as a russian missile narrowly misses a kharkiv hospital, the pentagon says it will �*rush' air defence missiles to ukraine. british troops could be used to help deliver aid to gaza via a new sea route. it is understood that the force will be tasked to do this when the aid corridor opens up next month. first minister humza yousaf is looking to shore up his position, seeking talks with other party leaders. humza yousaf insists he won't resign despite a week of political turmoil. wildlife in antarctica is being exposed to potentially dangerous levels of ultraviolet light exposed by australian bushfires in part. now

it is time for newscast. alex, if i had to describe newscast, i would say it is a visualised podcast which means it is a podcast, it's a radio programme, and it's a tv show. our subject material is what is going on at westminster and beyond. it's a podcast tv radio show, fine. as long as there is interesting news chat. no silly gimmicks or pop culture references. today i think i will give my long—awaited verdict on the taylor swift album! really, nobody wants to hear you talking about that, 0k? just move on. i am sure everyone will be waiting with bated breath, adam. other stuff we have got in there, back to the politics of course, we have got louise haigh, the shadow transport secretary, who is doing this big announcement about what labour would do with the railways, so that is going to be pretty big, we will talk about that. ok, so presumably it is alljust serious then, no silly gimmicks? and no comedians on the show?

and then we will be lightening the mood because michael spicer, the guy who became famous for those other room videos and who now has his own podcast on bbc sounds and radio 4 is going to be in this room! right. it's the room next door, not the other room. laughter. anyway, what could possibly go wrong on this episode of newscast?! hello, it is adam in the studio. hello, it is alex in the studio. you can tell there is an election in the air because the party leaders, in this case today, keir starmer of labour, are doing kind of big flagship policies that sort of have a feeling of boldness around them. they are also, as they say in the trade, really retail, you can, sort of, relate to your own life. and in this case, it was labour's plans for the railways. yeah, big announcement and you also

know there is an election in the air because they are off around the country somewhere making said big announcements. in places where they might need to win seats. in places where they might need to win seats, yes. that is exactly what keir starmer has been doing today and he has been talking about what labour would do with the railways and that is effectively, over a period of time, bring them back into public control. labour says that would make them run a whole lot better. and there wouldn't be a big bang where suddenly british rail back! it would be that as the existing rail franchises which are run by commercial operations come to an end, they would be taken over by a publicly owned company or the department for transport, essentially the government. and labour are saying that would take about five years, to bring all of those existing franchises back under public control. they are talking about the impact that would have on reliability and general railway service. although there is a bit of, i was going to say a plot twist but i'm trying to come up with a railway version of that... i don't know, a leaf on the line? a leaf on labour's line!

is that terrible? it is the usual quality of newscast. let's put it that way! the leaf on the line for labour when it comes to this is that the government is actually doing a sort of version of this already. to give us his analysis, here is chris mason who was with keir starmer in the north—east of england today. hello, newscasters, from newton aycliffe in county durham, the home of hitachi's train factory. you know what? this is the week where i really think politics has notched up, yet again. we had three days in a row with news conferences from the prime minister. monday in london on rwanda. tuesday on defence in warsaw. wednesday, also on defence and various other things in berlin. here i am in the north—east of england, having been talking to keir starmer, the labour leader, about their ideas. so we have had defence from the prime minister and then transport from labour today and this idea of the railways pretty much going back into public ownership. not entirely but pretty much.

quite a chunky policy idea from labour and also one they think will matter to millions of people if they can prove and convince people it would actually make a difference when you are buying a ticket or trying to get from a to b on the trains. the local elections and mayoral elections and police and crime commissioner elections in england and wales are just a week away, and that explains some of the notching up of politics. and the general election as well, imminent now, whenver it comes. when will it come? well, we don't quite know, but politics is certainly reflecting the fact that polling stations are getting closer. so, that was chris giving his analysis of the situation whilst sitting on a salt/grit bin. to expand on some of those things we have been speaking to louise haigh who is labour's shadow transport secretary and she is just sitting on a normal chair. louise, hello. hello, hello. so, give us your vision, if there is a labour government, it's a few years hence, great british railways is up

and running, why will the rail network be so much better and how will it feel as a passenger? well, our reforms are based on the fact that the current system is not working at all. it doesn't work because it doesn't work in the interest of the passenger. that's why we set out a detailed plan today that will reform the railways top to bottom so they are incentivised exclusively to work in the interest of passengers. we are abolishing network rail, we will establish great british railways and bring all the private operators into public ownership. that means we bring together decisions around track and train. that means that when we invest hard—pressed taxpayers' money into our railways, it will deliver improvements for passengers. at the moment, we have a crazy situation where billions of pounds can be spent, for example, 4 billion was recently spent on the east coast main line upgrade but because those decisions are made separately from operations, it's had absolutely no impact on passenger service whatsoever.

so, having a publicly owned and publicly controlled network will improve reliability, improve performance, improve the implications of infrastructure spending and we will be able to hold great british railways to account on behalf of the passenger to drive up customer service levels, as well. louise, hi, it is alex here, i guess what a lot of people want to know is if it will make the tickets any cheaper. unfortunately, i cannot today promise to cut fares today, they are incredibly complex and based in regulation that needs reform. and it would be completely insincere if i, in opposition, i started saying that chippenham to woking will now cost £3 less. what we can commit to is a simplification of the fare system because one of the biggest thing that keeps passengers off the railway is theyjust don't trust they are not being fleeced. we have a situation the moment where, for example, sheffield to manchester will cost one price

but if you buy that journey broken down, sheffield to buxton and buxton to manchester, then it will cost less. people just feel they are being fleeced. i get that already when i go on trainline to buy a ticket and asked if i want to split save and it buys me two tickets so that happens already. exactly, if you buy through trainline but not everybody does do that, if you buy direct from an operator or try to navigate different systems, there is every chance your bling fleeced in the current system. we will deliver a best fare guarantee, just like people experience with transport for london or, indeed, if they buy through trainline. you know, there is a reason i announced these reforms at trainline this morning because they are a really good example of the private sector in the railways that's trying to innovate and do the right thing by passengers but has been completely frustrated by the broken system.

they have developed digital season tickets but they've only been able to negotiate them with certain operators. for 70% of the network, they're not available, despite the secretary of state for transport stepping in and asking operators to introduce them, that's because the system is so dysfunctional, whereas we would task great british railways with working with innovators like trainline to make sure that where they have things that are better for the passenger, they can be rolled across the network speedily and available for all passengers. the government has already said they will set up great british railways and there is a thing called the great british railways transition group, which is already setting up their version of great british railways there. is your version going to be different? fundamentally different. first of all, the tories recognised that reform was necessary five years ago and they have made basically no progress since. they have not passed the legislation that is needed, they spent hundreds of millions of pounds on talking about it and since that time there has been no progress and, in fact, there has been decline

on major areas of the network. our great british railways, obviously, is fundamentally different because it will cover the public ownership and operation as well, completely reducing the fragmentation and waste that plagues the current system and would plague the tories' version, as well. but the great british railways transition team you mentioned sits within network rail and this is a really important differentiation because network rail is the infrastructure operator. and it doesn't deliver at the moment, its performance is not as good as it should be and it has a culture that is very engineer led which is exactly the kind of culture that plagued british rail, as well. that is why we want our great british railways and out railways to be fundamentally different, to be working single—mindedly on behalf of the passenger so we are abolishing network rail and establishing the new body that would take over those functions but be led by people who are exclusively focused on passenger outcomes. louise, i was interested in the document you published today

about improving passenger experience, things like making sure the toilets are cleaner and the wi—fi works. what is your theory about why train wi—fi is so rubbish? because if you want to fix it, you must have a theory about why it's so bad! there is a number of reasons. it is partly because the system is not incentivised to deliver for customer experience and that's why we talked about those things. so, i get the train twice a week between sheffield and london and there's no wi—fi or phone reception on that whole journey. part of the reason, if you can believe it, is the film on the windows repels some of the signal and makes it more difficult! is that true? no way! you love trains too! i always thought part of the reason that the wi—fi was so sketchy was just because if you went on a train real quick, itjumps from wi—fi supplier to a wi—fi supplier! it's just the windows are too dark! is that how it works? on some operators and in some parts of the country,

there is an issue with broadband and 5g generally across the country but some operators it is excellent, on lner it's really consistent, northern is consistent and is a particular issue with the way the trains have been procured on certain lines. let me ask you one thing, obviously, this is one of the things that has stayed in the labour plans, this idea to bring the railways back under public control, whereas a lot of other stuff, that to be fair keir starmer said when he was going to be leader of the body would do, a lot of it has been ditched already. did you have to fight for this in the shadow cabinet? did you have to say, i definitely want to keep this. did you face any opposition from your colleagues? as we develop policy, there is always robust challenge and discussion and there has been an awful lot of work, and as you can imagine, industry engagement as we developed these plans and of course there has been opposition from people within industry as well and lobbying from outside the party so we have

had to make sure they are really credible and sensible and i'm delighted that today it has led the news as captured people's imaginations and people are really excited about it. it is a popular policy, but it's importantly within our fiscal rules. you will know them very well, rachel reeves has articulated them, as has every member of the labour front bench many times but they are within our fiscal rules and it means we can take the contracts back as they expire so we will not have to pay any money in compensation and, as we set out, we actually think we can deliver significant savings to the taxpayer because of the model is so inefficient. whereas in other sectors like water, where i know people are really anxious and keen for us to nationalise, it would cost the taxpayer billions and billions of pounds and when resources are so scarce at the moment, we think the better and more pragmatic thing to do very quickly is to bring in legislation and regulation of the water companies and criminal sanctions

of directors that allow dumping of sewage into the waters so i think all of these demonstrate that where the settlement is failing we are prepared to take bold action but we have the do it in a way that is credible and respectful of taxpayers' money. you talk about people providing challenge and disagreeing, one of those people is current transport secretary mark harper. here is what he said about your plans. it is an unfunded plan- they have got, they have no idea how to pay for it. and also, the other thing i think isthere's nothing i in it that will improve i services for passengers. the other thing people need - to understand is what the damage that will be done by angela rayner's i plan to reverse all our trade unionl legislation, you're going to go back i to french style wildcat strikes i with no notice. let me ask you... he was talking about the unions, one of the big problems in the railways at the moment is the ongoing industrial action so do you have a plan to sort it out? i mean, what a cheek of mark harper to talk about encouraging industrial

action when we're into the second year of the first national strike on our railways in over 30 years. these have been deliberately provoked by tory transport secretaries starting from grant shapps — this is notjust me saying that but rail industry sources and employers that have said it as well. it might sound basic but unfortunately it has not been basic because the current tory transport secretary, mark harper, has not sat down with the unions in more than 18 months. he has not been round the negotiating table. he has not shifted the mandate for the operators. he has actually, we think, told the rail delivery group that negotiates with the unions not to negotiate any further either. so he has been deliberately provoking this, prolonging this, because he thinks it's a good excuse because the trains aren't running on time and it's a good distraction from his failures. so it would be my first priority to resolve this dispute and get round the table. and i think we could find a compromise.

it wouldn't necessarily mean an increased pay deal because there are other conditions and reforms on the table, and i'm confident that we could find it. just as labour—run wales did, they avoided any strike action on their railways, they found a compromise that didn't break the bank and included some workplace modernisation. but they did it in social partnership and not in the antagonistic way that this government has repeatedly treated working people. in that clip there, mark harper mentioned angela rayner, labour's deputy leader. she stood in for keir starmer at prime minister's questions this week and she described rishi sunak as a "pint—sized loser". are we really in a place where it's ok to take the mickey out of someone's height now? ithink, you know, angela rayner has been called many, many things herself by the conservatives. yeah, which is bad, but that doesn't mean it's right for her to do it. i'm sure she could have thought of much worse. look, it was a light—hearted jibe and i'm sure rishi doesn't take it particularly personally. i think it is the cut and thrust

of prime minister's questions and i think she really held her own in the face of some pretty full—on attacks from the tories herself. the last one for me, and it's a bit of a curveball... a clip has gone viral in the last few days of your colleague, darrenjones, shadow chief secretary to the treasury, on a radio station panel show where he doesn't know the answer to a question. instead of blagging it, he goes, "oh, i don't know the answer to that". and a few minutes later he gets a text from labour hq and he gets his phone out and says, "here's what i meant to say to you!" does that mean the era of politicians blagging is kind of over now? well, i was on any questions with alex a little while ago and i was asked a question by the audience and i did exactly the same. i think there are some areas of policy that are so specific or the answers are so specific that there is no way to blag your way out. i think people would far rather hear you say you don't know than try to blag it, as long as you don't say "i don't know" to absolutely everything, then you just

look like a muppet! to be fair, that was a very specific point of agricultural policy. thank you, alex, it was a very specific point! for non—avid any questions newscasters, there you go. and that is where we will end the any questions love—in. louise haigh, thank you very much. thanks, guys. shall we invite michael spicer from his room into our room? let's do it. michael spicer is here to mark the fact that his bbc radio 4 podcast, no room, is available now on bbc sounds. hello, michael. hello! and congratulations because it's very funny. oh, thank you very much, i'm glad you listened. is it awkward when people say that to you? "oh, it's very funny. " you're like, "yeah, i know! no, i do like compliments whenever i can get them. good, good. for people who haven't listened to it yet, what is the elevator pitch? basically, if you enjoy what i do online then you'll enjoy this. i've made a living for the last sort of four or five years doing sketch comedy online.

radio 4 have been extremely nice and courteous and said, you know, you should probably do that with us. so that's what i'm doing. so it's a mixture of what i've been doing online and character comedy and some topical sketches, too. how have you found the move from doing it online to doing it for something like radio 4? the only thing that's different is that i have to do voices now. you are good at the voices, i would say. whereas before, when i've recorded stuff for radio 4, we go to a recording studio and do the series in two or three days. this time i'm just at home and i'm recording however i want, whenever i want. so if i'm doing a sketch about somebody who is doing a social media post, then i will record it on my phone. if i'm doing a sketch where i'm on zoom, then i go on a fake zoom and record myself on the same. so you've got that sort of zoomy sound to it. so you're doing it yourself,

actually recording yourself? it's not studio—based, pre—scripted? no. i do it all at home and then i've got a very talented producer, matt tiller, who puts it altogether, and a talented composer, agustin bousfield, who has created these amazing soundscapes to put it altogether. so it's three of us working together. what is the inspiration for your content? i have listened to the two episodes that are currently out on bbc sounds with another eight to come on sounds and then it goes on radio 4. the ones i've listened to, and each episode of 15 minutes, you got a whole range of material in that episode. yes, that's right. how do you come up with that? do you just sit there and consume news and think, "ha—ha, that could be funny?" because there is one at the local elections, there is a moment in there where you are, kind of, interviewing a councillor. itjust puts me in mind of my actual day—to—day life in quite a depressing fashion. where does that inspiration come from? i don't really absorb the news because i find that a slightly depressing thing to do.

no offence! it's kind of what we do for a living! you've got to find a limit, i think. and i think what really opened my eyes was when ijoined twitter and i got this feed of a mixture of different people with different opinions on the news rather thanjust a generic news feed. that kind of shaped how i felt about politics and news. that was my springboard. social media was my springboard. because without that, you wouldn't have got, for instance, james cleverly making a fool of himself, not knowing where he was or who he was talking to when he was going on a tour with a local councillor. so that's what kind of inspires me. it's called doom—scrolling, isn't it? but i do like to get my filter through my phone, really. but occasionally there will be

things that are not necessarily political or news—related that are just sort of cultural that ijust think, oh, that's a bit cliched, i could parody that sort of thing. so i try to get my inspiration from all. one of the sketches was very close to home for me because it's a news presenter. except they're in a war zone, which i don't do. but they break into the war coverage to talk about taylor swift's new album. you can see why that really spoke to me! yes! welcome back to the news at 5. we are live from the frontline as the bombing campaign begins in earnest. more news on that later, but first this hour, taylor swift's new album has dropped today. i'm joined by music journalist gunther bailey. gunther, thank you forjoining us. good evening. you've listened to the album. what do you make of it?

is she back to her bouncy best or is this another thoughtful outing for the undisputed queen of pop? sorry, are you all right? yes, i'm fine, what's your take on the new album? is she back to her bouncy best? yeah, but this album is more a blend of different styles - and moments from her past. all coming together to provide i a rich, melancholic and ethereal paroxysm of beautifully- healing musical ephemera. flippin'...! i'm afraid i didn't get all of that, gunther. i've just been shot in the leg. in a nutshell, are swifties going to be happy tonight? you don't have to cover a story like this, you know. _ you are a news channel, _ you don't have to be the one show. well, next time i want advice from a 47—year—old man whose entire personality is to pretend to like everything on radio! in a desperate attempt to stay relevant, i'll know who to come to. gunther bailey, thank you forjoining us tonight. thanks very much — i hope you get shot and your other leg. _ i have. good. the irony being, that

would be my take on that album. it works on so many levels! that is a poke at music journalism as well. i'm trying to cover all bases. everyone gets it there. i listen to that and it makes me think, oh, is the news, the format, kind of, a bit broken? because that is what happens in the news, and actually, - do we need to think - of something different? i think it is probably symptomatic of news channels to turn itself into a magazine or give itself a magazine brief. but because of that, if you do fly a newsreader out to a warzone that means they can't be that all—encompassing newsreader any more, but those rules haven't been set yet so that's why we have those kind of moments. you have created an existential crisis! thank you.

well, whatever i can do to help. thank you. my pleasure. alex, i noticed you took a week off any questions the other week. were you in new york by any chance? i wasn't. i was in devon. it's still beautiful. actually, i know where i'd rather go. anyway, if you had been in new york and you were in times square, and you happened to look up, you would have seen my dear, dear friend katya adler's podcast, the global story, being advertised in times square. yes! so congratulations to her, that's the big time. it's massive. really, really big. i am slightlyjealous, though. so then i thought, what could we do instead? and i thought, why don't we get newscasters to take photos of themselves in iconic locations or even non—iconic locations near them, but holding up the newscast logo so we can have our own version. so we are putting up the newscast logo on screen right now, if you want to screen grab it with one of your devices. or if you go to our discord server, the links of which are scattered all over the place, we will put up

a high—res version of the newscast artwork so you can download it onto your device and then you need to just go somewhere meaningful to you and take a picture of yourself with the newscast logo. i am fascinated by what this is going to bring in. please don't go anywhere unsafe, though. i don't want anyone climbing up a derelict building. this is kind of like that newscast version of when people take a teaddy bear around and do it in front of the eiffel tower or in front of the leaning tower of pisa. and if you just happen to find yourself in times square. ..more's the better! and you can send us your pictures. you can e—mail them to us. and i'll be super—chuffed if anyone actually does that! so thank you. alex, thanks for keeping me company. pleasure as ever. and that's it for this episode of newscast. there will be another one along very soon. bye!

hello there. there's certainly going to be winners and losers with the weather story for the rest of the day. the best of the sunshine so far has been in the far north and west, but most of us under this influence of low pressure, and this weather front ahead of the main low, well, that has brought some outbreaks of rain. it's weakening all the time as it drift its way steadily northwards, a band of cloud and drizzle. so the best of the sunshine certainly has been in north—west scotland, just take a look at the western isles early on this morning. for scotland, for northern ireland and northern england as we go through the afternoon, it's a case of sunny spells and scattered showers, but we keep that cloud and drizzle across the midlands and into north wales. slowly brightening up south of the m4 corridor, but that in turn could trigger off one or two sharp, thundery downpours. temperatures today generally across the country a little below par for the time of year, so still that disappointing feel 9—11; degrees.

but it will turn a little milder at the weekend continues. but it will also turn wetter through the evening and overnight as we see more rain spilling its way up from the channel and spreading across eastern england. here we'll see temperatures holding up, but to the far north and west under those clearing skies, low enough once again for a touch of frost. but it's this low pressure that will bring some wet and increasingly windy weather, but it's also bringing some milder weather with it as well as the wind direction changes to more of a southerly or south—easterly. so a spell of heavy rain which will linger across north—east england and eastern scotland. west will be best through the afternoon. it'll be windy with the cloud and rain, and as a consequence, the temperatures really disappointing once again, 7—10 degrees, highest values of 13, possibly 14. now, as we move into monday, not a bad start, and with that wind direction still coming from the south, some sunshine and some warmth. yes, it will turn cloudier and wetter from the west as we go through the day, but in that sunshine we could see

temperatures peaking at 16, and it should feel quite pleasant, particularly in comparison to of late. warmer still as we go to the middle part of the week. this area of low pressure will bring outbreaks of rain at times, but we're tapping into a south—easterly wind direction, and that will continue to drive in some warmer air, so temperatures just a little above where they should be for this time of year, but don't expect anything too dry, settled or sunny. live from london. this is bbc news.

as a russian missile narrowly misses a kharkiv hospital president zelensky again calls on ukraine's allies to provide more air defences. the bbc learns british troops could be used to help deliver aid to gaza via a new sea route. the scottish government is on the edge after a week of turmoil. first minister humza yousaf is looking to shore up his position, seeking talks with other party leaders. south africa celebrates freedom day — it's 30 years since the end of apartheid and its first democratic elections. a great heaviness has lifted from our shoulders. our shackles have been cast off. and the tragedy on the channel. we speak to a man who was due to board a dinghy to the uk but changed his mind because it was overcrowded.