exit polls from croatia indicate the sitting president zoran milanovic has been re—elected in a landslide in sunday's election. mr milanovic faced the conservative, dragan primorac, of the governing hdz party, in the run—off vote. tributes are being paid to an off—duty police constable, who died when she was hit by a lorry. rosie prior had pulled over to help at the scene of a motorway collision in north yorkshire. police have arrested the lorry driver. nobel peace prize winner, malala yousafzai, urges muslim leaders not to legitimise the taliban government. speaking at a summit on girls�* education in pakistan, the campaigner says the taliban doesn't see girls as human beings. now on bbc news, newscast. newscast. newscast from the bbc.

it's laura in the studio. it's paddy in the studio. and it's henry at home. and it is sunday and we've had another busy morning of news. there's never not a busy weekend of news these days. it must be you, o'connell. i blame you for all the news. the phrase is newsageddon. newsageddon, i like that. and you can't move for news about elon musk, donald trump. you can't move for news about these appalling fires. and on the political sofa this morning, a new government agenda to seize back some of the agency. yes. so artificial intelligence, which broadly speaking, is computers getting cleverer and cleverer and cleverer is what the government wants to be talking about for the next few days. keir starmer himself will be popping up tomorrow talking about it. so this morning the tech secretary, peter kyle, was in our studio and indeed in others, at our chums across the industry, talking about what he believes is a very, very significant opportunity for the economy

and also opportunities for us because he reckons the government can be much more efficient. he reckons that all of our lives can be improved by massive advances in al, as it's known. but i should be worried about al, i'm told. well, both, right? and this is an is an interesting thing, isn't it? this is the point. what we were trying to explore tomorrow is how the government gets a balance right between the huge rewards that there are and the huge risks that there also are. but peter kyle, really, this morning i thought came across as a real sort of evangelist for this, essentially sticking his stake in the ground and saying that the uk is going to miss out if we don't crack on and actually welcome these new technologies and that the government backs them too. this was what he had to say. if we get this right, i we will be able to be in the driving seat of it, creating the innovationl and therefore the wealth that's created from creating - the technology stays - in our country and contributes to our economic growth - and prosperity as a country. and the technology that comes out the other end benefits -

everyone from every part of the country equally - and isn'tjust the preserve of those people with - privilege and affluence. and it's interesting, henry, this isn't it, because the government has not had a good start? and it's not had a good start to 2025 either, and especially with the real wobbles around the economic agenda this week. clearly peter kyle as an individual politician, but i think downing street also as a team really wants to try to grab back some of the conch by talking about al very loudly and very proudly, and even accusing the previous government of having an overbearing focus on safety. but do you think, henry, this actually sort of adds up to very much? well, it's certainly interesting because the last government did change its approach to ai. i remember basically seeing it happen. in early 2023, the sunak government released a paper on al which stressed all the opportunities of ai and investment from al in the uk. and then rishi sunak went to a summit of leaders

of the biggest countries, g7 summit in hiroshima injapan. and i was with him on that trip. and i remember on the plane him getting asked lots of questions byjournalists about al, and it became clear thatjust in the last few weeks before that, he had become much more seized of the dangers of ai. and then you had the ai safety summit that the uk hosted — keynote speaker one elon musk, and the government had moved to a different position. it is very striking then, to see peter kyle getting closer to something like the uk government's original position on this, which is it's a big opportunity for the uk. does it amount to very much? i think that almost doesn't necessarily matter. just having a cabinet minister on your programme sounding like a tech evangelist, i think is what the government wants from today, and they want that to be a signal to the ai sector that the uk should be a happy home for them, because, and this takes us right back

to some of the sort of things that governments were saying during the brexit years — and peter kyle very much was not a brexiteer, he was a big remainer — but, you know, it's almost like the uk is starting again to try to position itself as somewhere between the eu, which is probably moving towards relatively stronger regulation on this and the us, which is likely to be a bit looser. yeah, i mean, the thing of it is, of course, that when you talk about the dangers of ai, i mean, the dangers of ai are existential to humans. so, i mean, you can see why there is a debate about it. it's kind of the plot of terminator, you know, and people say it's real. the possibilities for al are to be cleverer than us. well, that's true. and that's why if you go back kind of six, nine months, there was a lot of press focus, including, you know, on our shows about if ai goes bad — so the most advanced, what's called generative ai, essentially, if the most advanced computers learn to be cleverer than us and then go bad, that could have all sorts of apocalyptic outcomes. and there are well respected people who work in this field who believe that

that is something that politicians have to understand, cotton on to, and therefore introduce rules to make sure that doesn't happen. however, there are a million other things in between that we talk about. so ai, for example, which exists already in all of our phones. so if you do predictive texting or predictive messaging, that's using ai. alto speed up hospital scans — well, who would think that's a bad idea? but there are recent examples of things, mistakes ai have made. so apple, for example, using al to generate news summary headlines that were completely false, completely wrong, and they went to millions of people's phones. there are various instances of that, and there are other kind of mistakes that al has made. so we were trying to ask peter kyle this morning about whether or not the technology really exists in a robust enough way that the public realm should be jumping into it with both boots. you know, is it good enough and trusted enough at this point? of course, he said yes. government's piloting all sorts of things. they've made sure that they're

testing the kind of technology that they want to use, but it is an area that is pretty fraught. well, yeah, because old meta's getting rid of fact checking as we discussed. and that's then when you come to online safety. so this has got so many different bits. so you've got, you know, artificial intelligence, the potential of that for new businesses, building data centres, speeding up all sorts of things, and transforming how people work, how people learn — all sorts of things. then you get the debate around safety on online platforms in terms of the content that we're consuming as individuals, which is something that we were talking about yesterday, not least because we spoke to ian russell, the father of molly, who took her own life after seeing distressing content online, and also because mark zuckerberg said this week, "we'll catch less bad stuff," and his platforms do seem to be turning away from some

of the advances that they've made towards fact checking and safety in recent years. in the coming months, - i will have the power and ofcom will have the power to make sure that platforms - only provide content - that is suitable for the age of the person viewing it, - and the sanctions that can come into force if they don'tl are very, very strident. in fact, the most - strident in the world. this is a good start. the world of tech is fast moving. . i am trying to keep up, i but safety will always be number one so that we can safely explore all- the opportunities - technology provides. and peter kyle was talking about the online safety act, which is introducing the new codes via the regulator ofcom that will govern what we see online. but there has been very strong criticism from campaigners who say, "look, there are too "it might be better than having no rules, but there are too many loopholes in it. " and peter kyle did interestingly acknowledge, i think his phrase was that the rules, as they were, were "unsatisfactory and uneven. " but he, along with many people in whitehall,

want to sort of say, well, let's wait and see. this is still very new. let's let the rules settle in over the next year, and then we'll see if we need to do more legislation. but also, you and i talked about this a lot yesterday. and as you know, i could wang on and on and on about this forever. so i shall cease and desist. brief would be the word i would give. you could brief us on this for a greater time if we had it. but brief�*s not often associated with me. well, let's change the subject. but by way of saying expect more announcements on this tomorrow, including from the prime minister, sir keir starmer, who is in the sights of elon musk, who wants to get rid of him, and who the last seven days have shown the power of another online platform, x, to change the tone of our political conversations. and therefore, when i was confronted with the former labour leader from a very 20th century era, neil, now lord kinnock, he said this is a very worrying new development, the intervention of elon musk. and he called him a national enemy. wow. so, henry, what do

you make of that? i think, i think labour politicians, old and young, still don't know what to do about the world's richest man's complete fascination with uk politics. with uk politics, and, are kind of, ithink after spending a lot of last week talking or this week talking to people about it, just sort of crossing their fingers and hoping that once he gets his keys on the department of doge in the us a week on monday, he'll be a bit less interested in the uk. i mean, it isjust surreal that i woke up this morning and when i looked at x, the first post i saw, i think literally the first post i saw was elon musk congratulating a relatively obscure labour mp named dan carden because dan carden had, ithink, called for a national inquiry into grooming gangs, which obviously is different to his leadership's position. and last week, elon musk spent this day talking about how

rupert lowe should be the leader of reform. i mean, it isjust utterly surreal that elon musk knows who rupert lowe or dan carden are, let alone cares. and i think that's surrealness is kind of still there in how people in westminster are discussing how to deal with it. so, you know, it is an issue. very interesting front page in the mail on sunday today, claiming or reporting claims that dominic cummings might be involved in all of this. i mean, obviously the two of them have things that they'd agree on when it comes to sort of science _ and government waste, before you even get to what's going on in the uk and who governs the uk. so it's definitely a person we're going to talk about again and again in 2025, whether people like it or not. and i think you're right, henry, also to say how surreal it is, you know, we shouldn't alljust be like boiled frogs and think this is normal, right? we said this last week — it is not normal for the world's richest man to be

slagging off an elected prime minister in a foreign country, repeatedly in inflammatory and misleading terms, again and again and again and again and again. this is not normal. and just because we've all sort of, you know, been part of the social media revolution, and as public debate has also often become coarser, uglier, more personal, more sort of controversial, we shouldn'tjust say, "oh, yeah, well, it's normal this happens," because it's not for good or for ill. i'm not making a judgment. i'm just saying, newscasters, you're a smart bunch. remember how weird this is and how if you'd gone back, you know, if you went back ten years, you would think that this was not believable. you'd think it was the plot of a fiction. yeah, because there was a moment for the leader of the opposition, kemi badenoch, this week to sort of call time on the trampoline of x and say, "let's not allow ourselves to have the debate influenced." but she didn't. she kind of doubled down and accused labour of all sorts of nefarious things. so that moment's gone, apparently, in our politics.

and there is some... that does speak to something that makes this more complex, paddy. and sorry to interrupt. westminster spent a lot of this week talking about grooming gangs because elon musk had catapulted it up the political agenda. but there are a lot of or some people in westminster and a lot of people in the country who think it should never have fallen down the political agenda. and that is, what's... i don't know, someone in silicon valley might call a complexifier to all of this, which is that there are people, i think, in westminster, who are very uneasy with the fact that elon musk has used his power over social media to get this issue up the agenda, and are completely baffled about why he cares so much, but nevertheless think that the uk should care, and think that the uk government has not done enough to address this issue, to implement the recommendations of this inquiry, and perhaps in some cases think there should be a new inquiry. yes, it's what laura used to call about two things being true at the same time. i mean, it was addressed

directly by alexis jay, who did chair an inquiry which elon musk appeared to know nothing about, saying that she was grateful that this was back on the agenda, but not for not for the way in which it had been so. so, i think it's a very important intervention. my point really would be, is that if elon musk was fully across the situation in the uk, then that would be the best result. but he doesn't seem to know why tommy robinson is in prison. he doesn't know what alexis jay's work did in the child sexual abuse inquiry. so that's the point about facts. and meta's getting rid of fact checking just when we all need to check our facts. and going back to henry's evocation of the front page of the mail on sunday — that reports that dominic cummings and elon musk could start a new political party and not just cooperate on what tweets to put out in the middle of the night. so do we think that's going to happen? i don't know. i mean, we'll see. we will see. i just think 2025 has already been a year with all sorts of things that we could never have predicted, so i'm not going to be

in the business of predicting anything else, henry. anything else. henry? well, dominic cummings has said for some time that he wants to start a new political party in the uk. the extent to which elon musk might get involved is obviously fascinating. i mean, my strong bias is towards the prediction that the two main political parties will remain for some time the two main political parties, as they have been for the last century, because they are very resilient against all sorts of things that happen. but i do think our two—party system, and in a weird way, despite labour winning a massive landslide, because they won it on quite a small share of the vote in relative terms, you know, the 2024 election demonstrated this, i think our two party system is straining more than it has done for some time. but look, yeah, i mean, it's plausible dominic cummings will start a new party. but, never count out the labour party and the conservative party

because people have decided that a new era is coming before. 0k. and i think we said this last week, didn't we. that there were... i was banging on about actually during the coalition era. and then at times also when the snp was really riding high. there are many political moments when it's been fashionable to say, "and this means the end of the two—party system in the uk," and then actually with first past the post, lo and behold, something rather different happens. well, we'll see. here is a development which is very much between the two main parties, which will be a growing story in the next seven days. we all know it is that the leader of the conservatives, kemi badenoch, has called on the anti—corruption minister, tulip siddiq, to be sacked. correct. so, henry, if people haven't been paying attention to this story, what are the bare bones of it that you need to know? it's a complicated story. and let me begin by saying, obviously, it would be preposterous for me to pretend

to be an expert in bangladeshi politics. i'm not. tulip siddiq's aunt, sheikh hasina, was the prime minister of bangladesh for some time until last year, when she was deposed, essentially amid big protests across bangladesh, and she fled. tulip siddiq's mother is her sister. tulip siddiq has been close to sheikh hasina, been photographed with her various times, while obviously being a uk citizen and, since 2015, a uk mp. what happened just before christmas was that a bangladeshi state institution announced that it was investigating sheikh hasina, but also various members of her family — including tulip siddiq — over corruption allegations initially raised by sheikh hasina's political opponents. nevertheless, even if it was raised by her political opponents in bangladesh, it is quite something for tulip siddiq, who is not only a labour mp, but also a government minister in the uk

to be under investigation by another country's authorities. the story is just getting more and more complex. brilliant journalist and friend of mine, gabriel pogrund, from the sunday times, is in dhaka at the moment. 0n the front page of the sunday times today, he's interviewed the man who is now running bangladesh, a nobel peace prize laureate who's raising concerns about this also uncovered questions for tulip siddiq, who insists that she's done nothing wrong about why she at different times, has lived in properties which are linked to allies of sheikh hasina's regime. all very complicated. where does it go politically here? well, tulip siddiq last week referred herself to laurie magnus, who is the prime minister's independent adviser on ministerial ethics, previously did the job for rishi sunak, and he will have to come to a judgment on whether she has broken the ministerial code. the strong indication from peter kyle to you, laura, was that if he says

that she has broken the ministerial code, she'll be out as a minister. that was very obvious. but look, i mean, it's very hard to see... it's very hard to see how this gets resolved in a way that's good for tulip siddiq. people, i mean, walking around parliament last week talking to mp5 who i hadn't spoken to since before christmas, many of them raised it before i raised it. they're quite baffled by it. and i'm not sure she's getting an awful lot of sympathy from her colleagues, to be honest. there's also an issue, isn't there, just about the collision of her also being the minister who's responsible for cracking down on corruption in the treasury and to be accused of things which she denies that relate to... can relate to corruption. so that those two things clashing together make it even more troublesome politically, i think. and if she was minister for paperclips or minister for spoons — shout out to the minister for spoons — and had this hanging over her. so it may well become, you know, even more hard.

but we'll see also how quick the review is, because sometimes these investigations take ages and ages and ages and ages and ages. but who knows? who knows where it will go? i mean, they won't want this to run on. i mean, they won't want this to run on. the government will the government will not want to run on. not want to run on. i mean, and they will not want i mean, and they will not want any suggestion that they're any suggestion that they're leaning on laurie magnus leaning on laurie magnus to speed things up to run. to speed things up to run. and i don't have any and i don't have any suggestions to suggest that. suggestions to suggest that. but i know that people but i know that people in government are very in government are very frustrated about how long this frustrated about how long this is dragging on. is dragging on. they don't want this they don't want this to stay on the front pages. to stay on the front pages. and there's one other element and there's one other element that is worth noting, that is worth noting, which is that she is which is that she is keir starmer's she ended up getting as city keir starmer's constituency neighbour. constituency neighbour. they were elected they were elected at the same time. at the same time. keir starmer, people often say, keir starmer, people often say, doesn't really have many doesn't really have many friends in politics, friends in politics, and that's true. but to the extent that he does, and that's true. but to the extent that he does, tulip siddiq is one of them. tulip siddiq is one of them. so it is a bit awkward for him. so it is a bit awkward for him. by the way, i'm told, by the way, i'm told, in that sort of never ending reshuffle, which keir starmer carried out when he became carried out when he became prime minister, that prime minister, that tulip siddiq was repeatedly tulip siddiq was repeatedly being traded between a much being traded between a much less glamourousjob less glamourousjob

at the department for work and pensions, and the job at the department for work

that's a question that the conservatives have been asked, the question that the labour could have expected to be asked. and henry, you raised the ministerial code. we don't need to talk any further about tulip siddiq, but we can say what the articles in the ministerial code are that are relevant. yeah, that's right. and there are provisions on how people are funded in the ministerial code. but there's also, by the way, always the sort of catch all, i can't remember the exact terms, but there's words to the effect of, you know, must always carry yourself in a way that befits a minister of the crown. and that's always the trickiest one when there are sort of cases where and again, i'm not talking about the specific case, but sometimes when there are cases where, you know, there's a sort of feeling that something's not

quite right, but it's not clear what particular provision applies. that one person's appalling misdemeanour is somebody else�*s careless mistake. and depending on the politics of the time, i'm not suggesting this relates to anybody in particular, or indeed to laurie magnus, who has now has the job of coming out. he's coming out with these kinds of verdicts. but sometimes the way the code is written, shall we say, interpretations, can be flexible. and we've all seen that over the years. we are wending our way towards the end. but ijust do want briefly to remind people of what's going on in la, the terrible wildfires. that story has not gone away because la is still, in some parts, in flames, and our colleagues across the bbc are doing some amazing reporting from their on the ground, and that will be all over our networks and podcasts and news and all over the place today. i just want to bring you something, though, quick from this morning that i found really quite shocking to hear. we talked this morning to one of the stars of selling sunset. you a fan of selling sunset? it's basically a reality property show with some of the most incredible,

glossy, lavish property you could ever imagine in the world, based on the kind of soap opera of the estate agents of la and one of the stars of that real life soap opera was jason oppenheim. he's been helping people during the fire trying to find them emergency accommodation. and he told us this morning that he's heard of and has evidence of landlords charging people, price gouging, during this time of national emergency. let's have a listen to what he had to say. we're having landlords taking advantage of the situation. i i had a client, we sent him to a house that was asking $13,000 a month. - he offered $20,000 a month, and he offered to pay- six months upfront. and the landlord said, no, i want $23,000 a month. | you know, there are price - gouging laws in california that are just being ignored right now — and this isn't the time to be i taking advantage of situations. and it's also illegal. to take advantage of a natural disaster. so, that may well become one of the developing themes of the horror that we're seeing in california. yes, i mean, the flames are

now advancing towards another wealthy suburb. we spoke to michael connelly. he's the author of the lincoln lawyer, one of the... i love the lincoln lawyer! he's one of the contemporary writers who said to summon up the spirit of los angeles, a city which is a sprawling, sprawling metropolis known for celebrity fame, the movie business, crime, of course, and great creativity alongside it. living in this hugely beautiful part of california with the pacific coast. so you've got everything together. and now the human has been humbled by nature. he's saying that it's reminded him that there are very wealthy people there who live there, who have multiple homes. but this is a moment for him to see what's really important. and this is what he told us. i hesitate to even bring this stuff up because i am one i of the fortunate ones. you know, i'm not whiningl about anything, you know? my family is safe for. the moment, and that's the most important thing. and they can take anything else away from us and that's fine. i we'll start over. so there's michael connelly.

now we're moving to close with one newscaster comment, which we'll get to. and also you've said to me, can i remind you to talk about folding bikes? ah, yes. so foldy bikes. yesterday we talked about the amazing folding bikes, brompton bikes. rachel reeves was visiting them in china. i said they had a factory there. that's wrong. they've got a big shop there. that's what rachel reeves was visiting. so as ever on newscast, we are very happy to say when we get something wrong. happy to clarify. well, i was sitting here with you and i didn't correct you. and i'd interviewed the ceo of brompton, so i'm equally culpable because he was in my studio seven days ago, so we both apologise. well, it's very nice of you to share my shame. shall we share what sue said to us? yes. so yesterday, sue quite rightly says, "i've been listening to newscast with laura and paddy, and there was a suggestion that listeners were being shy in getting in touch. i listen to newscasts every day, often before i go to sleep, and i enjoy the chatty way you deliver the latest updates with friends

and colleagues in the know." yes, it's interesting that phrase, "i listen often before i go to sleep," henry, because it sounds like we're a sleep aid, to me. well, i'm often told because i'm often on, well, i'm usually on the today programme at 6:30 in the morning. i'm often told by people that they wake up to me. at 6:30 in the morning, i'm often told by people that they wake up to me. so it's nice to be told that someone might occasionally fall asleep to me as well. well, we say thanks a lot to sue, who's a counsellor, so myjob is to listen. what a marvellous listener to have. and thank you for writing. absolutely. thank you for writing. thank you for being with us on this sunday's edition of newscast. adam will be here tomorrow, probably with more stuff from the la fires, but it's been lovely to be with the two of you today. lovely to be with you at the weekend, as always. paddy, my compadre on the sunday sofas. and henry, thank you for being with us from home. goodbye. newscast.

newscast from the bbc.

live from london. this is bbc news. three fires are still burning across los angeles. at least 16 people are confirmed dead. another 16 are missing.

there's no relief in la — officials warn "dangerous and strong" winds will continue for days, pushing the fires further into residential areas. there are still active fires that are burning within the palisades area, making it extremely, extremely dangerous for the public. there's no power, there's no water, there's broken gas lines, and we have unstable structures. exit polls from croatia indicate the sitting president zoran milanovic has been re—elected in a landslide. a police officer dies on a uk motorway — struck by a lorry as she helps at a crash scene. detectives issue an appeal for witnesses. the world's largest island takes on donald trump — and warns the incoming us president to keep his hands off greenland.