large crowds are gathering to march in washington dc today to protest against the incoming trump administration. donald trump is due to arrive in washington later for a series of events before being sworn in on monday. now on bbc news, newscast. newscast. newscast from the bbc. hello, it's adam in the newscast studio. and chris in the studio. and alex in the studio. and faisal also in the studio. hello everyone. so we'll dive into british politics in a minute, because there's a lot has happened today and there's a lot to untangle and just explain

as well, because some of it's quite a bit unclear. but before we do that, chris, on wednesday night, we got together quite late in the evening to do an episode of newscast about the ceasefire in gaza. how does that all feel? kind of 2a hours later, do you think? well, i think there's just a kind of keen awareness as we were reflecting on the last edition, really, that it's a big moment. but hang on a minute, there's a long way to go and let's see how that sort of manifests itself. that's the mood music i hear within government, a kind of caution about how the coming weeks, coming days, coming hours, look and sound and feel, but also a kind of recognition that, you know, after all that has happened, these last few days have really been quite something. and alex, i was watching you on newsnight on wednesday night, speaking to some people who've been quite involved in the conflict. and you could feel the relief and you could feel the emotion coming off the tv. but you also get this feeling that, ok, it's the end of the war, potentially, but it is

the start of something else which has a lot of elements in it. yeah. something else which is complex, and something else which is fragile, because of course, it's a there are phases to this ceasefire, so we're not even in it quite yet as we're having this discussion. you know, it still has to be signed off by the cabinet in israel and then obviously has to be implemented. and that'sjust the first stage. and then when you get through that, then that's the first stage of hostages being returned. the first stage of in gaza, the end to, you know, the shelling and the destruction. but then there's going to have to be ongoing negotiations about what comes next. so it is really complicated. and i think when you're talking to people... so we spoke to somebody who has his brother in law who was taken hostage on october the 7th and is currently in gaza, and also spoke to a young man who's lived in gaza throughout the last 15 months of war and has witnessed all of that devastating destruction and wants to now think about returning to where his home was, but doesn't even know what he's going to find. and i think when you speak to those people that have lived through the last 15 months about the toll that this has taken on them, the feeling that they've got at the moment is, yes, they're hopeful.

but to the word that that chris used, that comes with a massive dose of caution because there's still such a lot to unfold in this really complex process. and faisal, is this kind of the effective beginning of the trump presidency, even though he's not inaugurated until monday? it's an extraordinary thing to think of the timing - of this and the idea - that the biden and trump administration kindi of worked together. i don't think we've - really seen something like this in the transition before, particularly- between two presidents and their entourages, . who there's no — let's. just say there's no love lost between them. so that's something. but then it obviously i also raises the question about why, why this i could not maybe have been done a bit earlier. and to see them sort. of i think it was, it was, it was more elegant than it might have been in terms. of the credit claiming on the side _ there, but um, but with. a bit of sparring as well. yeah, yeah. but extraordinary that that timetable has brought- this about. just think there's still

so much to see in terms of how the deal is implemented. and also, ijust keep thinking what has been promised or asked for or threatened behind the scenes that actually in two months�* time, six months�* time, ten years' time might turn out to be incredibly significant. in significant news at westminster today, chris, did we have — are you describing it as a u—turn or a change of position now that the government is introducing something that looks a bit like national inquiries into child grooming gangs, even though they spent about two weeks saying they weren't going to have anything new? it's definitely a change of position, no doubt about that. i was speaking to someone in government earlier on who said, look, we just had to do something and why. well, for all the obvious reasons that, you know, if you if you've got this burning anger bursting out publicly, the flames of which were fanned by elon musk and all of those tweets that were not remotely complimentary about the british government politically, hejust compelled to act. now i speak to folk and they say, look, if you're going to do something, it takes a while for the civil service to put stuff in place.

so what they've had to square is that political reality that they had to act, that if you've got people and including people with massive megaphones shouting cover up, that is politically really dangerous and you can'tjust walk past that. at the same time, they think that it is right to listen to people like professor alexis jay, who did the last national independent inquiry. who reckons that another one would be counterproductive. and so they hope that they've found a sort of political middle ground that accommodates those range of views. so they're going to have this short and sharp kind of review led by louise casey. that will take place pretty quickly. they say they'll offer more support for some of these local inquiries that will happen. initially they're talking about five, but there may be more than that. they acknowledge in future. and i think they hope that they can take the heat out of it.

but you get a sense of how unorthodox politics is at the beginning of 2025. that someone in government texted me tonight with a link to elon musk�*s second post in reaction to all of this, which was basically to offer it a kind of cautious welcome. yeah. and because he said he said something along the lines of, i hope this is a proper inquiry. yeah. and then said and then said something along the lines of this looks like a start, but let's see where it goes. but if you take a bit of a step back, you think so? hang on a minute. we've now got this sort of through the looking glass thing, where somebody in the british government is sort of in a surprise. seeking the approval of elon musk. ...0f sharing the apparent approval. completely of this of this tech billionaire on the pacific coast of america, which it's sort of a bit weird, isn't it, really. but that's that's the sort of normalised weirdness of politics at the start of 2025. and, alex, i know you speak to a lot of councillors and lots of local authorities in different parts of the country, and i know it's

hard to actually work out how all the pieces of this, this toolkit are going to kind of work together. but lots of the survivors say, oh, they want accountability for local councillors who failed the children and teenagers who were subjected to this. does what we've heard today from yvette cooper, the home secretary, sound like actually, there might be a route to i don't know, i don't want to say councillors being prosecuted for covering things up, but something that feels a bit more like a form of ofjustice from people in charge? the honest truth is, i don't know. and i think what is interesting about this, and the reason that it is undoubtedly a move in the position, is because the two the two central planks of what they've said, one of this is this short, sharp audit three months by louise casey. looking at the scale of this across the country. now what is interesting i think about that is that yvette cooper, the home secretary, when she stood up and talked about this in the commons, seemed to me to very clearly leave the door open to something more beyond that. so she said... louise casey is going to have a look, see how big the scale of this is. look at things like ethnicity and what the government called cultural drivers around this kind of offending, and then see if there needs to be any further recommendations.

so i think there still leaves a question mark over whether there could be some further national kind of moves. in terms of the local inquiries, they're basing that on the telford model. so there was an inquiry carried out in telford by a guy called tom crowther kc and ministers, including jess phillips, who's done a lot of work in this area, thought that that was a really good model because what they say is it it affected change. so it ended up with having like child sexual exploitation experts in schools and things like that. so they're basing these five local inquiries on that model. they are going to beef them up with some more money. and tom crowther, the kc that did telford, is going to provide some advice and a kind of blueprint for how they're carried out. and ministers are really keen they're kind of locally led that they're victim led. the question is over things like are they going to have enough clout? you know, are they going to have the power to summon people that they need to summon? telford didn't have any statutory powers in that way. so there is a bit of a question mark.

government says they're looking at things like this duty of candour. so public officials have to be honest and open and transparent, and they think that will help. but i think there are still some question marks over whether it will _ go far enough on the accountability front for some people. so i had a quick look at that telford report, which came out last year, and i compared it with the report in rotherham that louise casey had done in the 20 tens. louise casey again, and they're two very, very, very different documents like the louise casey report sort of names people and bad cultures in the council and is quite explicit about the race issue. bullying amongst the council and dysfunction amongst the council and that led to councillors standing down. you read the telford report, it's very techie. it's much more wonkish, it's much more procedural and it doesn't have the sort of it doesn't have the sort of visceral political ness of it. now, that's what's important about this, because i think it depends what the government and others are trying to achieve here. and i think the government's argument agree with this or not, is that for them, this is about trying to change things, change

processes, you know, implement the recommendations of that report. they view the telford report of having effected change, you know, prevent these kind of things happening. there are others, i think, who feel quite strongly to the point you made, that have enough people been held accountable for the abject failure of so many public institutions when it came to these very, very vulnerable young girls and the the horrendous things they suffered. and in some ways i think they are two separate questions, you know, because as you say, the telford model from a government perspective is much more about prevention and change. will that satisfy some people that maybe want something different? i don't know. a couple of other things. so the government acknowledges that the data that they have on around ethnicity, both of victims and perpetrators, isn't where they want it to be. and you do wonder, picking up on your point, alex, as to where this three month review gets to. if that points big fingers, if you like or point fingers at that, does that create space for going further,

doing something else? secondly, that they hope that by the time they're doing all of these things, the hillsborough law, to give it its shorthand, this duty of public candour will be on the statute book. it's not quite there yet. public officials having to tell the truth all the time. exactly. that will be on the statute book, and therefore that will be a sort of useful armoury around the whole business of people doing just that and that public, if you like, the like the court of public opinion they hope will compel people to turn up. and the third thing? oh yeah, there is a desire and we've seen it from the home secretary in what she was saying in the commons that police forces desire from government, the police forces go and look again at cases that that were kind of unresolved or they didn't get anywhere with. and it's quite rare for a home secretary to do that. i mean, the police forces have their own operational independence, but for the home secretary to say, give it a look, they think in government, that's part of the thing of, look, we're taking this seriously.

stuff hasn't been covered up. if stuff needs looking at again, that's what should happen. 0k. so that was that big news story. the other news story today was about the economy. and the new gdp growth figures came out this morning. did you have to get your magnifying glass out or your your your telescope out to see the growth? 0.1 in very— important number now. it's both the move in inflation and the move in gdp. - and yeah, it's minuscule. smallest amount inflation went down by a couple of days ago, and the amount the economy grew by in the last few. months in in the month. in the month of november. oh, sorry. one month. yeah. and that is minimal. i suppose what it isn't is it- isn't the economy contracting, which is what happened in- the previous couple of months. so directionally, you know, it really depends _ on whether you're a glass or. a newscast mug, half full type of person or a half- empty type of person. basic picture is the - economy is pretty flat, has been for the last half- of last year, but it may not it may not contract over the quarter, - which is how we - normally measure it.

monthly figures can be quite volatile. i the bigger picture, - as a result of perhaps more the inflation figure the day before and the inflation i figures in america, which were again, the move wasn't huge, i but they were softer, as we say, as in lessl inflationary going forward than had been expected. | the correction has been quite significant. - to give you a sense of that, you know, i as the government effective borrowing costs have been. going up, what we call like, 5 or six basis points. - so that's 0.05 to 0.07 of a percentage point. | and they fell at 1.20. so 0.2 percentage points. so a little bit like a bank- of england interest rate cut. they fell by that amount in one day yesterday - and they've fallen a bit more. and so for example, - on short term borrowing this is really important - for fixed term mortgages. two year borrowing is now

back at the same rate - it was at the beginning - of the year on january the 1st. now these rates. are still elevated. they still have the same - consequences as we've talked about before in terms| of a potential squeeze on the budget maths. but you know the famous thing about headroom around room i for manoeuvre fiscally, i think we can now talk| about it potentially not . being entirely wiped out. it's smaller than it was. there'll still be some tough decisions, but| directionally that's i that's a much better place than we were even three days ago. - i mean, rachel reeves hasn't done anything in the last few days other than go to china and come back with some investment, and i'm guessing that didn't affect the global markets. so what did change then that led to the the cost of government borrowing going down? it's it's rather... well firstly it was the perceptions of inflation. so part of the so there's a technical kind - of mathematical view- of where the economy is going. so with a less inflationary economy, the bank of. england has more . room for manoeuvre in terms of rate cuts.

that is the biggest influence over our| government borrowing costs. but i think there was| you know, they came out, she went to china and she chose to go i to china against some, you know, valid - noises off that maybe this is not the priority for it and other reasons not - to go to go to china came back. they gave that speech . which you can, you know, disentangle and pick holes in, j but was like a clear statement that actually britain's got, . you know, the real potential certainly in certain areas. and then she put in a confident performance, one might say— in the commons - on wednesday, i think. on tuesday, i think it was. so i know you just for those people. | there was something more - going on for a couple of weeks. people were starting to say, i you know, this is a government that convincingly can make the j sorts of moves that would lead to a growing economy. has it got story? does it know where it sits

in turbulent global seas? | and i don't think they fully answered that, i but they may have at least given pause forj thought for those people - betting against the government, betting against the pound, betting _ against government borrowing rates. . and rachel reeves very much coming out and trying to make an argument, a sort of positive argument, if you like, after after a couple of weeks where people have been saying that she looked a bit sort of down in the dumps, etc., etc. she has been on political thinking on bbc sounds with nick robinson, which is dropping around about. now, i think. right. listen to this one first though. yeah. which will help. to listen to our colleague nick robinson's sister podcast of this one. bt, chris, i mean, it's a bit of a lame question, but i'm going to ask it anyway, and it's because people will be thinking this. it's like when when is this growth going to start happening? because it's meant to be the government's number one priority. and they're not they're not that new any more. they've had their feet under the desk for a few months now.

yeah. it's it's not like... i'm being deliberately provocative. but but it's the ultimate question. you know, i was talking to somebody senior in government earlier today and, you know, alongside that sense that, you know, by the end of a parliamentary term, a government has to ensure that people think things are better because otherwise they risk getting kicked out. one of the fundamental planks in answering that are things better is has the economy grown? individuals will make a decision on a human level as opposed to staring at a gdp graph or graf or whatever, but that's kind of absolutely key. now they make the argument, look, it's not going to happen in the blink of an eye. there's a political argument about the extent to which ministers talked down the economy, and that becomes a self—fulfilling prophecy. throw in all of the other international factors that faisal has been talking about that can contribute towards a scenario around the cost of the cost of government borrowing. but they know at the moment that because it's their central mission, it's entirely reasonable for their political critics and for observers to look at these numbers that faisal follows so closely as a benchmark of their success. howeverfair or unfair that is, or however reasonable it is in terms of the levers that they have

around the kind of animal spirits of a of an economy. if they set that as a benchmark, and it's sort of bumping along the bottom for a long time, we've not had a long time yet, arguably since the election. but before long we'll tip into what would be reasonably seen as that that obviously becomes a problem and. becomes a problem. and the kind of problem for this government in particular right now— is that we've seen the fluctuations in those numbers that pfizer was the complete pro on have such a direct consequence for the decisions that the the government has to make in the kind of short and immediate term. and the kind of dilemma or challenge for this government is that they've banked so much on getting the economy growing, not _ just so people ultimately feel better off, because also that's how they're going to fund public services. but some of those, the ways they want to get the economy growing is going to require investment in public services. so, you know, they point to the number of people who aren't working because they might be off sick. and they say nhs waiting lists could be a part of that. so we've got to get the nhs

back up so we can look at that. they talk about house building when they know they need to beef up planning systems in local areas, put money into social and affordable housing. that's government investment in public services. so it's like this weird kind of chicken and egg thing with this like growth investment in public services, is it all going to work? and then you have these movements in the markets which suddenly make that kind of careful balance look really, really wobbly. and i think that's kind of what you've seen over the course of the last week. two things for me. 0ne, itjust shows you how difficult it is for a government to kind of like rewrite the rules, because remember keir starmers speech where he announced his six milestones by which he willjudge his success on his five missions? hahaha. so many missions, so many priorities, blah blah. but they want their target on the economy is now what is it? real household disposable income, which is a measure of how much people money people have to spend. that's not gdp per quarter or per month. but yet we still look at the gdp figures and judge them on that, and we still look at government cost of government borrowing and calculate what that means. so actually, keir starmer hasn't been able to rewrite the rules on that. and second of all, i was speaking to a boss

of a renewable energy company the other day there, and he was really excited about the ai speech that keir starmer gave on monday. but he said, "you know, instantly that made the other mission of completely renewable energy by 2030 much harder in one morning." yeah. so it's like, all right. oh yeah. so actually mission one economic growth helped mission whatever number it is. clean electricity by 2030 hindered. so this is quite important. because actually the people they need to do a lot of- the investment are the private sectors and business people. and they and they're i thinking, i think they've had six months now ofj talking about stability. institutions that. were trashed under the previous government are now_ back up and running, and they talk quite . a lot about councils and like some of. l a lot about councils and like some of... no, i mean not councils. i mean economic. councils. you know, it's all- about systems and it's like 0k, right. you've had your - independent advice now. now you have to make

some decisions. - you have to decide on the trade offs. i when push come to shove, whether you prefer cheaper electricity or quick- net zero, potentially. some people say you i don't have to argue... you don't have an argument, but you know, you have to argue as as today- the chancellor had in in intriguing, i will. say, uh, lunch meeting with all the all the regulators. - so it was things - like the competition and markets authority and 0fcom and the like, and the message i was you're overly focussed on risk. j you need to go for growth. now we've heard this story before. - it's not the first time that has happened famously l in financial services- in the blair government. and many would argue it was| what was the breeding ground for the extreme risks taken in uk financial services - that led to the great financial crisis? - right? so what are they actually saying? | you know, here's a classic, here's a here's a big example. one of the great tech . and business and future industry success stories in the uk is google's.

investments in deepmind. this is absolutely frontier stuff. - we could definitely. beat the world in how they're applying that. and it's not very far - from us here in in london. but at the same time, one - of these regulators is cracking down on some aspectl of google's dominance of a certain industry. i won't go into too . much detail on that. are they saying to the cma, you know, just just - chill out on some of that stuff? - and markets authority. is that what they're saying? what are they saying? so i think specifics - and on planning you know for example i think. they're going to have to get into fights. they're going to have to get into fights now over building pylons - and data centres and mini nuclear reactors to fund, you know, to get - all these data centres going. i think, you know, - we need to see what was the cut of theirjib. you know, you needl to actually see where they're willing to go. what are their it's interesting. - there's a really interesting interview with gus o'donnell, who's obviously a former,

very senior civil servant that's, you know, been around forever. and he was kind of asked about the keir starmer approach to all of this on on radio four. and he made the point, which you would have heard before about the fact that they need more of a narrative. right. because i think the basic principle of this is that they are banking on private sector investment that requires confidence for confidence for people to invest, right? it's effectively if you want people to buy in, you need to be able to sell it. and i think there is still that thing.'s going to be a lot of that in the early months of this year. you know, people might look ok july to december, january, you're getting your feet under the table. you're a new government. you're working things out. you maybe got into power a little bit earlier than you expected because the timing of the election. but i think now in this kind of first full year, there's a lot of people that are going to want to look at them and know exactly what it's about, what they're selling, whether they feel like they can really buy in. and a lot of that's going to come down to the leadership of the prime minister and the chancellor as well. and that sense and i hear this privately at a senior level, that they there are senior

figures in the government who say they've got to get better at nailing down their story. what are they actually in the business of doing? and the other thing is, even if they had a story, say, i from three months ago, what's going to happen in america on monday throws a lot - of stuff up in the air. and i question whether. the government is nimble enough to think that whatever they thought their strategy. was three months ago might have to change quitel substantially in some areas. not because just because there are threats of tariffs, _ but because there are big opportunities. - so for example, one tech leader was saying to me, well, hang i ona minute, if trump has a big i argument internally over these h—ib visas, - as they're called for computer programmers and the like, i and essentially chucks them all out, which is not we don't think that's _ where it's going to end, - but it could be where it lands. uk should just get - prepared for that moment. and the ai strategy said we need to have we should actually have our own head—hunters going around the world finding the smartest people so that we can lure them to britain. well, think about the _ pharmaceutical industry, right? think about the pharmaceutical industry, who now potentially i have a head of sort of health secretary in the us who's, you know, i really pretty hostile to them.

it's a big uk export industry. it's what we actually export to the us. i you could invite a third of that over to the uk. | there's bigger... so are they nimble enough to realise the world - is changing in real- time and will they come up with policies? seemed to me that that was the ethos, the central plank of the starmer speech on i was it was him sort of saying, look, we do recognise this is the moment. this is like the new industrial revolution. we want to be at the forefront of it. we want to lean into this kind of stuff. and it seemed to me that's what he was trying to convey. but the thing is, always with any government, it's not particular to this one, it's very easy to say it right, but it's whether or not you can do it. you know, when that bumps up the reality of regulation, of policy, development, of attracting people in your of. your reset with europe - because you actually actually and it comes back to - elon musk at the beginning. and if he takes— america off the trump—musk axis takes america in a different direction. do we hug close to that?

and then under the new ai strategy, take advantage i of brexit freedoms and not go as closer to europe - as seem to be the plan 2 or three months ago. - so i think there's a lot- so i think there's a lot- being thrown up in the air. being thrown up in the air. and we're going to see in the and we're going to see in the next month or so the beginnings next month or so the beginnings of that start to play out. of that start to play out. so the prime minister is going so the prime minister is going to going to go out to brussels to going to go out to brussels in a couple of weeks. in a couple of weeks. first time as prime minister doing that, first time as prime minister doing that, doing this whole reset, doing this whole reset, as they call it, with as they call it, with the european union, but doing the european union, but doing it where it where he's very conscious he's very conscious that critics will say, that critics will say, oh, he's the guy who wanted oh, he's the guy who wanted a second referendum, blah, a second referendum, blah, blah, blah, all that blah, blah, all that kind of stuff, which has kind of stuff, which has its has its, you know, its has its, you know, political trade offs. political trade offs. and then that trip, whenever it comes, of the models that was rejected and then that trip, whenever it comes, whenever the invite comes to go whenever the invite comes to go over to the white house and see over to the white house and see donald trump and do a news donald trump and do a news conference with all conference with all the fireworks that that the fireworks that that could throw around. could throw around. but that sort of, you know, but that sort of, you know, that's the kind of stuff that's the kind of stuff that will tantalise people that will tantalise people like me for a day or two. like me for a day or two. but actually it's the trade but actually it's the trade offs that really matter offs that really matter and how you react and how you react to the opportunities to the opportunities and costs that will come with a and costs that will come with a very different looking america. very different looking america. well, and today the lib well, and today the lib dem leader, ed davey, dem leader, ed davey, was doing a speech saying was doing a speech saying keir starmer should go keir starmer should go to brussels and negotiate to brussels and negotiate a customs union a customs union

with the eu, which was one with the eu, which was one of the models that was rejected during the brexit negotiations by by borisjohnson and theresa may in parliament. parliament wasn't it? 0h, we're going back. no, no, iwas going to say, unfortunately,

live from london, this is bbc news. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says his country will not rest until "all of its war goals are completed," which includes the return of every single hostage being held in gaza. translation: we are keeping very significant assets - in our hands in order to bring them all home. thousands of people gather in washington to protest against donald trump's inauguration on monday. i'm a i'm a helena humphrey in yuma,

arizona, where voters have been telling us they are excited, also a little apprehensive ahead of donald trump's second term. donald trump says he'll "most likely" give tiktok a 90—day reprieve from a potential ban in the us after he takes office on monday. hello, i'm lauren taylor. israel's prime minister benjamin has said he reserves the right to resume war with hamas "if necessary". in a statement to the israeli people hours before the gaza ceasefire is due to come into effect, he vowed to bring back all the hostages held by hamas. but he said both outgoing us presidentjoe biden and his successor donald trump have given full backing to israel's right to return to combat, should the second stage of the ceasefire prove pointless. mr netanyahu suggested that israel was still awaiting the names, from hamas, of israeli hostages to be freed.

in a statement, he said, "we will not move