this is bbc news, the headlines... the commander of the az of regiment says ukrainian soldiers have ended their defence of the port city of mariupol. they vowed to fight until the end but they surrendered. the united states is putting increasing pressure on the british government to resolve its dispute with the european union over northern ireland trade. the row risks undermining western unity with ukraine. the world health organization is discussing the increase of monkeypox. the disease has been

reported across 11 countries. there will be a full roundup of the day's news at ten o'clock. first, it's newscast. welcome to the newscast studio this week. and we're going to bejoined by all sorts of interesting people who will be popping in and out throughout this episode. but first, chris, you've had a busy old day covering what you could describe as maybe the beginning of the end of the downing street party story. yeah. so the metropolitan police today have said that they are done. they've been looking into this since january. and so we have the figures for the final count. after a bit of back and forth, it's a bit confusing.

where they confuse fines and people. but we now know that they issued 126 fines to 83 people. so most of those fined got one fine. and we know that the prime minister was one of those, as was the chancellor and the prime minister's wife. we know that 28 people got between two and five, so at least one person got five! so who is the party animal? i've no idea. but, yeah, at least one person getting five. and, yeah, when you speak to ministers, you can hear the relief in their voice because there was a lot of talk, wasn't there, at westminster about does the prime minister get more than one? does he wallpaper an entire wall with them by the end of it? and what does that mean, after that boiling anger from conservative mps for a couple of months ago? that anger has long since dissipated. i don't see any sign of it coming back, but two things to look out for. this report from sue gray, the senior civil servant — we got bits of it a few months ago. we'll get the full shebang probably next week. and then this inquiry into whether the prime minister intentionally misled parliament, which he denies. those two things coming in the coming weeks and months. but it feels like, as far as the prime minister is concerned, we might be getting towards the end of this. keir starmer, of course, not out of the woods yet with his thing.

curry and beer. when are we going to hear about that? in the next sort of six to eight weeks, we think. so that loiters for him and it still loiters a bit for the prime minister with these two other little bits. but as you say, it feels like we're edging possibly towards the end. but there could still be a big moment. there could be a race for the labour leadership in a couple of weeks' time. well, let's discuss that and some other issues with our first guest. it's ian blackford, who's leader of the snp at westminster, who joins us from his constituency in the scottish islands. hello, ian. hi, good evening. oidhche mhath, as we would see in the isle of skye. _ what does that mean? oidhche mhath — good evening. oh. right. — i should have worked that out! that's the sum total of my gaelic as well. all those years of watching buffy the vampire slayer in gaelic haven't paid off for me, unfortunately. really? marianna was just looking at me thinking, he really is as daft as he looks. i wasjust thinking it'd be quite funny if you'd chosen a different phrase. not "good evening". you'd actuallyjust said something completely random. congratulations on becoming political editor. anyway, ian, today's big news obviously has been partygate.

some people calling it the end of partygate or the end of this bit of partygate. the fact that borisjohnson only got one fine in the end, does that mean actually you and the other opposition parties maybe made too much of a fuss about it? about him personally? no, not at all. you know, i think when we reflect ion this and, ok, this is the end i of the police investigation, i'm pleased about that. - but when we reflect on the scale of it, 126 different fines — - eight different parties, i let's just reflect on that. parties that were taking place, . parties that broke the law, parties that the prime minister was at. and he is the first, _ the only prime minister that's ever been fined in office, - that's broken his own laws. this isn't the end of the matter. we've got the sue gray report to come. - and, of course, there's _ the parliamentary inquiry to come into the prime minister as well. look, i think at the end of the day, | many people, millions of people up and down these islands are frankly still disgusted and angry— at the behaviour that we've seen.

taking place in 10 downing street. given though, ian, we can be pretty certain the prime minister isn't going to volunteer to go as a result of all of this, in all likelihood, is there not an issue now with this raging cost of living crisis for so many people, that the conversation, the political conversation gets onto other stuff pretty quickly? because, you know, a viewer, a listener mightjust think, look, this just looks like navel gazing from ages ago. can't you talk about what matters now? well, of course, what we have been talking about is - the cost of living crisis. that's what i raised _ at prime minister's questions yesterday and we've got - a prime minister and a chancellor that are not taking i their responsibilities. people are really struggling. we've had a report this week talking | about families that are going to end j up in destitution and the fact that the prime minister- and the chancellor... they should have accepted - the amendments that i put down, that others put down i in the queen's speech, to have a tax on the profits that oil companies are making. - let's remember that whilst people are really struggling, _

oil companies are making excess profits because their costs - are relatively fixed. that money should be recycled back | into the pockets of those that need| some respite from this. do you sniff a u—turn, ian, on all of that? it looks like the government might be limbering up for one? yeah, and i'll be grateful. if they do because the end of the day, when you look- at the inflation that we're seeing and the real pain that people i are in and the fact that people are having to turn their heating off. | people going without meals, l and if the government u—turns on this, then i will congratulate - them because it's about making sure we're supporting people that need financial help today. _ rishi sunak gets a lot of attention because of his wealth, and you're actually a former investment banker. there's a lot of talk about you being a multi—millionaire. how does that affect the way that you relate to something like the cost of living crisis? well, look, i mean, - i suppose in some senses i don't mind the question.

i've never hidden the fact that i've had a career in the city and one i that i have to say that i enjoyed what i m _ | but, like a lot of people, i came| from a very ordinary background. i was brought up in a council house estate in in edinburgh. _ and i want to make sure i that those that i represent, notjust those that i represent, but those right across - the united kingdom, have got - the opportunities that we had and, importantly, that we don't have a them and us. - that we don't have a situation, that there are people that - are wealthy in society, but that we're leaving i people behind. there's a phrase that i've used that i will continue to be guided - | by and that is "society is only| as strong as its weakest link". and the fact that so many people are living in poverty, _ that are in work, there is something wrong. . yes, i had a career in the city looking at companies. - but at the end of the day, . what i want is a fair and just society where nobody is left behind. sure, understandable. but does that mean, though, that because of your background, which some people might describe as wealthy, have you sort

of forsworn attacking rishi sunak for being wealthy and out of touch then? because actually some opposition parties do have a go at him for his wealth. is that something that you would just choose not to do because it would open you up to charges of hypocrisy? i think — no, i think it's right that as i have done, - as we have done as a party, . we've highlighted the hypocrisy of rishi sunak and the tax. arrangements that he's had and the non—dom status that his wife had. - that's perfectly legitimate. no, i mean, people should not be against wealth creation. _ it's important that we have wealth creation. j and i've never hidden the fact i've had a life in the city— where i was well—paid. but, look, i would like to think i'm a reasononbly ordinary citizen, - i live in a crofting township in the isle of skye. - i operate together, . with my wife, a croft. but i think at the end of the day, - how you behave and how you discharge | the responsibilities that you have| to make sure that there's fairness in the taxation system. moving the conversation on a bit,

something i actually spend a lot of my time looking at is online hate. and when i knew we were speaking to you, i was looking at a lot of the kind of online hate that's been triggered by discussion around scottish independence, also around the covid pandemic. and i've particularly noticed in the covid conspiracy groups, a lot of them have been going for mps from the snp because of their stance when it comes to covid measures. what's that been like? have you been caught up in any of that? i think we all have been. a lot of politicians, of course, get really quite hateful stuff i and of course that's gone as far, as sad as the death _ of two individuals. and i have to say, i'm - deeply worried about where we are as a society, . where we are with our political discourse. there was an article in the scottish edition of the sunday times a fewl weeks ago written byjohn boothman, where he quoted myself— and a labour mp ian murray. and andrew berry, a tory mp. and we all said that all of us have got a responsibility—

to call out bad behaviour- and i want to have a situation where, for all of us, - we can have a conversation about ideas, we can _ have a conversation about policy. but we need to make sure that that people can contribute to debate, i whether they're in . politics or elsewhere. and of course, the same goes forjournalists. - ian, i can't let you go without not asking you about scottish independence and the plan that we've heard regularly from your party leader, nicola sturgeon, scotland's first minister, about having another independence referendum before the end of next year. that's right. and ijust wonder with where the opinion polls are right now, the view of boris johnson and everything else going on in the world, i put it to you that realistically that's not going to happen. oh, i'd put it to you i think it will happen. i think it will or it will definitely happen? it will happen. look, chris, we have a mandate . that was given to us by the people of scotland last year— at the holyrood election and it's worth reflecting on what happened. of course, we've got the hybridj

system, we have list members, we have constituency members. but the way that westminster looks at things of course - is through the prism of first past the post _ 73 seats in scotland. the snp won 82 of them, sorry, 62 of them. - we won 85% of the seats, first past the post, - where there's an overall majority for independence in— the scottish parliament. this is about democracy. what i'm excited about is our- government in edinburgh will release a series of papers about our vision for an independent scotland. - now, ian, you mentioned the croft that you run with your wife. i saw that you tweeted a video of some very cute lambs gambling abouts in a beautiful scenic setting, a bit of grass, a bit of greenery, bit of sea, very cute. a bit of grass — - i wish there was grass and we could stop feeding them. 0k. you're now testing my sheep rearing knowledge, but, be honest for us townies, are some of those cute lambs, have they ended up on people's plates by now? no, not yet. j ok, not yet! not yet! let's be honest, - i mean, we have sheep. lambing takes place every every spring. i we will sell the lambs later on this year, they'll be sold on to be -

fattened up elsewhere. i hate to say it. - i mean, if you're a girl, - then you've got a decent future ahead of you because you'll be used for breeding purposes. _ if you're a male, well, - you need to become what we would call a topper ram. or that is unfortunately, - largely the lamb that you'll see on your plate in a year's time or so _ but that's the feeding chain. where it becomes difficult, . every year, we always end up with a couple of pets. so we've got two lambs _ that the mothers have rejected them. unfortunately. you're not going to eat them! well, they're pets, the two we've got, we get them - every blooming year. yeah. how many have you got? surely it's like the, the law of exponential growth which we learnt from code means you must have about 100 now? no, there's not quite 100, - but there's a number of pairs. so this year's two have been called mango and chutney. i i and i'm trying to negotiate that, i that the sold on as tups elsewhere because you can't keep keeping pets. but there is an attachment that you that you have to them - and they'll actually come - to the door and bang their noses

on the door to be allowed in, to be to be fed. - so there's you know, lambing is a lovely time of the year. . it's a time of really enjoying. we always make sure that that lambing takes place i in the easter recess. so i can be here to. help with the family. well, ian and mango and chutney, thank you very much. thank you. so on the last episode of newscast, the podcast, available on bbc sounds, we were talking to our business editor, simonjack and he was at the annual cbi dinner. and now we've got the host of that dinner, the director general of the cbi, tony danker. hello. it is very exciting to be here and this is better even than the cbi dinner. still hung over? yes, which is why ijust said what ijust said. was it was it rubber chicken like you always have at these? well, i had the vegetarian, so it was aubergine. rubberaubergine? rubber aubergine. and you sit next to rishi sunak, the chancellor, at these things? idid. are you now going to expect me to tell you everything he said? oh, no, no, no. what? dinner conversation is top secret. 0h, is it? even you respect dinner conversation.

but what did you think of his speech? what did you think of his speech? yeah, he wasn't really announcing anything here. it was a very warm speech. right. i think rishi, business people like rishi, rishi likes business people. so it was very warm in the room. everybody was hoping he'd announce something. we all know the elephant in the room. what's he going to do and when is he going to do it? and he didn't. but, you know, so it was a warm speech. and i mean, look, if we want to get really technical about it, i don't know if this would meet your news bar, but he did say, i will cut taxes on business investment in the next budget as opposed to, i want to cut business taxes. so for guys like me, that is fantastic. for everybody else in the room, they were like he said, nothing. isn't it extraordinary how often rishi sunak manages to attract headlines that involve his name and tax cut when he has put up taxes as much as he has, and in historic terms, tax is higher than it's been at any

time in our lifetimes. 71 yea rs. and corporation tax is going up from 19% to 25% next year. overnight. so what needs to happen then? i don't know what you were whispering to him in between your aubergine and chicken, but what what would you do right now if you were him? look, i think... lots of people think let's have mass tax cuts now or let's have an emergency budget now. i actually don't think those things. i think it would be nice if we could avoid having the highest tax cuts in 71 years. but you've got to be realistic. i think there are two things he does need to do now. the first one is, and i said it this morning earlier on the media, is i think he needs to help those who are facing the greatest hardship, and i think he needs to do it now. i don't know why... you'll know more than me. i don't know why you'd wait. technically, do you need a budget to have discretionary payments? one—off payments? i mean, during the covid crisis,

we did those ones a month, right? i think the second thing he needs to do now is something that gets at business confidence. this is my core territory. what's happened really, i mean, at the start of the year, people were quite upbeat about the economy. they were kind of like, ok, we're going to grow. we're out of covid, we can do this. and yeah, there was some inflation, there was labour shortages, supply chains, the war really put everybody on hold. so what we've been saying is, look, and i've said it to the prime minister and the chancellor, now�*s the moment to, you know, boardrooms are going to you know, they're going to stick or they're going to twist. you know, are they going to stick with their investment plans? and again, i don't think you can wait till the autumn for that. you're on first—name terms with the chancellor. the chancellor of the exchequer? i mean, you know, we don't always agree but we row well. do you text? yeah, not not so much. i mean, if you're hoping to uncover something, i have once texted him to say thank you for the meeting. did he reply? he said, you're welcome.

that's quite nice. so let's talk about the northern ireland protocol because liz truss, the foreign secretary, did that statement in parliament a couple of days ago saying, oh, we still want to negotiate some changes to it with the eu, but if we can't do that, we'll pass legislation that willjust rip up huge chunks of it. how do you feel about that move by liz truss? are you asking me as a northern irishman or as a business leader? well, presumably it's both at the same time, isn't it? i mean, or can you separate, are there two different answers? well, in a sort of way there are, right. because look, i was getting very worried about a return of the brexit debate, right? you know, let's get brexit done, then let's make it undone in order that we can get it redone again and again. and that's bad news, right? at a time when we are dealing with cost of living, inflation and so on. i think the prime minister's piece for the belfast telegraph on monday indicated a far more serious, sensible line of argument, which was all about getting the northern ireland executive functioning again.

so it wasn't really an old debate about, you know with the europeans, and i think he's right about that. i mean, the interesting thing about the protocol is, you know, you are a brexit expert. former. you are a former brexit expert. but there is a landing zone as they call it there. it is very clear that if we could get both sides to sit down, if we could get the europeans to stop being so inflexible, if our own government were less provocative in the way they threatened unilateralism, if we had goodwill on all sides, i think this deal could be done. and i'll tell you something, despite suggestions to the contrary, there is pretty universal agreement amongst northern irish business that they want the protocol to work. i can say why, but that is definitely when you say when you say work, to get it to work do you need changes to the text, changes to the implementation?

or actually, is itjust it just needs to be bedded in and everyone gets used to it? and actually this whole process of negotiations doesn't even need to happen? so what's really going on is really the problem is if you're importing stuff into northern ireland, if you're exporting, having dual access, being able to export to the european union as well as the uk is a really big advantage for northern irish manufacturers. and why does that matter? because we're about to have twice the corporation tax in northern ireland as we have in southern ireland. that's a bit of a blow. if you're a business in northern ireland. we've got political instability. that's a bit of a blow. but the protocol for a lot of northern irish businesses suddenly gives them actually a competitive opportunity. so they want it to work. if you're importing, it's definitely true that, you know, less choice of stuff on the shelves. getting parcels through is hard and all of that stuff, of course, reaches politics, right. if it's just the manufacturing of goods, then it's not massively a political issue. but when it's starting to affect the person on the street, in the shop in northern ireland, and whether or not they can get the things they would normally expect to get, that's when it becomes high politics. when you said the government are being provocative, -

let's pull back to a sort of big picture thought and a blunt question. oh, dear. is recession inevitable? i don't think that it's inevitable, but i do think there's a distinction between technical recession, which as we know is two subsequent quarters of negative growth and what will feel like a recession. so if you're asking me, will people feel like there's a recession, whether or not technically there is — they will. some people are better off, like, for example, some companies that are making massive profits. good segue. yeah. i mean, do you get the sense there is loads of cash just sitting around in kind of business vaults? and actually the problem with the world is there's kind of not enough cash around? by the way, that was very vivid. i was just thinking of the business vaults and we all break into the vaults to get the cash. no, look, there is. so where is there money in the economy? there is business deposits, right? there's leftover lending that hasn't been spent down by small businesses from from covid. i think that will start to get drawn on now. there's investment money, right? certainly, if you want to do anything green,

anything on technology, anything on life sciences, you know, those are very, very attractive sectors right now. you can get finance for that. and as for the point on profits, and may i suggest you're about to ask me about windfall taxes, i'm not a fan of them. now, you might say, "surprise, surprise", but let me tell you why. because commodity markets, notjust oil's, they go up and down. and when the price goes down, everybody loses money. and when the price goes up, everybody gets money. now, i don't think we should start bailing out commodity companies when the price goes down, nor do i think we should excess tax them when the price goes up. so i completely understand the arguments for it. i don't like the suggestion that we need to tax businesses harder to help support poor and, you know, to help support poverty in the country. that's a governmentjob. so we should tax individuals more so that there can be more cash hand—outs for the vulnerable to help them with their bills, but we shouldn't tax businesses more to do the same thing? i don't think we should all of a sudden turn round and say

to a commodity company, "oh god, you've had a good month. "oh, let's take a little." but you can turn round to me and say you can pay more tax, the less well off. help the less well off. but i don't think we can turn around to you all of a sudden and say, "adam, you've got a bonus from the bbc in december..." if only! probably a bad analogy. chris, you got a bonus from... ooh, right. i didn't know that. god, that's pretty amazing. do you mind if i take that back? no, i'm just saying. but you know the point i'm making. and that's that these things have to be funded out of general taxation. which is why corporation tax is going up by six points overnight. next year. yes, next year. it's why national insurance tax went up, which is why the bankers get a surcharge. predictable taxation and taxes going up is completely legitimate in an economy. by the way, so is asking businesses to pay more tax. in fact, all of us to pay more tax, after the 400 billion bail—out for the country after the pandemic. of course that's right. and we'll see where the windfall tax debate goes. what i don't like is this idea that

we're not going to bail them out or help them out when the price is down, but when the price is up, if itjust becomes a bit politically hot, we'll take the money. thanks very much. i just don't think that's the way to run an economy. well, thanks for coming round our table. are you going to go to bed now? i would like to go to bed! cheers for coming on. thanks for having me. now, mariana, you're your reward for putting up with me and chris for this whole 30 minutes... it may have felt longer to you than that, you get to plug your new podcast series, go. it's called the war on truth. it's all about people caught up in the information war that's raging around ukraine. and each episode, i speak to one person whose life has been affected by this, who's become tangled up in the propaganda battle and disinformation tactics. and a weird irony, one of the most kind of powerful episodes is someone else called mariana. i know, which has been quite a really harrowing story to investigate, but also quite bizarre because i don't meet many other marianas and mariana spelt the same

way as me, and she's not much older than me. mariana is the woman who is pictured outside that maternity hospital in mariupol that got bombed, and she was pictured standing outside with a duvet over her. it's become one of the most iconic images of the war, but almost straight after that image was everywhere. she was accused by russian officials, by state television on telegram of acting. they said these are staged. she was posing as another woman, a woman who actually died and lost her baby. and i spent weeks trying to track down mariana because i wanted to hear what it felt like to be caught up in all this. i've spoken to her best friends in ukraine, in russia, one who genuinely believes she was acting. and then finally i spoke to her. and what she described to me was, you know, what it's like to be... she had her baby, which is really good news. but what it's like to be a first time mum suddenly at the heart of this international propaganda disinformation war and a target

of a vicious campaign by russian officials. and she actually described, we started off by talking about the attack and what it was like. and then she went on to explain how every time she talks, she feels like her words are twisted. and she was speaking to me in quite complicated circumstances. she'd been evacuated to the donbas region where she grew up. and that means that's being controlled by russian backed separatists. and there was a pro—russian separatist blogger who set up the interview, who's interviewed her before, who was there in the room. and so we had to, you know, ask a lot of questions of her and her friends and family to make sure we felt she was safe. and we have to kind of remember that, that she might not be able to say exactly what she thinks because she needs to keep herself safe orjust because she might... you know, it might be an indication of quite complex views. although she did say a lot of very vivid stuff. let's have a listen. translation: in reality, i can't blame anyone - because i didn't see with my eyes for certain where these _ explosions came from.

i received threats that they would come and find me, i that i would be killed, that my child would i be cut into pieces. i mean, it's scary. it's really scary. and mariana is a beauty blogger, and that's one of the reasons she was accused of being...of acting. and now she's actually got back to blogging, which is quite a happy end, i guess. and she's showing lots of really cute pictures of her baby, veronica, with nappies and all kinds of other stuff she's trying out. and it feels quite contrasted, you know, it reminds you that real life happens in a war zone. and even though it's really scary and it's been hard, she feels as though she's at least coming out the other side a little bit. well, mariana, thank you for helping us out this week. we will be back very soon with another episode. which one of those new emo geez do you think represents you now? newscast from the bbc.

hello, the weekend had soggy scenes for some of us, quite a lot of rain in some parts of the uk, although many gardens needed it and there was sunshine around as well. a beautiful picture hair on the isle of wight. a lot of rain in parts of england and wales. they were pretty hefty downpours but all of those rain bearing weather system now clearing eastwards with some quieter, drier weather to come through the night, still with one or two showers, clear spells of the most part, cambridge is not dropping too far, temperatures between eight and 11 degrees, may be cooler in the countryside. on saturday, drier weather first thing, some spells of sunshine, cloud bringing rain across

northern ireland, the rain then getting into parts of western scotland, north—east scotland holding on to some brightness. through the afternoon, the channel islands should see plenty of sunshine and we will see sunny spells across england and wales as well, the odd rogue shower across england and wales. temperatures, 17 degrees for liverpool. we will see showers across northern ireland and outbreaks of rain drifting eastwards across scotland although the far north—east should hold on to something little brighter, albeit with just the odd shower. saturday night, rain goes across northern scotland, and they will be missed in murk and low cloud around western coasts and hills. sunday will be between two weather fronts, a warm front here, confront here, there'll be lots of mist and murk and low cloud and higher temperatures on sunday, especially towards the south—east corner. sunday is whether

details will bring a lot of low cloud, mist and fog out towards the west and the odd spot of rain, heavy bursts of rain likely to push into north—west scotland and northern ireland later in the day. and south, the best of the sunshine, 20 degrees in power, 23 —— 23 degrees in london. coolerto in power, 23 —— 23 degrees in london. cooler to start the new week, it turns drier and warmer as week, it turns drier and warmer as we head towards the end of the week. goodbye for now.