continue for several more days. emergency crews are battling to contain the two largest blazes amid warnings that winds are expected to intensify. rachel reeves has become the most senior official from the uk to visit china for seven years. the chancellor has announced trade agreements with beijing worth £600 million to the uk over the next five years. ukraine says it has captured two north korean soldiers who'd been fighting alongside russian forces in the kursk region. ukraine released a video claiming to show the two wounded men but did not provide evidence that they were north korean. the us supreme court appears poised to uphold a law that bans tiktok in the us over national security concerns — unless its china—based parent company sells the platform. now on bbc news, newscast. so here we are with

flexicast, or newscast as we like to call it. you can't say flexicast — it sounds like something you'd get at an orthopaedic clinic. well, it's a moving subject smorgasbord. and adam has recently had a hit by having a quiz at the start of weekly newscast. he loves a quiz! weekday newscast. and he asked what was the biggest social media platform? which i've no idea. mm—hm. well, i didn't. anyway, so our quiz is — who was the last chancellor to go to china? when i first saw this, i answered george osborne. now, i don't think it was. i think it was actually philip hammond, is the answer, in 2017. but had it been george osborne, then i could have told you about the trip i went on with george osborne when i was political editor, to china, when he used that trip to warn about the dangers of brexit. he sat down to do an interview in china with me and he said "everybody�*s house price will fall immediately." "there will be a severe economic shock." this was a long time before the actual referendum — but it caused all sorts of ructions at home. and he talked about

the stability of the pound and all sorts of other things. what you might not know about that visit is the thing i really remember, is that there was this big sort of ceremonial lunch on a golden boat, on some sort of beautiful lake in the middle of — in china. and during our interview, the golden boat — do you want to know what happened, or am ijust banging on? no, i said it was flexicast because we're so, so far away from the news, we have to give it a new name. so the treasury, in their quite understandable consideration to want to make this look fabulous, they wanted to make the interview look amazing and it was quite an overcast day, at this beautiful location in china, but it was very grey and foggy. they had arranged for this golden boat, where the ceremonial lunch was to take place, which is a whole other story, to be in the background of the shot, floating around in a lake. however, what do boats do on lakes? they drift. so during the whole of our interview, as i remember it, maybe with a tiny bit of artistic license, just out of my eyeline and definitely out of earshot,

there was a foreign office apparatchik talking chinese very, very loudly, instructing the driver, the pilots, as i think they were called, of that particular boat to move slightly back or slightly forwards, or slightly left or slightly right, in order that the chancellor remained framed up in a beautiful interview shot with said golden boat in the background. well, it's a very, very nice vignette. well, it's a ludicrous thing. it's a sort of ludicrous little picture of sometimes how our trade works. well, rachel reeves has gone to china. it would be very funny to see if anything she does there is in front of the same golden boat. well, certainly it's creating as many headlines, this trip, as that one you're talking about. so we'll discuss that on saturday's newscast. newscast. newscast from the bbc. hello, it's laura in the studio. and it's paddy in the studio. and it is saturday, and we are talking about china

for a good, serious reason, because rachel reeves is off on her travels, trying to, you know, warm up the connections in order to do business with china, which is, you know, a massive mega economy that she believes very strongly the uk cannot ignore. it's the world's second biggest economy and the uk's fourth largest single trading partner. but she goes there at a pretty sticky time when her political opponents are saying she shouldn't have gone at all. yes, she says, "not engaging with china "is no choice at all." she's written her own article in the papers today, which i've read, and here is rachel reeves explaining why she's there and talking about the recent turbulence on uk financial markets. there's undoubtedly been moves in global financial markets over the last few days. i'm not going to provide a running commentary on that, but what i would say is that the fiscal rules that i set out in my budget in october are non—negotiable.

and growth is the number one mission of this government — to make our country better off — and that is why i'm in china, to unlock tangible benefits for british businesses exporting and trading around the world. now, when she talks about global turbulence, here, that means the borrowing costs for the government hitting a 16—year high and a very noticeable fall in the value of the pound. so these are not insignificant moves. and they're not limited to the uk, say supporters and some independent analysts. mm. there is an argument, this liz truss 2, that's a political argument. correct. if you speak, as i've done, to the bond market insiders, they say there's a downer in the bond markets for everyone�*s debt, thanks very much indeed, including the uk. it's pinned on, actually, the situation where good news is bad news. there's growth in the united states. in thejobs market, meaning the outlook for cutting interest rates has changed, and it looks like interest rates could stay higher for longer. that has an almost automatic

effect on selling debt because competitively, you get the same rate if you'rejust leaving your money in a bank. so basically speaking, the big brains of bonds would say that this — the uk's caught up in a debt change, changing view on debt. but the uk does have its own structural problems, including stubborn inflation. the outlook for interest rates here is also changed a bit. and, crucially, the cost of servicing the uk debt is going up, which takes away rachel reeves�*s fiscal headroom, which means she might have no money, or to too little money and have to raise more. and that's the important political point, which increases her difficulty. essentially, the cost of borrowing going up gobbles up more of the treasury's pie and that means either — would she raise taxes again? she ain't going to do that, or she certainly doesn't want to do that. or is she going to have to tell her cabinet colleagues that,

actually, they're going to have to squeeze even more out of their budgets — some of which are already looking incredibly tight? and that's why it's become such an acute political dilemma, really. i think the government's hope is, look, that this will settle down. these costs go up and down, markets go up and down, currencies go up and down. they'll be hoping this is not a permanent change in the terrain that they are dealing with. but don't forget, it's notjust the pressure on government budgets, it's also that the number one promise to the country and the number one hope of this government is that before too long, people will start to feel a bit more flush. the cost of living crisis that many people really had a hard time should start to ease off. hopefully, everybody will feel a bit more chipper and therefore they'll feel a bit more inclined to feel cheerful about their government. but it is massively, massively, massively important to this government that the economy becomes more prosperous. but i think this is also a reminder of, actually, they can't control it all.

you know, they can do what they like at home, they can say what they like at home and the decisions that are made in number 11 and number 10 are very, very important, but as you said, some of this is related to what's happening happening in the us. some of it will be related also to what's happening in china, where rachel reeves is, and this is really, really ha rd stuff. and also entirely predictable, actually, because we could go back to a newscastjust before the general election was called, in which we said, "if rachel reeves becomes chancellor, she will inherit an absolute nightmare in—tray." we said that before. she then waited betweenjuly and october, which alistair campbell, one of the 1997 new labour architects, said was an own goal. to give that much time between your arrival in downing street and your first budget opened up the country to all sorts of discussions and debates and stoushes. i know you like me to say that. i love the stoushie, just like stramash. but however, people who are in charge now, i think, might politely point out to alastair campbell that the way the office

for budget responsibility, the economic watchdog, works, they need a couple of months to look at the government's plans before you can actually publish a budget. so there was not a little bit of tittering and people enjoying correcting alastair campbell on that particular criticism — not that anyone in politics would ever like to get one up on each other. no, no. and thus correcting me. you know, in a way it is very interesting context, but nonetheless, this is how it's been going. she's been under pressure for a long time. now, one of the places she appeared in was bromptons — a bike shop in china, in beijing. and last week, we had the boss of bromptons on radio four. he's called will butler—adams. he cycled in, as you'd hope, and... and for people who don't inhabit the world of wia, these are the very successful foldy bikes. foldy bikes?! well, they're amazing contraptions, but they are foldy bikes. so for people who don't — have never watched wia or don't live in part of the country where people have these amazing foldy bikes,

they are foldy bikes and they make — they have a factory in china. when it goes wrong for you here, there's a future for you in marketing. i thought you were going to say engineering! no, so anyway, here is will butler—adams basically saying don't talk the economy down and put national insurance up for business — it's kind of that in a sentence. but you can listen to him from seven days ago, six days ago on radio four. from a business perspective, there are a whole load of policies, not least national insurance, london living wage, living wage, cost to our business — about 550 grand in the coming year. we had plans to grow, to recruit more people. those are now on hold because we have to take that on the chin. if keir and his team are really going to kick start the economy, we're not there yet. it's really interesting, isn't it, because that clip encapsulates what it must be like to be the chancellor, because whatever you do, you're going to have people — even sounding very moderate and very moderate and very measured there — saying, do this, do that, don't do this, don't do that. and it's the same with her trip

to china, because some people, and i'm including people who are senior in business would say, of course, the uk chancellor absolutely should be going to make connections in china. george osborne did it, philip hammond did it. we'd be nuts to ignore that economic superpower and try to make it work for the uk. but on the other side, you've got people who say, hang on a minute, china is not a benign country. it is not a country that wants the uk to succeed in a purely benign way. there are problems with human rights. in terms of all sorts of things. we know that there have been all sorts of, you know, an uptick, as we've discussed many times, in the kind of threats from state actors that the uk faces. actually, what are you doing going to go and break bread with the chinese? so it's a difficult, difficult balance. they're not the first government to face it, but it kind of feels to me it's a bit like rinse and repeat, this. you know, the arguments that are being made about rachel reeves going or not going to china are kind of a rinse and repeat of previous prime ministers and previous chancellors going, where you get particular

lobbies saying don't do it, other people saying, on you go. and when this is aired 50 years from now by historians saying the world changed in in the 2020s after covid, there was a global realignment happened. china, iran, russia and north korea aligned to break american hegemony. and that all happened, as was discussed by laura kuenssberg, dame laura kuenssberg, and paddy 0'connell back in 2025. baron 0'connell! baron 0'connell, yeah... back in — no, but hold on. we've got to end this section with an optimistic note. so the bond market behemoth i spoke to... yes. ..said there is a landing strip for rachel reeves. markets often overreact, they're very emosh, really, i know that's not a technical term, but basically... yeah, but markets are based on sentiment, aren't they? yes. as well as numbers on a screen. in fact, perhaps even more so. so some people are telling us that they've got this, they've overreacted. and they've also said that if rachel reeves does get growth, and if inflation does

come down, and if uk interest rates come down, then, actually, the situation for her is better. and also, politically, if they do cut nhs waiting lists, that is a massive win with the public. so i think we're ending this section because we've got a scoop from you to deal with, but there's a lot to talk about with rachel reeves. most of the headlines are negative, and i'vejust inserted the view from one of the most famous bond market people in history. the latest official health check on how rachel reeves is doing in her managing of the nation's bank balance is the office for budget responsibility�*s latest forecast. they'll give us an update on march 26th on whether or not rachel reeves is still on track to meet her own rules on borrowing. the so—called fiscal rules, which lots of people think are political creations and they're a nonsense because chancellors just end up changing them anyway. perish the thought! but that, i suppose, is the next time she'll get something of an official thumbs up or a thumbs down.

in this week, where there has been huge amounts of noise and clamour and conversation about exactly what is happening with the social media behemoths, to use the word of the day, enter in one of the british players in this whole world that many audiences will have become familiar with, actually, for all the wrong reasons. ian russell, the father of 14—year—old molly russell from london who took her own life almost four, almost five years ago. ian discovered that she'd been viewing thousands of images online promoting suicide and self—harm, and he has become one of the most prominent, one of the most well respected, i think, campaigners in this whole world of trying to improve online safety for children. yes, and you have an interview with him. and not only that, i've read that he's written a letter — as a dad — to keir starmer,

as a dad. so he's written an incredibly powerful letter to keir starmer. we're recording this at 2:30 on saturday. it was sent to downing street this morning and he's doing two things, i think. ian russell is imploring keir starmer to fix what he sees as the very important loopholes in what's known as the 0nline safety act. we've discussed it many times, but the government introduced what looked like groundbreaking legislation to try to combat this problem and stop, particularly young people, but notjust young people, but particularly to stop young people seeing content that was harmful. that was the tories. yeah. and ian russell and other safety campaigners believe that that legislation, which is being enforced by the regulator 0fcom, essentially has got lots and lots of holes in it. that, yes, it's important, yes, it was a good start, but there are lots and lots of holes. for example, there aren't specific references to suicide. some of the codes don't cover live streaming.

it's not quite clear what it's going to do about chatbots, which of course are becoming a very big thing online. so ian is making the point very forcefully that, as he sees it, the 0fcom codes are a "disaster", to use his word, that they need urgent fixing as they are coming in, and that basically the government has to crack on with that as a matter of urgency. the second point that he's making, as he describes, and his phrase, elon musk and mark zuckerberg as "reckless billionaires" who are turning away from what has been progress over the years towards safety. they're turning back to the internet becoming a less regulated space where in the name of freedom of speech, what will actually happen instead is a worse and worse torrent of harmful content. again, to use his phrase. yeah, and fakery and disinformation and ill—informed billionaires whipping up a situation which they

don't understand. so can we hear your interview? this week, the gloves are off. i think mainly because the tech chiefs have announced u—turns on moderation and platform policies that lead to greater safety. hitherto, in this process, they've been really engaged and they've said all the right things, and it looks like they've been wanting to go along and make their platform safer and engage with the regulators and engage with the new legislation. but there's been a complete u—turn. and one announcement this week, the announcement that mark zuckerberg made in particular, just leads me to believe that meta is turning its platforms back towards the platforms that molly saw in the last months of her life. back towards the way that they were run, back towards the harmful content that molly was exposed to and therefore more children would be exposed to in the future. and by turning the platforms backwards away from safety, mark zuckerberg has changed the game fundamentally and shown that the platforms aren't

really here to play safe. and ian has really become an authority on this kind of issue. you know, he's devoted so much of his life in the last few years to try to work with the government on the kinds of measures that they're trying to take. but i think it's really notable that he has chosen to put his voice into this whole debate, just at the moment when everyone�*s saying, how should politicians deal with musk and zuckerberg? how on earth are these platforms going to interact with governments? what on earth is elon musk really up to? are him and zuckerberg just trying to suck up to the new white house administration? or are we all somehow caught up in this sort of race between these tech billionaires to see who's going to be the

most powerful of all, you know? and you just, i think, have to remember the size of these platforms. you know, we've got some numbers here. facebook has got 3 billion monthly active users. instagram has 2 billion monthly active users. x has 600 million active users. you know, these are huge platforms. and this week meta said, you know, one of the announcements it made, it was going to get rid of fact—checkers in the us. yeah. but they are not individual... you know, these these platforms don't run country by country. and i think there is increasing alarm, as we've heard there from ian, among some of the people who've worked so hard, so long to try to actually make things safer and better. i should read you what 0fcom and what number 10 have said in response to ian's letter, because it is very strong and he has made a very emotional appeal. a number 10 spokesperson has said, "the prime minister "thanks ian russell for the letter received this

"morning. "alongside many other families and parents, "he has shown immense bravery through the most tragic "of circumstances to campaign for children's online safety. "we are grateful for their contributions and we will "continue to work with them to get this right. "the government is committed to ensuring online "safety for children. "social media platforms must step up to their responsibilities." and just, forgive me, i should include this response from 0fcom because 0fcom is the regulator that's producing the rules. they've been very badly criticised. and they've been very badly criticised. an 0fcom spokesperson told us... "we recognise the profound pain caused by harmful content. "our deepest sympathies remain with ian russell "and all those who have suffered unimaginable loss. "that's why we're doing everything in our power to hold "platforms to account and create a safer online — "safer life online and victims�* voices will continue to be "at the heart of our work." the other point they go on to say, which is worth newscasters knowing, is that the codes that 0fcom has been producing are still not out there, fully developed and fully in force.

their supporters would say, and i think a lot of people in whitehall would say, look, we have to wait and see whether or not these things are actually going to work. and the department of technology is not in any hurry to look at new legislation for that reason. however, i think online safety campaigners look at what's come out and say, we know already that this isn't enough. it's a very, very difficult and delicate issue. we've got peter kyle, the technology secretary, with us tomorrow morning, which feels rather timely. well, it certainly does. i mean, it's interesting, this phrase fact—checking. there's never been a better time to check facts, now, it seems to me. the assault on truth, and this is a work done a lot by our colleague marianna spring. yeah. and one of the questions you can ask yourself is, how does this post i'm reading make me feel? mm—hm. and if the answer is "very angry", that is the way that it's proven that you get more engagement of users. ifican... if i can make you angry online, you're going to engage more, you're going to send it to all yourfriends who share the same concerns. let's say they are concerns about grooming gangs and you're

rightly concerned about them. but if you're sent misinformation about it, which you then share, then of course that means it would be even more important than ever to have had fact—checkers in the situation. so ian russell used a phrase "u—turn" by the big companies, but there's been a big u—turn on the truth around the world, the issues we care the most about. there's a whole industry of deliberate disinformation happening and many of our friends, our neighbours, people we go to work with, are consuming information in all the free ways they can and one of the things it's doing is polluting the well. and i think what campaigners that you talk to about this would tell you is one of their frustrations is not that, oh, the internet�*s a terrible, terrible thing. that's not what they're saying at all. the internet, they all believe, is a wonderful, wonderful thing. but there are quite simple ways that the tech companies could change the whirring machines in the background of their computers so that kind of content was not being promoted.

so, you know, changing the algorithms. and when you talk to people like ian russell and other campaigners, that's what they'd say. they say, look, the tech companies have got the kit to make these changes, but they are using their platforms to pump us all with the kind of content that we enjoy, whether because it makes us angry or it makes us super happy or it makes us laugh, but they could correct, essentially, they believe, to stop promoting harmful content in a more meaningful way. and their worry is that the government basically has not gone far enough with the legislation that they introduced, even though, you know, at the time it was even dreamt up of, the 0nline safety act as it now is, was considered to be completely groundbreaking. you know, it took years to get it on the statute books. i don't think anybody in that world would say, oh, we're worse off having it. but the question is whether or not the government is really grappling with the reality of what the technology now is, compared to what it was five, six years ago, when this was all, when this

process was all started. ifeel a marianna episode coming on, withjust an update on all the tricks that are being used to fool me as a user. i'm not... i'm not saying i can't be fooled — i can be fooled by an sms telling me i have to pay more for the package that i didn't order, you know, those scams. well, it's easily done. and that's, you know, if you look at crime figures, the big soaring bit is fraud and online fraud because you're not stupid to be caught by a scam. those ssammers and technology is incredibly clever. so we'll update tips on spotting fakery in the coming weeks, and we'll listen and watch to ian russell and peter kyle on the laura kuenssberg programme. what have you got tomorrow? so, well, we've got neil kinnock on. won't that be interesting! labour legend, labour veteran. if only we could hire someone to ask the right questions of him, i'm sure it could be very interesting, but, nonetheless, he's a great booking by the team at radio four and we look forward very much to meeting him. and we hope you'lljoin us tomorrow when henry's back. henry will be back with us tomorrow for sunday's newscast. we hope you've enjoyed saturday's newscast

and we'll see you tomorrow. remember, let us know what you think. i think, i feel like this year, newscasters have maybe been, so far, slightly shy about letting us know what they think. 0h, you've started it now, you've started... anyway, thank you for listening and goodbye. goodbye. newscast. newscast from the bbc. hello there. we're seeing subtle changes to our weather this weekend, after what's been the coldest spell of winter weather so far. so things are turning a lot milder as we head into next week. that milder air will be pushing into the far west of the country on sunday. there will be plenty of sunshine around. it should be drier too, because today we've had more cloud in the mix, with even some rain, sleet and snow. that weather front will be weakening as this area of high pressure builds in across the uk. and, again, winds will be light. but that weather front will leave a legacy of cloud

and some mist and fog. northern ireland, southern scotland, perhaps parts of england and wales, but under clearer skies, towards central and eastern areas of both england and scotland, it will turn cold again. we could be down to —15 celsius or so for the northeast of scotland, so not quite as cold as the previous night, but still another hard frost to come for many away from the very far west. so tomorrow, we start off again on a chilly note. there will be frost and ice around to watch out for, some mist and fog, but it should be drier with more sunshine around before wind and rain arrives across the western isles later on. temperatures recovering across belfast and plymouth. another cold day to come for central and eastern areas and as we head through sunday night, the milder, cloudier, wetter, windier weather begins to push into scotland and northern ireland. but large parts of england and wales, with lighter winds and clear skies, will have another cold one — not as cold as it has been. probably the coldest spots towards the southeast, but much milder for scotland, northern ireland — double figures to start the day on monday — but this will also come with some snow and ice melt

and with further rain falling on that melting snow and ice, we could see some issues with localised flooding on monday, particularly across scotland. so here, a cloudier, milder, wetter day. england and wales, after that chilly start, should hold on to the sunshine with lighter winds. temperatures creeping up a little bit, but not as mild as what will be further north and west. but as we head into tuesday, that milder air will spread to most areas. as high pressure begins to build across the uk, it will tend to keep these weather fronts at bay and also push the stronger winds out towards the northwest. so we should see lighter winds for the upcoming week for much of england and wales. a bit breezy for scotland and northern ireland, where we'll have the mildest air of all and because it's high pressure around, it should be mostly dry. some sunny spells around but with lighter winds for england and wales. watch out for some mist and fog patches. that's it from me — take care.

live from london. this is bbc news emergency crews battle to contain the los angeles fires. strong winds — that have been

fanning the flames — are forecast to continue for several more days. elevated to critical fire weather conditions are predicted to continue through wednesday. these winds combined with dry air and dry vegetation will keep the fire threat in los angeles county high. rachel reeves announces trade agreements worth £600 million during a visit to china, but is criticised for the timing of her trip. ukraine says it has captured two north korean soldiers who'd been fighting alongside russian forces in the kursk region. and tributes are paid to the american soul singer sam moore who has died at the age of 89. hello.