pretend that he's won the leadership election already. >> that's a better tactic, surely, to focus on the people in government.

>> of the six, his campaign is the biggest one. we covered the launch in newark in his constituency. huge like it, almost as glitzy as the gb gb news set. i mean, it really was a big a big event. tom tugendhat launched his his campaign with an op ed article in the telegraph, and that was his first speech yesterday, but quite low key. >> standing in front of some sort of brown sheet. >> well it was, it was, it was a blind, but it did look like a brown sheet on tv. goodness me. >> focusing on the trivial here. >> focusing on the trivial here. >> this matters in politics, doesit >> this matters in politics, does it not? there is. >> it's very ugly. yes. needs an iron as well . >> it's very ugly. yes. needs an iron as well. but >> it's very ugly. yes. needs an iron as well . but angela says iron as well. but angela says it's iron as well. but angela says wsfime iron as well. but angela says it's time for serious times. angela says nigel, a libertarian. my backside. he's a true conservative. the others are not. common sense says starmer won it by default because nobody bothered to vote for anyone else. >> our viewers aren't stupid. they know that farage does talk a lot of conservative policies convincingly. the problem for the tory party in the last election was they identified the problems, but the solutions came from farage. it all went towards him. >> well, on that point, we're

going to have to leave it there, this is going to be a conversation. i think i have a feeling we're going to return to. >> we've managed to make the tory leadership contest very exciting. i should say. >> someone has to, christopher , >> someone has to, christopher, thank you very much for talking us through your scoop. >> yes, we've got lots more coming up on today's show now. emergency services are dealing with a major incident in walsall after a toxic chemical spilled into the canal. there you go. there's a view of it there. if you look closely, you can see some fish floating on the surface. oh. >> that's horrible. yeah, well, cyanide in the water. goodness me. we'll be at that next. stay with

us. good afternoon . britain. it's good afternoon. britain. it's 2:24. now sports personality freddie flintoff left his fans in tears last night as he revealed the full extent of his

injuries on top gear. yes, he sustained serious facial injuries and broken ribs after a devastating crash in 2022. >> let's have a listen to what he said. >> i'm at work. last time we saw you, i promise you a trip to india, i'm wondering if you still want to go. >> of course we do. yeah. i don't think there's a single person in this room that would deny that. yeah. >> whatever happened this last year for me, one thing i've been very aware of and desperately wanting to do is take you over, love you over in india. >> not just india. sean >> not just india. sean >> right. are you feeling 100% now? not really. no. i don't know if i will again , to be honest. >> i'm better than i was. i don't know what completely better is. you know what i mean? i am what i am now. i'm different to what i was and something i'll probably have to deal with for the rest of my life. so better. no different . life. so better. no different. >> it was very moving, actually. that interview, he was. it was when he was filming top gear at

dunsfold aerodrome in surrey in december 2022. and clearly life changing injuries and a massive impact on his mental health. i was reading how he wasn't able to leave the house for months on end. >> yeah, well, when you have a facial injury as well, >> yeah, well, when you have a facial injury as well , the way facial injury as well, the way that you speak might have changed. definitely the way that people perceive you is changed, broken ribs as well. harder to breathe all the rest of it. i mean, it's clearly, i think, more serious than some people thought at the time. >> yeah, absolutely. and everyone remembers him as an absolute cricketing legend and all round fantastic cricketer. so it's terribly sad and also shocking to see him in speaking so frankly about something which obviously has been absolutely awful for him. and his personal life. so we wish him well. absolutely. this is all part of a series i think he's doing on the on the bbc. so i'm sure some of you will have tuned in already, but yes, we're going to move on because, emergency services are dealing with quite the incident in walsall after

toxic chemicals spilled into the canal. >> well, the substance is thought to have entered the water in the pleck area on monday. local authorities have been asking the to public avoid the extended area, while the environmental agency conducts urgent tests. they found cyanide. >> yeah. sorry for showing you these pictures, but it looks like a lot of the wildlife. the fish. have sadly perished as a result of this. we're joined by our west midlands reporter, jack carson. are those images? we were just showing of the canal there? clearly, a lot of wildlife impacted by this. have any humans been impacted ? any humans been impacted? >> well, thankfully, so far we've had no reports of humans coming directly into contact with the water. of course, we know there was a 12 mile exclusion zone put in around the walsall canal network, telling people to avoid those areas with themselves with any dog walking, bike rides, anything like that, as well. we're here just west of

walsall on the canal. this is one of the main affected areas of the canal network. we have seen people from the environment agency, from the council walking up and down this canal this afternoon, taking tests from the water, and you can see just how drastic the impact has been from this sodium cyanide spillage. now this spillage is not determined to be to have been in a specific location yet. we've got the general area that it was understood to be around the pleck area of walsall. now, sodium cyanide is a white crystal like solid. it's got a faint almond odour and it's used within the industry. there is a lot of industry based along the canal here. historically, these canals were used to transport goods to and from that industry. but this industry, this chemical is used within industry for things like metal cleaning, for plating , extraction, sometimes plating, extraction, sometimes photography as well. so the warnings coming from the and the

reason why this major incident was declared here in walsall by the collective emergency services, the council and other agencies that they say they're working with is because the symptoms of sodium cyanide can cause can be things like headaches, nausea, dizziness , headaches, nausea, dizziness, loss of consciousness, seizures, vomiting and in large amounts. of course, it can be fatal, especially particularly if it's inhaled or ingested. so that is why there was this warning put in place from walsall council, from the collective emergency services, in order to make sure that people stay away from this area. these tests are being conducted, samples we believe have been taken away from the water in order for those, of course, to be tested . we course, to be tested. we understand the council is trying to work together in order to be able to cut down the size of this zone. they have been conducting testing all throughout that 12 mile network that i mentioned in order. so they can be certain that those areas right far out where we've been today as well, where we've seen the tape across, stopping

people to try and go down the canal network, they can hopefully make that exclusion zone smaller and hopefully try and isolate the incident. now, thankfully, because of the way the canal system here is the way that the locks work , they've that the locks work, they've been able to, we believe walsall council been able to maintain and contain the majority of this incident into that specified at the moment, 12 mile exclusion zone, but we wait to see, of course, what the latest developments are from these tests, particularly that we know and have seen the environment agency taking here today. but as you saw there , there has been you saw there, there has been a serious environmental impact from this village. well, jack , from this village. well, jack, thank you so much for bringing us that story. >> really shocking to see. pictures of just dead animals there in the river. 12 miles jack carson. thanks for joining us. >> us. >> yes. well, this is, of course, good afternoon , britain course, good afternoon, britain on gb news. we've got lots more coming up, including prince harry. he's not going to be coming back to the uk for the funeral of his uncle, citing

personal security concerns. is that the . that the. case? >> it's 230. i'm sophia wenzler in the gb newsroom with your headlines. the australian department of foreign affairs has confirmed an 11 year old girl stabbed in leicester square is an australian tourist. australian consulate officials in london are offering support to the girl's family. it has also been reported that the victim, who suffered eight stab wounds to the face, neck and upper body, will likely require plastic surgery . ukraine's top plastic surgery. ukraine's top commander says 100 russian prisoners of war have been captured in the kursk region. it's after ukraine launched a surprise offensive that zelenskyy has admitted was easy and met with little resistance. it comes as the russian city of belgorod has declared a state of emergency amid daily shelling, destroying homes and killing civilians . violent attacks

civilians. 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%. safeguarding ministerjess phillips says violence against women and girls is a national emergency. >> a government have made it incredibly clear that tackling the scourge of violence against women and girls is part of its core mission. >> we consider it to be a national emergency, and that that won't just change overnight. this is going to take the levers of government working across every government department, making sure that in our education system, for example, that the attitudes that end with men on our transport systems harassing and assaulting women are dealt with at source . women are dealt with at source. >> and as we've been hearing

dead fish have been pictured in a canal that's being tested for sodium cyanide. that's after a spill in the west midlands. walsall council said the environment agency told it about a toxic chemical spillage that went directly into the canal at pleck on monday. a major incident has been declared and people are being warned to avoid the 12 mile stretch of canal leading 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, or go to gbnews.com forward

>> right. well, it's 236 and we've got lots more coming up on the show. but before that we're

going to speak to martin daubney because he is up next at 3:00. martin, what have you got in store for us today? >> so it's official six out of six conservative leaders have all said no. >> they slammed the door in farage's face, kissing bye to 4 million reform votes. and maybe more since the riots. but with two thirds of all voters and a third of tory voters not even bothered about who the next conservative party leader is , conservative party leader is, will any of it matter? >> next up, they're the most demonised demographic in all of britain white working class men, the most likely to fight for their country, the most likely to commit suicide, the least likely to attend university and yet demonise and call far right and thugs any time they complain. is it time to stop the demonisation and start listening to working class men to help bnng to working class men to help bring a more cohesive and calm society together and finally, after yesterday, fantastic interview on your show with emma wamba, the mother of barnaby

valdo calocane, of course, released four times after being sanctioned to be free to kill in the community. is it time to put niceties to one side and admit care in the community does not work. is it time to bring back secure institutions for the mentally unwell ? because there mentally unwell? because there are up to 120 killings every year due to psychiatric patients? is it time to put the public's rights first and forget about patients rights taking dominance? that's all coming in 3 to 6. >> it's a very good question indeed.thank >> it's a very good question indeed. thank you martin. martin daubney will be watching 3:00 till 6:00. stay tuned . it's till 6:00. stay tuned. it's a very good question, isn't it? >> is it a really good question? >> is it a really good question? >> yeah. stay tuned for that discussion. >> over 100 killings from psychiatric patients. yeah, yeah. >> care in the community. does it work? does it work? anyway, in other news, prince harry will not be coming home for the funeral of his uncle. lord fellowes, due to concerns over his safety . that's what he said. his safety. that's what he said. >> well, the duke insists it's

too dangerous to travel to the uk without the guarantee of police protection. it, of course, comes as harry and meghan prepare for a private tour of colombia later this week. >> well, gb news royal correspondent cameron walker joins us now. cameron, is this about his personal security? because we've all seen prince harry come back to central london when he's been involved in media trials. yeah i suspect it's one of the reasons, if you remember, a few weeks ago, he told an itv documentary that he doesn't feel safe bringing his family to the uk over his security concerns. >> i do understand it's very unlikely that he's going to be at the funeral of his uncle, lord fellowes, who died last month at the age of 82, even though he was pretty close to that side of the family. >> lady jane fellowes, whose lord fellowes wife was the sister of princess diana. so the very close spencer family. but if you remember his security arrangements, is downgraded . arrangements, is downgraded. security means that prince harry has to give 28 days notice to the home office before he returns to the uk. so that's perhaps one of the reasons why he's decided not to come back to

the uk for this funeral. but you'd think that there'd be an exception for a family funeral, wouldn't you? because of course, you don't know when a family member is going to die. but the other elephant in the room is that as well as being prince harry's uncle, lord fellowes, he's also prince william's uncle. and i do understand it's quite likely prince william will be attending. and of course, you've still got this brotherly feud between william and harry. they're not on speaking terms and that is still bubbling under the surface. >> i'm afraid they can't put it aside for a funeral. i mean, they both turned up of course, to the coronation. they both turned up to the to the funeral of the late queen, i suppose different size of events . different size of events. >> they turned up to the coronation, i think, because it was a big state occasion. william and harry did not speak at all during the coronation harry was sat three rows back. prince william was clearly front row and paid homage to his father during that coronation. so i think there is there is a difference between that and a private family funeral. if you

remember at the duke of westminster's wedding, just a few weeks ago in chester, or maybe a month ago now, prince william went. but i understand, although prince harry is still friends with the duke of westminster, they mutually decided it wouldn't be a good idea because, again, william and harry's feud would overshadow the entire thing. and i suspect thatis the entire thing. and i suspect that is what a day which should be about. paying tribute to lord fellowes, former private secretary to queen elizabeth ii, as well as, you know, uncle to william and harry. they want him to be the focus, his life, his legacy , rather than a bitter legacy, rather than a bitter feud which has now been going on for years between harry and william. >> i mean, never mind not being a working royal anymore, but it doesn't seem like he's a member of the family anymore. it's as if that sense of duty that he was brought up with has all but disappeared . disappeared. >> really? yeah. >> really? yeah. >> i think you have to do things you don't want to do, don't you? in families, i think it's consumed him. >> i think his his. i think the security arrangements he has genuinely really fearful and paranoid. you could see that from the itv documentary he spoke about. it only takes one person who's read negative

stories about him in the press with a knife or acid. that's a quote that prince harry says. that's what he's worried about. clearly, in the back of his mind, he's always got what happened to his mother, princess diana in 1997, in paris, in the tunnel, but as you say, he is still a member of the windsor family. his father is still king. he still has a brother as well. but for some reason, whatever is stopping him, which is clearly not been made public, he refuses to come back to the uk or feels he's not wanted in the uk. >> and one of one of these reasons, clearly, is this feud that has now been well reported, spoken about for many years, but it seems deeply, deeply bitter. and it seems that it's been growing rather than healing, with more time. >> well, i think you're right, tom. i think as more time goes past and the less and the more time that goes past without william and harry speaking, i think it's going to become more and more awkward if and when they do. eventually speak. they spoke together at the funeral of

prince philip, duke of edinburgh, in 2021. clearly, since then, the publication of harry's memoir, spare, has taken place where there was a lot of quite serious allegations against prince william, all of which have . well, kensington which have. well, kensington palace haven't responded to any of those allegations , and i of those allegations, and i think prince william is genuinely hurt about what his brother spoke about. but i do know that king charles still loves harry. he still, i believe i think , wants to spend more i think, wants to spend more time with his grandchildren. and it's up. i think if there's going to be any kind of reconciliation, it's going to be charles and harry first. as the first step before william and harry decide to make up, because they brought their wives into it, into the feud. >> the accusations about meghan and kate, of course. >> well, harry's got william evans got a lot on his plate. the princess of wales is still undergoing cancer treatment. he's got three young children to think about and all his added dufies think about and all his added duties as the duke of cornwall with the duchy of cornwall now in his control. and of course, he's prince of wales, he's future king councillor of state. it's a lot to think about and i

think him spending more time on thinking about harry and the feuds between him and his brother is probably not a priority for william, as king charles met both of his grandchildren on that side of the family. he has met both of them, but he hasn't seen them for a very long time. and i think that's no real relationship. >> there at all, is there? it's very sad. it's very sad. you never know. things might turn a corner. >> yeah. the moon could be made of cheese. >> there could be life on mars. >> there could be life on mars. >> well, very good link. we might well be talking about that. that particular peculiarity. thanks, cameron. in just a moment. thank you very much, cameron. >> could there be life on mars? there are indicators that there might be, well, liquid water discovered on the red planet. >> it's a pretty astonishing discovery. and we're going to be talking about that after

>> well, the question that's on everyone's lips today that we haven't mentioned too much so far in the show is could there be life on mars? joining us now is space and planetary scientist andy lound andy. why am i asking this question today , this question today, >> well, thank you for having me. >> yes, you're answering asking the question because data from the question because data from the insight lander, which landed on mars some time ago and its data was transmitted until 2022, have discovered, in fact, that there is liquid water deep down underground in the in the upper crust of mars itself. >> i mean, it's quite deep. >> i mean, it's quite deep. >> i mean, you you're looking at several kilometres down. >> so it's a long way down, but it is a liquid ocean as such, deep down on mars and the for life you have to have water. the fact that you've got water doesn't mean to say there's life, but certainly if you're going to have carbon chemistry down there, you're going to have to have liquid water. and the question has always been, where did the water on mars go? mars,

as a planet, probably had large oceans. we've got geological evidence to suggest that from what we look at, mars and of course, when mars has its internal core stop rotating, it didn't have a magnetic field. it lost its magnetic field, and the temperatures fell on mars. and of course, it started to lose its water into space and freezing as as ice in the polar caps. freezing as as ice in the polar caps . where did the rest of the caps. where did the rest of the water go? and the suggestion has been like, on earth, water seeps down into the interior of the planet. now, on earth, we know that for a fact. we've we've been able to take measurements of that, but that has never been seen before on mars. and now from the insight lander, we've actually been able to discover there is water deep down underground on mars. and if you've got the water. >> so mars from a telescope looks like a red, dusty arid landscape. but actually deep down underneath that, there are oceans of water. we now we now understand. yes does this inform where we could next send a

probe? if we want to find out if there's potentially evidence of there's potentially evidence of there having been or even there being now, any form of life there? >> well, we i think we're still going to look at the areas we've already indicated on mars. the problem with this, this water, it's deep down. so we're not going to get down there. we're not going to be able to drill down to it. it's far too deep than that. so we're not going to be able to do that. we can only infer it's actually there from the seismic activities which we do on the earth. so we can't actually get that deep down. >> but how deep is it, andy? >> but how deep is it, andy? >> oh well, we're looking at several kilometres down there. i think we're looking at something like 15km, 20km down. so it's a long way down, in, in the crust, upper crust of mars itself, which is where you've got water on earth as well. the upper crust of, of earth has, has water, vast reservoirs of water on it. i mean, if this water is distributed the same way over mars itself, then all of mars could have an ocean two kilometres deep, for instance. so we're talking about an awful lot of water. so we're not going

to be able to get down there to it. but the key is here, the fact that we have discovered the water, there was a water cycle on mars and that it gives us an idea of where else to look on mars, then to do the same sorts of studies to see where else on mars you've got water deep on the ground. and we've actually got some observations of certain craters on mars where water has seeped out along the ridges of the craters, which means water is coming closer to the surface at certain times and in certain areas. so the lakes closer. to the surface in other parts of mars. but this is a very important discovery because there's such vast quantities of it. if you're interested to see mars, here is mars here. that's mars, here is mars here. that's mars with water on it. this is a topographical map of mars. so the colours indicate altitude. so the blue is the lowest areas on the planet, the white is the highest areas of it. and the spacecraft has landed. had landed in this region here where the little pink dot is. that's where it's actually been doing its studies and where it did it. here we've got a large volcano on mars, of course, which which is now extinct. and if we spin

the planet around a little bit, we see this fantastic line of volcanoes here and olympus mons, just which is the largest volcano anywhere in the solar system. and you have this huge canyon here, which is a huge canyon here, which is a huge canyon known as mariner valley. and that was probably filled with water at one time. and that canyon has been formed by landslip underneath it, possibly due to the volcanoes. it's absolutely fascinating, andy. >> i'm afraid that's all we've got time for. thank you so much for talking us through that. and my goodness me, so much more to learn. >> very excited. now we must get this in because we told you earlier about the street cleaner, paul spiers, who has gotten his holiday after all. good news all round. our investigative reporter, national reporter charlie peters has found him. let's hear what he had to say. >> yeah, i entered the competition and i forgot all about it. >> but then all of a sudden i said, i've won. got a £3,000 vouchen said, i've won. got a £3,000 voucher, which they're going to send me when i can go on holiday and hopefully i'll be flying out

saturday. >> well, they did say if i wanted to go two weeks, they'd pay wanted to go two weeks, they'd pay me for the two weeks, but i'm going to try and split it. so i'll take a week now and maybe a week later on the other have matched that £3,000 to a donated to who i ever wanted nominated, and to i had cancer research, which they've already done , and they said it would done, and they said it would take about 2 or 3 days to sort out. so it's a heartwarming story. >> community raised money to send such a beloved street cleaner off on holiday. >> happy charlie peters managed to find him. yes, i mean, the pr team at the council weren't sure whether they should do it, whether they should do it, whether he was allowed because of his wearing his uniform as he said, thank goodness for private houday said, thank goodness for private holiday companies who saved the day and got mr speirs his holiday. you can't hold back future media personalities, local councils , you know. local councils, you know. >> yeah.

>> yeah. >> why not. >> why not. >> but but also absolutely tremendous work for charlie, who had been searching all day to find this local celebrity. and we got him. >> there's been quite a couple of people mocking you in the comments about saying liquid water. liquid water and they're saying as opposed to ice, which is frozen water as opposed to ice as opposed to ice, which is a type of liquid, is it not? no, ho. 110. >> no. >> ice is a solid not very long ice is. ice is solid water. water is liquid water and gas is steam. and steam is, gaseous water, gaseous water. >> well, there you go. don't try and mock our intelligence. all right, in the comments. liquid water laughing now comment section. >> who's laughing now ? >> who's laughing now? >> who's laughing now? >> have a wonderful afternoon. definitely stick around for martin daubney. he's asking some big questions this afternoon, but we'll be back tomorrow at midday as normal. so meet you there .

there. >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar sponsors of weather on . gb news. >> hello. good morning. welcome to your latest gb news weather update brought to you from the met office. sunny spells for many of us through today, but it is a bit cloudier across eastern areas in particular, particularly through the rest of this morning and things will change across north western areas into this evening. but for the time being, there's a weather front still lingering across the south and east, bringing cloudier skies for here much of the rest of the day and the risk of some drizzly outbreaks of rain. we could see some heavier showers later on this afternoon, but for most of us it is going to be a dry day, particularly across northern and western areas. wales much of scotland, northern areas of england. it will turn a bit cloudier across parts of northern ireland and the west of scotland, as the breeze picks up later. but in the sunshine, temperatures climbing into the low 20s, we could still see 2425 degrees in the southeast. we still got fairly warm air here,

so that will bring a slightly muggier feel through this evening. i think it will be a slightly brighter end to the day compared to this morning, and plenty of sunshine across parts of wales, northern england, much of wales, northern england, much of scotland. but as i said, turning a bit cloudier from the north and west into northern ireland and the western isles in particular, as wet weather will spread in through wednesday evening . and overnight into evening. and overnight into thursday. but for many eastern areas it should stay fairly dry and bright through much of the evening. this evening, however, this wet weather will spread eastwards overnight, bringing a spell of rain to much of scotland. and northern ireland is going to linger across a lot of scotland through thursday as well. to the south of that, a dner well. to the south of that, a drier night to come, clear skies for much of central areas of england, the south and east still holding to on some of that humid air. but it's really becoming much more restricted to the far south and east. but it's going to be the rainfall that's going to be the rainfall that's going to be the rainfall that's going to be the big watching point through thursday, a very wet day for northern ireland, scotland, northwestern areas of england . we could see some england. we could see some localised flooding issues from that rain. there's going to be

fairly persistent and slowly sinking south and eastwards into northern areas of england, parts of wales , some central areas. of wales, some central areas. ahead of that in the southeast, it should stay dry and fairly warm. that warm feeling inside from boxt boilers , sponsors of from boxt boilers, sponsors of weather

gb news. >> a very, very good afternoon to you. it's 3:00 pm and welcome to you. it's 3:00 pm and welcome to the martin daubney show on gb news. we're broadcasting live from the heart of westminster all across the uk . on today's all across the uk. on today's show, no tory future for nigel farage. it's official the future is farage free for the conservative party today. leadership hopeful mel stride told gb news he is the sixth and final candidate to slam the door in farage's face. is that the right thing to do , or is the right thing to do, or is the party over for the tories next story? there's been a massive

surge