Australia’s PM is at war with Elon Musk - calling him an ‘arrogant billionaire’ - and worse.
He’s fighting to get violent images of a church stabbing in Sydney banned from Twitter/X. Elon Musk says it's censorship and an infringement on free speech. So who is going to win out here - regulation or tech money?
Later, as more immigrants die in the Channel, we ask if Rwanda can act as a deterrent. And - on St. George’s day - what does patriotism mean to you - red and white cuff links? Cups of tea? Or mumbled embarrassment?
Editor: Tom Hughes
Senior Producer: Gabriel Radus
Producers: Laura FitzPatrick
Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell
Video Production: Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal
You can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The News Agents"!
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
Rishi is making those naughty Lords stay in the chamber until they pass his Rwanda Bill without pesky amendments. That may come in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
But even once the legal hurdles are passed, the practicalities will still be fiendish. Why has the first plane date been delayed again? Which airline is willing to take on the legal risk? How do immigrants' 'inadmissability appeals' work? And why did the government slip out the 24% INCREASE on small boat arrivals during this morning's press conference?
Later, what actually happened in that encounter between the policeman and the antisemitism campaigner.
And - Huw Edwards resigns from the BBC - what happens now.
Editor: Tom Hughes
Senior Producer: Gabriel Radus
Producers: Laura FitzPatrick
Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell
Video Production: Rory Symon & Arvind Badewal
You can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The News Agents"!
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
The Middle East, the world, not for the first time in these long six months, has been holding its breath. Ever since Iran fired 300 hundred rockets into Israel, itself a response to the Israel’s killing of several senior Iranian military figures in Damascus, that dreaded word “escalation” has haunted the conversation, the grim realisation that the region, maybe more than the region, is just one mistake, one miscalculation away from all out war in every direction.
Overnight, the promised Israeli retaliation to the Iranian attack came, with missle attacks in the heart of Iran itself, in the cities of Isfahan and Tabriz.
Is this it? Can we exhale again? And for how long?
Editor: Tom Hughes
Senior Producer: Gabriel Radus
Producers: Laura FitzPatrick
Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell
Video Production: Rory Symon & Arvind Badewal
You can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The News Agents"!
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
**Since publication, Savanta revised the polling data included in this episode to show the Labour candidate on a two point lead. More information here**
A 3am call, and a Tory MP talking about a life or death situation in which he was being held captive in a flat.
Amazingly, that wasn't even the weirdest bit. As the day, and the story, unfolded, there were allegations of campaign money donated by Conservative supporters being used to pay for the MP's medical bills and more.
Mark Menzies , Fylde MP, is just - remarkably - the latest in a long line of MPs - both Tory and Labour - who have lost the whip this parliament.
What's going on? Has scandal become easier to detect? Harder to hide? Or is this what the end of every reign starts to feel like?
We talk to the Times journalist who broke the story, Billy Kenber, and to the man whose job at the heart of Downing Street was interfacing between the PM and his MPs' each time scandal broke, Craig Oliver.
Later, whats going on in the West Midlands race? We have exclusive Savanta polling.
Editor: Tom Hughes
Senior Producer: Gabriel Radus
Producers: Laura FitzPatrick
Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell
Video Production: Rory Symon & Arvind Badewal
You can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The News Agents"!
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/