with their boeing starliner spacecraft will not return to earth until february 2025. prosecutors in italy open a manslaughter investigation into the sinking of a luxury yacht off the coast of sicily. seven people were killed when the vessel went down on monday, inluding the british tech inluding the british tech entrepreneur mike lynch entrepreneur mike lynch and his daughter hannah. and his daughter hannah. ukraine marks 33 years ukraine marks 33 years of independence, amidst of independence, amidst the ongoing war with russia. the ongoing war with russia. president zelensky celebrated president zelensky celebrated the day by describing russia's the day by describing russia's invasion as a failure and announcing invasion as a failure and announcing a new prisoner exchange. a new prisoner exchange. in the newscast studio. now on bbc news — newscast, now on bbc news — newscast, broadcast earlier on radio 4. broadcast earlier on radio 4. newscast — newscast from the bbc. newscast — newscast from the bbc. hello, it's paddy o'connell hello, it's paddy o'connell

in the newscast studio. it is marianna spring, also with paddy in the newscast studio. and it'sjames cook in glasgow. james, that's not the full picture, because listeners might think that in glasgow you have a desk. yes. well, lam in the bbc scotland studios in glasgow and we are filming this as well as broadcasting it live on radio 4. but my desk, if i'm honest, paddy is an ironing board

period only appearing on your radio 4. i think in a normal daily edition we would talk about that news we heard from italy of a manslaughter investigation being launched about the sinking of the luxury yacht. because this is our weekly edition, we're going to concentrate on the big story from chicago, the democratic national convention. we're going to look ahead to the election in november. that's just 72 days to go, although it feels like we've been living it for a lifetime, and we'll react to the news that robert kenneder has announced he's backing out of the race and backing donald trump. but i wonder, can i start? james, you were based on the west coast for many years. can you give me, like, your takeaway in a minute? just a minute? yes. i'll try, i'll try and give you a minute, paddy. i mean, i think what we've seen is, isn't it, an extraordinary turnaround in just a few weeks from the democrats being a party of despair to — and this word has been used a lot over the past week — a party that is beginning to feel

joyous again — doesn't mean that they're on track to win the election, which is still incredibly close according to the polls. but it certainly is a move from their perspective in the right direction. and then we saw in kamala harris an introduction for some people, because not everyone will be familiar with the vice president. and we saw her beginning to set out how she will campaign. and that the core message, i think — i mean, she's talking about we're not going back. it's change. it's the way forward. the suggestion not only change, that implies, from donald trump and his age, but from joe biden and his age. and we heard her trying to distil her message as essentially harris, the former prosecutor for the people, trump for himself. of course, mr trump had plenty to say about that as. well, mariana 7 so in my dayjob, i do two things. i investigate social media a lot, and i also host americast,

which is the sister podcast, of newscast. by the way, for the crime of investigating social media, you get trolled, you get hate mail. that's what social media is. so just let's just add that. so sorry, could you go on? yeah. there's a lot of toxicity and everything else actually. and that is going to be my observation around the conference itself this week. there hasn't been as much toxicity as perhaps we're accustomed to on social media. there have been a lot of kind of feel good wow—factor viral clips. so things of pop stars, other people popping up, family members crying, all that kind of stuff. one of the things i've taken away, though, is that if you are someone who has only followed this convention on your social media feed, which millions of americans will do, you'll see all this stuff and think, "oh, that's quite exciting." or maybe you don't like it at all. maybe you think, "oh, what are they telling me?" and that's the point, that there's lots of wow and there's not much policy. and it's felt like that... we don't really know any more, or not much more than we knew a week ago, about what kamala harris and tim walz, who's running to be vp, vice president, want to do. i love that point.

my takeaway would be, james, you were based on the west coast. i was based on the east. i went to the convention that nominated bill clinton. this is vacuous. they are in despair with a lot to be in despair about. joe biden, the president, could hardly speak, mixed up, the presidents of russia and ukraine fumbled and bumbled his way with president trump, with donald trump, who by convention, of course, is called a president over there. and he tried to put kamala harris in a box. he didn't want her to come out as vice president, gave her all the hard jobs, then tries to pretend everything's all right. she won't give any interviews, this conference, they're great at balloons. we're rubbish — our party conferences. you know, the letters fall off, the leaders cough, no—one claps at the right place. for me, this was fabulous for balloons, but really not good for policy. and she hasn't even given an interview. given an interview, kamala harris so i say the dems are far ahead wagging their tail. there's a lot more to come. yeah, i couldn't

agree with you more. and indeed, i had a notification from fox news, which is not a network that's a fan, i think it would be fair to say, of the democrats last night saying essentially it was a fox news alert and it says 33 days the dnc over. harris refuses to reveal policies, give news conferences or give any major interviews. and i think that the pressure on that, on her, to detail and to prove that she can actually operate under pressure to detail her policies and prove she can operate under pressure, is only going to grow. but we'll come on, i think, to talk about some of that, won't we? but why don't we start by having a reminder of what happened during the week? because there was a lot of razzmatazz, but there were a lot of speeches in chicago. also, let's hear a flavour of some of them. i would have been too - young to be in the senate because i wasn't 30 yet and too old to stay as president. - there's the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories,

laughter who's going to tell him? who's going to tell him that the job he's currently seeking mightjust be one of those blackjobs? cheering because she will break my record i as the president who spent the most time at mcdonald's. we got 76 days. that's nothing. there will be time to sleep when you're dead. we're going to leave it on the field. so let's get out there. let's fight for it. let's get out there. let's vote for it! and together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told. thank you. god bless you and may god bless the united states of america. thank you all. well, there you go. i mean, certainlya lot

of enthusiasm, a lot of cheering. who do we hear there? we heard joe biden. we heard the obamas, bill clinton, tim walz, who's the vice presidential candidate alongside kamala harris, and then the candidate herself. and, you know, it's the passing of the torch. and a party has managed to, that was really divided, has managed, broadly speaking, to to project an image of unity. i thought it was interesting to hear about mcdonald's there. bill clinton was talking about to pick up the serious political analysis, but bill clinton was talking about mcdonald's. kamala harris worked at mcdonald's. in fact, i'm told that if she wins, herand her husband, doug emhoff, will be the first white house couple to have worked at mcdonald's because they both worked there. i'm not sure for how long or whether that is just an attempt to project a different image of her, rather than the image that some republicans would characterise her as. as a coastal san francisco west coast elitist. what do you think? yeah, i think it's really interesting.

i mean, looking at some of the... and the speeches are a really good example of this. like even the moments that, that we've picked out there as part of the montage, those are the same moments that have been popping up on social media, because they say things that are a little bit punchy or a bit funny or a bit bizarre. so the mcdonald's thing is a kind of like, oh, i didn't know that. fun fact. and like you say, james, perhaps part of an attempt to shift this idea that kamala harris is someone who is a prosecutor or someone who has frequented the kind of upper echelons of american politics, and instead is someone who gets you and understands how your life is. and that's certainly what tim walz attempts to portray as well. and you think about it, i mean, if you're a speech writer now or one of these people that's going up and giving these big, you know, these, these talking to all of these people at the convention, you're thinking about what's that moment that's going to go viral because there are so many people who will only hear these speeches in snippets like that, and they won't listen to the whole speech, and that's just how

they consume their news. they'll be scrolling and this kind of stuff will pop up. and so it's also why i think we saw a fair bit of what we might term glitz and glamour at the convention and, but particularly kind of unexpected visits from celebrities, ones that people weren't necessarily anticipating. and paddy, when you earlier were chatting about party conferences here, i feel like the moment that was most contrasted to a british party conference was when they did the roll call of the states where the states are, the different american states are choosing who they're going to endorse, and whether they want to back kamala harris to be the presidential candidate. and we had this moment where liljon pops up to be georgia's... who is littlejohn? he's, is it robin hood? i'll be back to robin hood. no, no robin hood. because i think... i could understand it better then if only we could have more characters from our past in these conventions. so it's not little john it's liljon.

it's liljon. liljon with a lil. who is he? he's a pop star. he's well known for this song, actually, which you're going to hear in this clip. ladies and gentlemen, we are officially— ladies and gentlemen, we are officially here _ ladies and gentlemen, we are officially here tonight - ladies and gentlemen, we are officially here tonight to - ladies and gentlemen, we are - officially here tonight to nominate kamala _ officially here tonight to nominate kamala harris _ officially here tonight to nominate kamala harris for _ officially here tonight to nominate kamala harris for president. - do you know that one, paddy? no, it's not on my... for me, this makes the point very well, because, i mean, tim walsh well, because, i mean, tim walz speaks human and glitz and glamour is very important at the conventions. they do it really, really well. and of course, she wants to talk about working in mcdonald's, because what she does not want to talk about is what did she know aboutjoe biden�*s cognitive

abilities and when did she know it? also under the constitution, i'm sure they don't have any time to read it over there because they're blowing up their balloons. but she's the one who certifies the election results injanuary. so she, the vice president, certified. it doesn't matter that she works in mcdonald's. it matters what herjob is now. of course, she doesn't want to talk about what herjob is now. she's a vice president under the system. she goes to the joint session of both houses in congress, and she certifies the election results in january. what happened last time? there was a mob led inside the capitol by many trump supporters, and an attack on democracy. the result will be disputed. we can be almost sure of that. and lo and behold, the person in the chair will be kamala harris. so, james, it's chilling to think that this convention where she's been coronated, she's not been asked by a journalist two questions along the lines i've just bumbled my way through. no, no, i don't think you've bumbled your way through them, but, i mean, i think you're making good points. and, you know, first of all, paddy, because what you're reminding us here is that if we can describe any period in american politics

as normal, that what has been happening over the last few years has not been normal. donald trump's response tojoe biden's victory was not normal. a mob storming the capitol, obviously a violent and deadly mob storming the capitol. and, you know, at his essentially instigation is not normal. this is not normal american politics. it's not to say that there haven't been periods of intense turmoil, not least in the 1960s and at other periods as well. i mean, they had a civil war, for goodness' sake, but it's not a normal time. but the second thing i would say is ijust wonder, marianna, when we're hearing all of the celebs and the endorsements and the glitz and the glamour and the colour and the balloons and the joy, if you're not sitting at home, if you're watching it at all and it's a high, high likelihood you might not be watching it thinking my paycheck's not

going very far. inflation's been running high. interest rates are at a 23 year high in the united states. i don't think things are going very well in this country. and i'm not actually convinced that that that was entirely... that kamala harris can divorce herself from joe biden's presidency in that regard. yeah. i think you touched on something really important there, james, which is that when, you know, when it comes to these celebrity endorsements and, you know, there was oprah winfrey, there were the various other people that we've chatted about. um, there were also lots of influencers. so they invited along people who will post about the convention on social media and who will possibly reach a pretty decent audience of younger people, people who are scrolling on tiktok or instagram or elsewhere. um, and, you know, kamala harris, since she stepped into the spotlight over the past couple of months, has benefited massively from this kind of what we call organic boost online people talking about brat summer, which paddy and james may or may not be familiar with. i probably won't be familiar with brat summer, but i am familiar. i mean, i've put the criticism out there, and i think it's appropriate

for me to say she's definitely moved the polls. donald trump was tied or ahead in the seven swing states. she comes along and she's now tied or ahead in the seven swing states. so i want to make it plain i understand the impact. but i am a journalist, and i am expecting these questions that i've gone on about to be asked, and i think they'll be influential. and to your point, no, i think it's been a massive sort of viral hit for them. totally. and but actually, all of this in some ways is part of the same point, because actually, the problem is and it comes back to the celebrities popping up and, and all of this stuff, like what impact does it actually have on people who wouldn't have already voted for kamala harris, say, or people who maybe didn't know how they were going to vote or were thinking about not voting because they felt quite disillusioned with it all. what impact does all of this have? and i think on the one hand, you have got this kind of bounce, you've got this positivity, this movement online. it's reaching people, particularly younger voters who maybe weren't feeling that fussed. but the flip side of all of this is when you've got, i think,

particularly celebrities, you've got this kind of quite like glossy experience that the convention is. i think that some of that can feed into some of the conspiracy theories you actually alluded to there, james. and they're not necessarily always conspiracy theories. sometimes we come back to legitimate feelings that people have, that this group of people who are looking to run the country are totally out of touch with the reality that they experience. right, 0k. james mentioned the 1960s and many of our listeners were there. and the name that stands out from the 60s for you, from american politics is the kennedy, the name kennedy. it's a brand in itself. it's the rock, it's the name in the rock of or the stick of rock of the democratic party. kennedy said, what happened last night? the son of rfk, the former attorney general who was assassinated he pulled out of the race. he had an independent candidacy, which he suspended and backed donald trump. now here's what rfkjr said.

and now to throw my support to president trump. the causes were free speech, the war in ukraine and the war on our children. president trump says that he will reopen negotiations with president putin and end the war overnight, as soon as he becomes president. this alone would justify my support for his campaign. 0k. just to remind us what we're doing here. it's coming up to 11:18. this is bbc radio 4. this is newscast, which is temporarily on radio 4. and we're listening to rfkjr backing donald trump, setting a war of words amongst the kennedy clan. james, what do you make of the significance of this? it looks like it's a fillip for the donald. probably, although i'm hesitant about that. i mightjust say one thing

in case people listening, in case you're listening there are wondering about rfk's voice. he has a neurological condition. just in passing, because it is very striking, his voice. no, thank you for pointing that out. i didn't know that. yeah, it's a neurological condition, the name of which i'm sorry, i can't remember the exact name, but it affects you. it affects your voice. sorry. ijust thought we should say that because it does. you may be thinking he doesn't sound well. anyway, leaving that to one side. i think it's a really good question here. is there going to be a trump bump from this endorsement? what's happened here is that rfkjr has been falling in the polls, and he was falling before kamala harris entered the race. and then that fall accelerated after she entered the race. one might think, therefore, that people who had turned to him as a third party candidate were people who were sick of the existing options. they didn't want biden and they didn't want trump, and therefore they'd gone for someone else. it appears that maybe some

of them have thought, okay, we might go to harris. how many more of them will go to trump when he'd been an option all along, i think is a different question. he was polling at the end... he was polling to begin with maybe 15% or so. it dropped right down to maybe 4% in the polls. and i think while it might be expected that some of those voters would go to donald trump, there's also some evidence that people who say they support robert f kenneder are also less likely than other voters to actually turn out in the election. so how much of a trump bump? i don't know, but it might make a little difference. but let's remember, little differences in tight races can still have an effect. don't forget that in 2016, donald trump won the election byjust 80,000 votes in three states. and it's also worth pointing out that robert f kenneder is a pretty colourful character. he's someone who has really made headlines and... yes. been sort of everywhere, really. i mean. you say those words. it's words put together with other words that i never thought would be put together.

well, exactly. so, i mean, to start all of this off is the nephew ofjfk. so it means that he is someone who is sort of comes from this. i mean, there's all kinds of conspiracy theories around, obviously, the, the, the assassination and everything else. so he already kind of comes from this world of like rumour and all kinds of drama and this sorts of stuff. you've then got like, this story where he dumped a bear in central park. can you just pause? you just did say that on radio 4, marianna. and whatever your reputation has been up till now, you just said you just told us that he dumped a bear in central park. which is true. and also the brain eating worm as well, which he's talked about his brain eating worm situation. i know, and i mean, he's also someone who's been criticised before for posting anti—vaccine ideas on social media. he argues against that accusation, says i'm just asking questions. i want to hold big pharmaceutical companies to account and all that kind of stuff. but he has shared things that are not true about vaccines. so he's someone who's not been shy of controversy and who's also been a very strong advocate forfreedom of expression, freedom

of speech, particularly in the social media world. and that's something that donald trump has also been a very keen advocate for. iwonder, paddy, what do you think about — or marianne, either of you — but in terms of one of the attacks that tim walz, the vice presidential candidate on the democratic side, came up with was this idea that donald trump was weird and the people around him were weird. and, you know, without being rude about robert f kenneder, i mean, as marianna says, he dumped a beer in central park in new york. and if that's not weird, i don't know what is. yeah. so i wonder if that, if that, if there's a degree of, you know, the weirdness tag might, might work there. or do you think the weirdness thing doesn't work at all? i don't know, what do you both think? well, i mean, iwould go back to where i started. it's pretty weird to have a sitting president who confuses the president of russia with the president of ukraine and can't actually speak during televised debate, but he's. but he's. but he's not the candidate. no, he's not the candidate now.

but i mean, this is how quickly things are moving. and i think with 72 days to go, we should expect more turmoil also. i thinkjust for fans of history, of whom we have many listening to radio four, trump has said he will release more files onjfk's assassination just for people who obviously want it nailed down. rfkjr is the nephew ofjfk, and trump immediately said, oh, those files... marianna, this is going to keep you in work forever. i mean, there are more files coming out aboutjfk's assassination. it's just endless, to your point. i know, and i often say that those kinds of conspiracy theories in some ways feel less acute and dangerous compared to some of the ones i investigate now, because they're kind of relate to the past. but actually they're all part of this, you know, untangling a legitimate distrust in authority that has often let people down or not told people the truth. and then actual conspiracy theories that go way beyond legitimate questions and concerns and tell us stuff that just probably is not true. i might injectjust a slight degree of scepticism about whether these files will be released, because donald trump has promised before to release

the remaining files on the kennedy assassination, and they didn't come. assassination, and they didn't come. he said he was unable to do so, he said he was unable to do so, although given the number although given the number of classified documents of classified documents that they found in his possession that they found in his possession after he left the presidency, after he left the presidency, one wondered whether he might not one wondered whether he might not have taken them with him. have taken them with him. but anyway, it doesn't but anyway, it doesn't seem he did that. the cia say they've released 99% seem he did that. of the files, but it's the 1% you all want to see, isn't it? you all want to see, isn't it? i mean, you know, that's all very i mean, you know, that's all very well, but you think, oh, well, but you think, oh, well, that's their well, that's their implication there as well. implication there as well. there's nothing to hide. well, there's1% remaining, and 59% in march said well, there's1% remaining, so there's something hiding. so there's something hiding. right. right. we're going to move on to issues, we're going to move on to issues, the kinds of stuff the kinds of stuff that they were talking that they were talking about at the convention. about at the convention. and we're leaving just as much time and we're leaving just as much time as they did at the convention as they did at the convention to talk about, to talk to talk about, to talk about the issues. about the issues. i thought it was really interesting. this poll, actually, this poll, actually, that's come out from cbs. that's come out from cbs. um, it essentially was a poll um, it essentially was a poll about almost about feeling what is the election about from democrat registered voters. um, and 58% now say it's about hope.

but back in march, that was just 41% about almost about feeling

i suppose the thing about it is that there will be a tv debate, which i think will push things. i think that's on september the 10th. we're all going to be watching that because of what happened the last time. and i heard the governor of the fed imply there could be an interest rate cut. so i thinkjames mentioned that rates are high. but, so i would say you asked me, what do i think? i say a poll, with respect to cbs, a poll on hope and fear, you know what? can i just talk about a rate cut? can i talk about the tv debate? i prefer to be the one who limps out saying that. ithink, i mean, i think if there isn't a rate cut in september, then there will be absolute carnage in the markets. i thinkjay powell has signalled incredibly strongly that there will be a cut, possibly half a percentage point, although some betting in the markets that it will be even higher than that. will that give a fillip to the harris campaign, saying, look, they were difficult years, but we've managed to get through this. and the fed has ultimately managed, managed to negotiate

a relatively soft landing for the economy where, you know, jobs have increased during the biden administration considerably. but there was just some concern in the last unemployment data that there was a problem there. so, you know, will that make a difference? i don't know, or will the impressionistic sense that people have struggled and are still struggling to pay their way and to buy the goods at the stores? will that, you know, will that be an aid to donald trump? plus, as you say, the immigration party and marijuana is such —— mariana. a potential dangerous area for kamala harris, who was there's an argument about whether she really was the immigration tsar, as they called it, but she was certainly tasked to look at the border and then was very strongly criticised for, in the republicans view, not taking that issue seriously enough. i think it's also worth us mentioning abortion. it's a massive issue this election, and it's something that kamala harris and tim walz have

both spoken out about. i've seen quite a positive response to the wayjust on social media, to the way that tim walz has framed a lot of the debate around abortion, because he's kind of said, it's kind of weird to get involved in other people's lives, like, why not let them just make up their own minds about what they want to do? and just to be clear. marianna, the point here is that the supreme court has overturned the nationwide right to abortion that had been in place in roe v wade since 1973. yeah. and it's something that, uh, lots of data tells us young voters are very worried about, um, and something that could really motivate them to come out and vote. it's something that, you know, in those initial campaign videos, but also at the convention, kamala harris, tim walz and then other speakers, you know, spoke very movingly of their own experiences of, um, an inability to get an abortion or where an abortion was essential. uh, really horrible stuff that they lived through. so, you know, that is something that i think they have managed to speak very... strongly and categorically about, perhaps less so on other issues, but certainly nn abortion.

0k, james, i am sorry if it sounds like i'm knocking your ironing board over, but i was just thinking i was going to bring the strands to a close by saying it has been really the year of elections. president putin had a remarkable victory. i mean, what an amazing democratic result that was. prime minister modi, then you had the election in france, which is still, you know, we don't know who on earth is running france. we had the election in the uk and this one that we're talking about now, we've done our best to summarise just the events of the last week. anything to say? in a word, mariana, because we've got 10s left. um, it's going to be very busy up until november, james. and exciting and possibly very tight. so from all of us on newscast, we say to you listening, thank you very much and goodbye. newscast. newscast from the bbc.

live from london, this is bbc news: german police arrest a second person in connection with a fatal knife attack. earlier a 15—year—old boy was arrested for allegedly knowing about the attack beforehand. nasa says two astronauts stranded

on the international space station will not return to earth until february — eight months later than initially planned. the decision to keep butch and suni aboard the international space station and bring the boeing starliner home uncrewed is the result of a commitment to safety. prosecutors in italy open a manslaughter investigation into the sinking of the luxury yacht off the coast of sicily in which seven people died. and ahead of wednesday's opening ceremony, the paralympic flame is lit at the british hospital where the idea for the games was born. later this hour we'll speak to one of britain's most successful paralympians — tanni grey—thompson. hello, i'm karin giannone. we start with breaking news

in the last few minutes —