The Fourcast

The Conservatives are facing their worst local election results in 40 years - and yet it looks like Rishi Sunak may cling on after Ben Houchen secured a victory in the Tees Valley mayoral vote.  But what next for the Conservative Party? Are they now in the worst of all worlds with a wounded leader facing defeat at the general election or can Rishi Sunak turn it around?  To discuss all this and mor...

Rishi Sunak has pledged he'll ramp up Britain's defence budget and announced a £500 million military aid package to Ukraine, in the same week a long-awaited $61billion aid package from the US passed through Congress and the Senate. But what is the West’s end game for Ukraine? Is there enough in these aid packages to turn the tide of the war as Russia appears to have gained the upper hand? What mor...

This week on The Political Fourcast, another scandal hits the Tories - Mark Menzies MP loses the whip as the Conservative Party investigates claims that he misused campaign funds. He allegedly made a late night call to ask for money to pay off "bad people". He disputes the allegations and senior Tory MPs are telling voters not to rush to judgement. With upcoming local elections and a looming gener...

This week on The Political Fourcast - as war rumbles on in Gaza, we discuss how foreign policy affects domestic politics, and how the government’s decisions during the Israel/Gaza conflict could influence the outcome of an upcoming general election. Should Lord Cameron divulge the legal advice he has received over supplying arms to Israel? Why is the Labour party ignoring pleas to call for a cease...

With Rwanda flights unlikely to take off before the summer, if ever, could Rishi Sunak find himself in the departure lounge before any asylum seeker? Discussing planes and plots on this week's episode of The Political Fourcast, we hear from former Universities Minister and now Conservative peer Jo Johnson, and Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP for Barking, who’s standing down at the next election. The...

Will we have a May General election? Will there be massive Conservative defeat in any Election that we do have this year? And what’s the economy got to do with it?  Here to answer those questions are the Former Chancellor who gave us the infamous mini-budget of 2022, Kwasi Kwarteng, and the former Labour Party leader and Mother of the House, Harriet Harman. They join Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Chann...

In the 110 days since the war started, over 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive on Gaza, prompting the charity Oxfam to describe it as the ‘deadliest conflict of the 21st century’. It follows the October 7 attacks by Hamas that saw 1,200 people killed and around 240 taken hostage in Israel. There is huge pressure internationally for a new ceasefire and hostage release deal t...

A four day temporary cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas has been extended by two days, and brings a glimmer of relief and hope to Palestinians in Gaza. Momentum from this brings the possibility of even more Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees being released. Over 14,000 Palestinians have been killed, one-third of them children, since the onset of Israel’s siege in Gaza on October...

Pressure on Israel to pause fighting and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza is growing, with leaders around the world including President Biden calling for a multiple day long ceasefire. Meanwhile, negotiations are continuing in Qatar for the release of hostages - Netanyahu says he won't allow a ceasefire unless hostages are released. The Israel-Hamas war has already killed more than 10,000 Palestin...

In this episode of The Fourcast, our correspondents are on the ground with the very latest on the war between Israel and Hamas, as Israelis shelter from Hamas rocket fire and Gaza is pounded by the heaviest bombardment in its history.   Secunder Kermani has been to the Kfar Aza kibbutz, which was targeted by the militants on Saturday, we hear an eyewitness report from filmmaker Yousef Hammash in G...

As Israel declares a ‘complete siege’ of Gaza, and the death toll in Israel continues to rise, we bring you the latest from the region, with Matt Frei reporting from Jerusalem and Krishnan Guru-Murthy live in London.    In this special episode of The Fourcast, we hear from civilians trapped in besieged Gaza, speak to a man living in a “bad dream” as six members of his family are missing following...

At the Nato summit this week, the star attraction was President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. But while he knew he was among friends - and allies were keen to emphasise their continuing support - he came with a clear demand: let Ukraine join the Nato alliance.  But even before his arrival, the mood music suggested that Ukraine was not going to be offered membership to Nato, nor was it going to be given a...

The story of the sinking of the Titan submersible dominated news headlines. Five people killed underwater. That same week, our international correspondent Paraic O’Brian was also reporting on people drowning at sea.  In a small port in Tunisia, 11 people died after their boat, full of asylum seekers and refugees, capsized on its way to Europe. One story, but it happens all the time.  It is an ongo...

This hasn’t been the greatest week for Russia President, Vladimir Putin in two decades of power in the Kremlin. A mutinous band of mercenaries, that he himself created, charged up towards Moscow, denouncing his war in Ukraine and seemingly meeting little resistance on the way. While he faced down Evgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner group, appearing to banish them to Belarus, it’s not all over for Puti...

The Darién gap is a stretch of land between Colombia and Panama, an unavoidable section of the route from South America to Central America that thousands of migrants a week take, as they travel up to the Mexico / United States border.  It’s been called ‘hell on Earth’ because of its dense and dangerous jungle. There are no roads, just treacherous paths, rivers that can wash you away, vast swamps,...

In March this year, the owner of a hotel in the Leicestershire village of Kegworth signed an exclusive contract with the Home Office to use his hotel to house asylum seekers. But the local community has been starkly divided over the arrival of dozens of their new neighbours. While some are welcoming, the arrival has also drawn angry protests. In today's episode of The Fourcast, we speak to our Com...

This past week, the G7 - the group of the world’s richest democracies - gathered in Japan to discuss Ukraine, Russia, global affairs, and their increasing concerns about a rising power looking out at them from over the water: China. This was some of the sternest wording from the G7, and China dismissed it as a smear. But the West also doesn’t want to completely antagonise and cut off China, with t...

For weeks now, the world has been waiting for Ukraine to launch their spring counter offensive against Russia. But how much longer will we wait? Or has it already begun? As the battle for Bakhmut rages on, Ukraine has made steady gains around that region - whilst Russian troops have retreated but stepped up strikes on the capital city, Kyiv, this month. President Zelenskyy has toured European capi...

Fentanyl is killing at least seventy thousand Americans a year. It’s a synthetic drug, it’s up to 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. It’s also the biggest cause of death for Americans aged between 18 and 45: more than gun crime, more than road accidents. But where is that supply of Fentanyl to America coming from? And why are people taking it, when it’s so dan...

70 years on from the last Coronation, when Britain was still an empire and hardly anyone had a TV - what does Charles the Third’s crowning say about us today and the Britain of the future? We know that the British do this type of pomp and ceremony better than anyone else, it defines who we are. But is that true?  You may be told this is all ancient, but many of the royal ceremonies we witness are...