Skip to content
TrackPodcasts
newsMar 21, 202635:14

Iran Fires Missiles at UK-US Diego Garcia Base

Newscast

About this episode

Today, Laura and Paddy discuss Iranian missiles fired at Diego Garcia, the joint UK-US base in the Indian Ocean.

Two ballisitic missiles were fired at the island of Diego Garcia, the Wall Street Journal and CNN reported overnight, citing unnamed US officials, but neither weapon reached its target.

One missile reportedly failed in flight, while the other was intercepted by a US warship. It is unclear when the missiles were supposedly fired.

The BBC understands the reports are accurate.

They unpack the significance of the launches, and what it means for the UK’s involvement in the war in Iran.

And, Laura and Paddy speak to David Miliband, former foreign secretary and current president of humanitarian aid organisation, the International Rescue Committee. He discusses the humanitarian cost of the war at a time when this government is cutting £6 billion from the overseas budget by 2027.

Apply for tickets to Castfest here https://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/castfest-2026 You can join our Newscast online community here: https://bbc.in/newscastdiscord

Get in touch with Newscast by emailing [email protected] or send us a WhatsApp on +44 0330 123 9480.

New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Laura Kuenssberg and Paddy O’Connell. It was made by Chris Flynn with Kris Jalowiecki. The social producer was Grace Braddock. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Get every episode summarized

Each time Newscast publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.

Email me new episodes

Free for 3 shows. No card needed.

Hosts & guests

Transcript ready

427 searchable segments. Every word is indexed and playable.

Iran Fires Missiles at UK-US Diego Garcia Base

Newscast

0:00
35:14

Full transcript

NewscastIran Fires Missiles at UK-US Diego Garcia Base. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Investing with Schwab is like a hike with endless trails that get you to the same beautiful sunset. Go solo with self-directed investing. Choose a guide with full service wealth management. Or take stops along the way, with trading, automated investing and planning for college or retirement. Schwab gives you the map and the gear, all in one place. No matter which trails you take, you can invest your way with Schwab. This podcast is sponsored by PocketHose. I'm a mom and a homeowner, so I feel like I'm always outside using a hose for something. And I used to go through a new hose every year because of kings and tangles. I'm definitely not gentle with my hose. I drag it across the driveway around the yard, and I just wanted something that's easy and durable. That's why the PocketHose Ballistic has honestly been such a great upgrade for me. It's super lightweight, easy to manage, and easy to store. You turn the water on and it grows, and when you turn the water off, it shrinks

back down to pocket size. And I love that it's reinforced with a liquid crystal polymer used in bulletproof vests, so it feels really tough and long-lasting. For a limited time, when you purchase a new PocketHose Ballistic, you'll get a free 360-degree rotating pocket pivot and a free thumb drive nozzle. Go to pockethose.com slash podcast. That's pockethose.com slash podcast for your two free gifts with purchase pockethose.com slash podcast. Who would have thought that the news would be asking if an Iranian missile could go nearly 4,000 kilometers towards Diego Garcia? And who would have thought when what seemed like a very arcane debate about a British base that seems like in the middle of nowhere, Diego Garcia? Today is actually at the center of the headlines in the latest developments in the war in Iran. You have been talking to sources within the government, and you will reveal all in Saturday's newscast. Newscast. Newscast from the BBC. Catboy Slipper me in the class from doing a viral

in lessons. I was the tattletail in the class. Can I have an apology please? I trust almost nobody. That Betty has to sometimes do strong language. Next time in Moscow. I feel delulu with no salulu. Take me down the Downey Street. Let go have a tour. Blimey. It's Lord in the studio. Hello, it's Paddy in the studio. So let's tell you what we know. So we know at the moment that Iran, as part of its retaliation for the war that was being waged on it by Israel and the US, has attempted to fire missiles at Diego Garcia, which is a tiny island in the middle of nowhere that is the host to British and American military assets. Now the missiles didn't make it. We know that the attack was in the last few days. We also know that the attack also was before the UK said late on Friday that it would allow America to use British bases to protect the Straits of Hormuz, which Kirstama's critics have seen as another step down the slippery slope in Trump's war. But crucially, that means that Iran had already tried to hit a British target

many miles further than people might have thought Iran was capable of doing before Britain changed its position. Yes, and that is a reminder that the plans put in place for years by Iran if attacked were to weaponize the Straits of Hormuz, Strait of Hormuz, and to take on bases in the region and threaten all production. And now it seems threatened military assets belonging to the United Kingdom used by the United States as well, thousands of kilometers away. So it represents a reminder that this is not Venezuela, President Trump. And President Trump has been schooled publicly, along with Benjamin Netanyahu, who wanted this to happen before Donald Trump even came to the White House, has been schooled in what years and years of defensive planning looks like from the regime in Iran. And we should say that a bit later in the podcast, we'll be hearing from David Milliband, of course, former foreign secretary, and we'll talk to him about the humanitarian impact on all of this more than a million people on the move. But today, as we record,

Tempas won, and goodness knows what will have happened by the end of today. The focus of most of the headlines in the UK is on this attack on Diego Garcia. And can I ask you, do you think it's important from the government's perspective to get that timeline information briefed? It's incredibly important to the government to get this timeline briefed, which is I think exactly why I was told about the timeline this morning. So what happened yesterday was the UK said, sure, President Trump, who'd been calling NATO allies cowards and all sorts of things for not helping the US protect the Straits of Hormuz in a military way. The UK and others said, okay, you can, you can use our bases to launch attacks on missile sites in Iran that have been chucking things at the Straits of Hormuz and clogging up the world's shipping with all the implications for the oil price. At the same time, Iran responded to that, essentially saying to the UK, ah, you're playing with fire, there was a very strong Iranian response to that UK decision.

So Downey Street does not want it to look like the attack on Diego Garcia was a direct response to the decision that they publicized yesterday. So if I'm explaining that in any way clearly, you've essentially got three things that happen here. Missiles try to fall on Diego Garcia fired by Iran. They don't make it, but it's the first time we understand they've done an attack that far away. Second of all, the UK, after that attack says to the US, yes, you can use our bases for what to some people looks like an escalation in the war. Third thing, Iran responds and says, UK, that means that you are going to be a target for us too and that is a mistake. So you can see why with those three steps, Downey Street does not want it to give the impression that the headlines today about Iranian missiles being thrown at a British base are a direct result of a decision that the Prime Minister and his colleagues took yesterday to give the US permission. Also, as we sat down, I was reading from the BBC's defence correspondent, there is chatter

in the military expert circles about whether Iran does possess a missile that can travel that far. So people have been naming the individual missiles that they know Iran has, the ballistic missiles, and then questioning what we know about their technical specifications. And if they could even reach, in which case, you'd have to wait a bit to know more, but you could say that the targeting is a message in itself. I think that's absolutely right, but it reminds me of what you've said every weeks in this short war. You've said every weekend, this is about two things, it's about the map, and it's about the clock. And this is about the map of how far Iran, that regime that we know represses its own people, we know it wants to destroy Israel, you know it sees the UK as an enemy, can they file missiles that could actually be successfully targeted as far as 4,000 kilometres away? That has not been the assumption of the defence establishment so far, just to use the numbers. It was previously thought Iran's missiles had a range of about 2,000 kilometres.

Diego Garcia is nearly 4,000 kilometres from Iran. So if it has secretly developed missiles that can go that far, the potentially frightening consequence of that is it means that Iran in that scenario would have the hypothetical ability to go for targets far beyond where this war is right now being conducted. Now let's say take a breath. As you've importantly told us, we don't know how close these missiles got. We don't know exactly what they were. Hopefully that will all become clearer in the next couple of days. But that's why this attempted attack on Diego Garcia has lit up the headlines this morning. It's not just because it was a British US joint base. The Iranians have already been going after British assets since this war began. We know that already. We know at the beginning there was a strike that went into the side of a hangar, an RAF, a criterion, Cyprus. But the Diego Garcia attempted attack has lit up the headlines

because it suggests that Iran might have better military capability than was previously thought. A question for the youngest newscaster, which I think you could probably answer is, when was a man called David Miliband, the UK Foreign Secretary? He was in the foreign secretary in the latter years of the new Labour administration. So I think from 2007, all the way up until the end of that period under Gordon Brown 2010. Because the youngest newscaster might say, who is David Miliband? Many news, hungry newscasters will know whatever their age is. He is the brother of course of Ed Miliband, who's on the left of the Labour government and is also of course someone who wants us to get off our fossil fuel addiction. Correct. His brother David Miliband is a little degree towards the right of the Labour Party. And that's why also for some people still in the Labour Party, David Miliband is the sort of positry of some of their unfulfilled dreams that if his brother hadn't narrowly beaten him in the leadership contest in 2010, then maybe the world would

have been different and he would have been able to beat David Cameron and everything that happened since then would never have happened. However, Skeptics might say, well, David Miliband couldn't win a leadership contest in his own party and he remains, therefore, somebody who is the kind of unfulfilled prince across the water. But this time he's across the Atlantic because he's been in America for a long time where the job he's now doing is as boss of an international rescue committee. Yes, the IRC, but also there's big news from the current foreign secretary. That's right. So in order to try to find more money for defence, if at Cooper the foreign secretary is cutting six billion pounds from the budget for overseas aid, that's the budget that does precisely the kind of thing that David Miliband organizes and runs now. It gives money to aid agencies around the world, but what it also does, and this is one of the reasons why there's such pressure in that budget, it also goes towards paying for asylum seekers here in the UK. So there's been a controversy

about whether that budget is being well spent, the original conception of overseas development under Tony Blair, the Department for International Development, was it was much better to pump money into conflict, torn or poverty-stricken countries around the world to tackle problems at source, to help people in need, and that would be a help for peace and stability around the world, rather than just putting a sticking plaster on in the form of eventually trying to help deal with the products of conflicts, if you like. But given the world we now live in, the government has again cut the aid budget, which is an interesting tension, therefore, between some of that David Miliband, who's a former colleague of Evet Cooper, former Labour politician, but who's now dealing with the consequences of decisions that have been made by the people who are now in power here. So there you have it, we have set out the reasons why you might want to listen, we hope you will, to David Miliband on newscast, and here's our chat.

Hello, Paddy. Hello, Laura. David, the war, which everyone is very anxious to see end, as Foreign Secretary, you had problems with a nuclear-armed Iran yourself. It's not as though Trump's wrong to say that the world's worried about a nuclear Iran. Well, you're right that the Iranian nuclear issue is a longstanding one. We didn't have a problem with a nuclear Iran in the sense that it hadn't gone nuclear, and they always insisted that they never would. But you'll remember that we discovered a secret site of military development in Iran in the course of my tenure as Foreign Secretary, and so the Iranian nuclear issue, the danger that Iran would become a nuclear weapons state, was certainly a very big issue. We were, I always said, 100% committed to the diplomatic, political track to resolve the nuclear issue. We didn't get there. It took another five years, and the joint comprehensive

plan of action in 2015 before a nuclear agreement was agreed. But of course, the American authorities in my time and before, they all looked at the military options. They all heard what the Iranians were saying about what they would do if there was any military action, and they steered away from it precisely because they thought, A, the military options were very unappealing, and B, the political track had some way to run. Let's look at the second front, which is Lebanon. You have workers on the ground, though. You have programs on the ground, though, with the International Rescue Committee. It's interesting you describe Lebanon as the second front. We certainly see with a thousand people killed a million, or 1.2 million, or 1.2 million people displaced in a population of just five, five and a half million. You can see one in one in four, one in five people in the country being forced to flee. We're facing a humanitarian emergency there. We have about 100 staff members working there,

sadly reduced from over 200 because of aid cuts because that's the other side of this equation. And we face a really striking situation. I would describe it as a humanitarian triple whammy. You've got one, the direct impact of the war in places like Lebanon. Two, you've got the economic consequences for some of the poorest people in the world, from the blockage in the Straits of Hormuz. 20% of the world's fertilizer goes through the Straits of Hormuz. And so that has a direct impact on global food supplies. The world food program says that 45 million people are going to be pushed to catastrophic levels, emergency levels of food insecurity. And then thirdly, the third element of the triple whammy is obviously the geopolitics that splays out from this. We're very worried that in places like Ukraine, the war gets lengthened by this because of the stronger Russian position, but also wars in places like Sudan don't get the diplomatic and political bandwidth they need. So I think that Lebanon is the second front. It's not the only further front in this conflict. And David, it's just extraordinary hearing you use those numbers there. And if people missed it

earlier in the week, we spoke actually to President Zelensky about his conviction that the war in Ukraine is going to be harder to maintain and harder to push Russia back because of the war in Iran, not least because America is distracted, but I just wanted to emphasize the numbers that you gave us there. 1.2 million people just in one country, Lebanon, on the move because of this conflict. And then the further numbers who might be at risk of not having enough to eat because of the blockages in the strait of Hormuz. I mean, the last couple of weeks have been so frantic, people have been all watching glued to their screen and these sort of extraordinary pictures of gas facilities on fire and the White House pumping out these sort of meme-style videos of warfare mixed up with video games, even in that social media content. But what you're suggesting is we're not remotely yet understanding the true human cost of this war. That's a really important and relieved frankly that those numbers still have the capacity to shock because the great danger is

that the scale of humanitarian need around the world just gets normalized. I mean, the Council on Foreign Relations, which is an organization based here in New York, it calls the closure of the strait of Hormuz, the effective closure, as a slow motion fan in machine. And that's because you've got this constriction of food, of fertilized supplies. You've got a knock on effects and you've got the aid cuts that are taking place. And so thank you for retaining the ability to be shocked. We've warned of this triple whammy that's coming and we've called on governments around the world to recognise it before it's too late. Your former colleague in the Labour Party, Evet Cooper, has said that there will be a diversion of British aid funds towards our defence budget. Are you sad about that? Yes. I am. I mean, it leads to very difficult choices. The government, Evet announced, bad way, former colleague in the Labour, I used to be

her colleague. I'm still her friend and I'm still in the Labour Party. So the former applies to, I want to be clear about that. No, this is the sort of detail that Laura gets very excited about. And they're not former friends. You're saying very, very, very carefully. So I can say, ah, you are still friends, but you are clearly unhappy about the decision she's made, which is the point of substance here. That look, when the UK is spending 0.3% of national income on overseas aid and about a quarter of that goes on is spent in the UK for refugees or who've arrived in the last year, it's impossible to make the money go round in the way that it needs to. And that's how you end up with the very difficult choices. Now, I think it's important to say that Evet statement, she prioritized fragile and conflict states like Lebanon. She said 70% of UK money will go towards fragile and conflict states. That's a good thing. She prioritized, secondly, women and girls, they have multiple extra inequalities they face. It's very good that she's highlighted that.

She said that she would, there'd be no cuts in Sudan, which is the world's largest humanitarian emergency, but there's no denying it. When you have to cut as they are, it ends up being very painful, bilateral aid to Africa looks like it's going down very, very significantly. My argument is that this is the time when there are very high levels and, in fact, rising levels of need around the world. It needs countries like Britain, but not only Britain, to stick with it. I'm very pleased the European Union is not cutting its aid budget. In fact, its proposals are to increase its aid budget because it's needed. Is it a mistake then? And well, Britain's decision, you say it'll mean difficult choices, but difficult choices in your line of work mean not enough food to go around. Yeah, and the government is saying it's going to continue its support for the multilateral agencies like the World Food Programme, like Gavi, the Global Alliance on Vaccines. That's very good. But, I mean, if herself said she didn't, they didn't want to do it, they've been forced into it, and it will have consequences that are real for people around the world.

Overall, just so you get a perspective on this, the total humanitarian budget, not just the British contribution, the total humanitarian budget in the last year has been halved, halved. So two million clients of the International Rescue Committee no longer get services that they were getting at this time last year. That means a health center that we were running with US money in South Sudan for people who'd fled from Sudan is closed. So that has real consequences. There's no denying it, and it's important to say that the Iran War has its own consequences and these knock-on effects that I've described. There's a big story in the US now about this Straits of War Moose and military action to open it. There's prior on this in the late 1980s in the Iran Iraq War, when the US deployed there. They were able at that time to get two ships a day through the Straits of War Moose, and there's dozens backed up. But here there are two big differences that I think speak to the changing world we live in. One, the US was not a belligerent in the war.

In the 80s it was the Iran Iraq War, but secondly and most significantly, the weaponry has checked since then. So this whole drone warfare that means you can send a drone for $40,000. It's changed warfare completely and it makes it far, far more difficult. I want to ask you about allies and about friends because the strain on the Western alliances growing and as a former British foreign secretary living in the US, you're uniquely placed to address this. Without the USA Donald Trump posted on his true social, NATO is a paper tiger. They didn't want to join the fight to stop a nuclear powered Iran. Now that fight is militarily won with very little danger for them. They complain about the high oil prices that are forced to pay but don't want to help open the strait of war moose. A simple military maneuver that is the single reason for the high oil prices. So easy for them to do with so little risk. Cowards, we will remember. What is the chapter that's turning in the Western alliance as this war unfolds? Well, I think you're right to describe it as a chapter because obviously it follows on

the election of President Trump where he was very clear that he wanted to lead a revolution in American foreign policy and he wanted to change the way in which it commits to alliances. So that was if you like chapter one. Chapter two is the whole Ukraine episode. There's then the Greenland chapter which deserves a chapter all of its own. Now you've got this. I would say though, Paddy, the US-UK relationship is a relationship between two countries not just between two administrations. It's long term and it brings mutual benefit. I'd also point out and I think this is really important. NATO is a defensive alliance. It springs into action when one NATO member is attacked and of course the most famous occasion when that's happening, if I have the only occasion when that's happened, is on 9-11 when NATO rallied to the US side and with all the consequences that we know. And so what I think that you're seeing there is that the

campaign that the president has launched is called Epic Fury. That's the name of the military campaign. There's a lot of Epic Fury in Washington about the way in which this is going at the moment. But I would say that the relationship has strength that is institutional and that is country to country that's very important and the president to be fair to him made clear that he wants NATO to be stronger and that depends on the Europeans stepping up, which of course we are. But those personal leaders to leader relationships, though matter too, whether that's for you as a former foreign secretary having relationships with your counterpart or whether it's between American presidents and British prime ministers, how can leaders in other democracies cope with an American president who every day is sitting either in this sort of golden brocade chair in the Oval Office being rude about them or seemingly late at night online calling them Howard's or joking about how Kirstama isn't Churchill with the actual bust of Churchill

over his children in the Oval Office. I mean, how are they meant to cope with that? Well, I think that they have to focus on the substance because it's the substance that in the end matters. There's absolutely no value in getting into a tweet competition about this. And you've got to focus on the substance of what you're doing. And that is the route to really being a valuable partner. It's the route to serving your own national interest and to preserving the NATO alliance, which remains very important. I mean, President Trump is right to say that NATO depends very, very significantly on the United States. And I would argue it's very strongly in America's interest to have NATO. But it's also very important that the European end of NATO, the so-called European pillar of NATO, is much stronger. I mean, we face the situation that the Russian threat is multi-dimensional. It's not just a Ukraine threat. And I always say

every country in Europe has a Ukraine policy, no serious country in Europe, yet has a Russia strategy. And that is what we need because the Russian, Russia is always going to be on the edge of Europe. And it's very, very important that we're able to recognize the diverse nature of the threats that it represents. For that, we've got to work much more closely together in Europe. It helps a lot to have the Americans there. One of the big impacts on diplomacy has been the Mandelson affair. And the Labour government run by Kirstaarman. Kirstaarman's personal judgment in appointing him has been a big scandal here in the UK. Would you have advised him? I haven't heard anything about that. I'm surprised you're using that. Well, this is all news to me. I hadn't I hadn't crossed my desk. Well, let me ask you, if you had been asked, would you have said about your former Labour colleague, Peter Mandelson, be careful if you appoint him? And were you asked to give advice? I wasn't asked to give advice. And so it's better not to deal in the hypotheticals,

but what would you have said if all we're going to appoint Peter Mandelson, the Prince of Darkness, to be the emissary to the White House? I'm not going to get into it. I mean, all of us, I think, we saw Peter's skills, intelligence, when we worked with him. I think everyone, I was certainly speaking to myself, I'm shocked by what's come out since then, or since over the last few months. And obviously, it's been searing because there's long-term relationships that have all of us shaking our heads, but I don't want to say more because there's obviously investigations going on. It's not right for me to say more than that. You were, though, also a candidate for that job. Several people have privately told me that you were being considered as the person who would have been an excellent ambassador. And your name was very much on the list, particularly if Kamala Harris had won and held the White House for the Democrats. Your name was perhaps even at the top of the list. Do you wish that you'd got that job?

Would you have taken it? I always say the same thing as you know, Laura, boringly consistent in saying that I always want to do a job that best advances the things I believe in. And I always say, I'm going to do that consistent with my obligations to my family. I'm absolutely committed to the UK. I think it's my country. I always want to do things to support the UK in any way that I can, but I'm not going to get into it. The one thing is people can describe you as a candidate for anything. And you just did, fortunately, it's not the sort of thing where you put in the job of a bit of application. It doesn't blow out like that. But there were conversations, though. I do know that there's a sort of, you know, it doesn't turn up on jobs.co.uk, but you would, you would, I think correct us if we were wrong to say there were conversations at very high levels about you taking that job. Well, I think that the good thing about conversations at very high levels is that they stay on a very high level. Not always for very long. I know you've got ears everywhere.

You're too good. You're too good in all sorts of ways. One of the British papers wrote that Keir Starmer surrendered to Edmila Band and that the kind of pro climate side and the more leftist side of labor is on the ascendant, but then Edmila Band's facing the energy price shock. So is Edmila Band in a stronger or weaker position than six months ago? Even if it hadn't been my brother, I wouldn't get into the semiotic, the semiotics of who, look, it's a labor government. It's not many labor governments. They've got an enormously challenging set of tasks. They've got to go about it in a way that navigates the rapids of modern politics, which are very, very challenging, but it's not about, and I'm definitely not going to go down the sort of the semiotics of the different strands of this. I think to be fair to Keir Starmer, he's always been very committed to the very simple proposition that getting Britain off fossil fuels is a national

security imperative, not just an environmental imperative. And so I don't think there's a division there. There is, though, a debate in which your style of thinking about the labor party and its role in the country and the way it should get things done is in conversation with the other side of the labor party. You know, there is a sort of soft left versus soft right conversation going on. And without asking you to either be disabliging or obliging about your own brother, is there, do you think something for people to remember in that debate? One of your colleagues said to me, one of your former colleagues, I should say, is now in the cabinet said to me, look, just when you have a shock in politics, that doesn't mean that people are more progressive. Actually, people still want the fundamentals, which is the mainstream centre ground politics to work well for them. And they were essentially warning for a risk that if there is a big shock, if things all go arrive, inflation goes up again, it would be dangerous for any party on the centre left to think that now is the time for them to be more radical. Would you agree with that?

Look, it's very tough in government at the moment. I mean, the most striking thing about modern politics is how tough it is for governments to get re-elected. And so that is that faces everyone and it's obviously this Iran crisis is an avatar for how tough it is. I wrote about how I saw things in the New Statesman last week or the week before. I think every successful government defines its cause, every successful government has signature policies that it doubles down and delivers a dosage of change that really delivers for the country so that people remember it. And thirdly, every successful government is on a mission to explain, explain, explain. When I started in politics, people said, if you're explaining, you're losing. No, if you're not explaining, you're not on the pitch. That's, I think, the recipe for successful government. You can then put it into a left, right, one strand, other strand, one bit of milliband, other bit of milliband. The truth is, that's the way in which you've got to get into the substance. And I think the message for the government is about defining its cause

and finding its signature policies. For example, they're opening up more on Europe. I would argue they should go much further. That's where you've got real ability to make a difference on the economic and other fronts. So I'm not going to get into the, what does it mean for different strands? I think all of the situation in modern policies is one where you've got to be clear about your cause and you've got to be clear about your signature policies. And I think that that's what we're hearing more of from the government, which is good. What is their cause? I think their cause is to give more people in Britain more opportunities to enjoy the good things in life, to learn so that you can earn, to have a house that you either rent or own that's yours, to be able to have security and retouch retirement. Our biggest challenge is that the opportunities of the, of the few are not available to the many. And we need that more, that shift more and more. And that you can see that, whether it's a south versus the

place I used to represent, south shields, you can see that on different parts of the income spectrum, you can see that between young old. I think the, the mission of a successful labour government is always about fairness and it's always about the future and the opportunities that exist for people. That's its cause. Quick fire round now. Oh my god. Are you looking forward to the King's visit in a few weeks to the USA? Do you think it's now more important than ever? Or would you join voices saying, well, in this atmosphere, it could go the wrong way? Yes, I think you should go. I think it's, I don't know about more important, but I think it's very good that he's coming. And it speaks to my point earlier about this being a relationship between two countries. He's the head of state and he'd be coming representing the UK. And in, in these kind of times, it's especially important. And so I am looking forward to it. I've not been invited to the whatever, but I don't know what the events are, but, and I don't know if he's coming to New York, but he'd be very welcome for a cup of tea here.

Your beloved Arsenal football club could win the league this time for the first time in 20 years. Would you come back from New York? It'll be a scrub, but they're in four, they're in four competitions, Patti. Don't, don't, sir. Don't jinx us. And we're starting on Sunday, so fingers crossed. David Milbant, great to have you with us on this weekend's newscast. Thanks so much. And goodbye. Thanks very much, Laura. Thanks very much, Patti. Great to be with you. Goodbye. Craving the coffee flavor you love. But without the caffeine, Kachava's got you covered with their newest coffee flavor. This all-in-one nutrition shake delivers bold, authentic flavor, crafted from premium, decaffeinated Brazilian beans. With 25 grams of protein, six grams of fiber, greens, and so much more. Treat yourself to the flavor and nutrition your body craves. Go to kachava.com and use code news. New customers get 15% off their first order. That's kachava.com code news.

Momentum doesn't appear overnight. It's built refined, repeated. Puerto Rico has been building it for decades as a U.S. jurisdiction operating under U.S. federal law, regulatory standards, and market protections. Here, global companies manufacture life-saving medicines, advanced technologies, and critical products at scale. And with competitive tax incentives designed to support investment and expansion, companies don't just start here. They grow here. Not culture or business. Culture and business. Puerto Rico. It's not what's next. It's where. Visit investpr.org forward slash business. Decisions made in Washington can affect your portfolio every day. But what policy changes should investors be watching? Listen to Washington-wise, an original podcast for investors from Charles Schwab to hear the stories making news in Washington right now. Post Mike Townsend, Charles Schwab's managing director for legislative and regulatory affairs, takes a non-partisan look at the stories that matter

most to investors, including policy initiatives for retirement savings, taxes and trade, inflation concerns, the federal reserve, and how regulatory developments can affect companies, sectors, and even the entire market. Mike and his guests offer their perspective on how policy changes could affect what you do with your portfolio. Download the latest episode and follow at Schwab.com slash Washington-wise or wherever you listen. Craving the coffee flavor you love, but without the caffeine, Kachavas got you covered with their newest coffee flavor. This all-in-one nutrition shake delivers bold, authentic flavor, crafted from premium, decaffeinated Brazilian beans, with 25 grams of protein, 6 grams of fiber, greens and so much more. Treat yourself to the flavor and nutrition your body craves. Go to Kachava.com and use code news. New customers get 15% off their first order. That's KAC-HAVA.com code news.

You can see there listening to David Milvant. There are a lot of reasons why he was a top-level politician at quite a young age. And his ability to make jokes and give very diplomatic answers was certainly one of them. You can hear his lines for stepping through controversy over whether or not he was ever going to be the pick for a US ambassador. We know that he was on the list of Kamala Harris at one at the White House. You could hear there how carefully he was able to answer the questions about the saga and the embarrassment and appalling revelations around Peter Mandelson. He was always with quite a smooth line and he hasn't lost that ability. Before we talk about tomorrow, there is more time still for another quiz. So I've got a quiz for you. By the end of the day on the 25th of April, what will you, Patio Conno, have in common with David Bowie, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Radiohead, Nirvana and Dusty Springfield? Well, I mean, I haven't seen this question, but I can tell you the answer is certainly nothing

at any time, but I ever have anything come. I went to see an exhibition of David Bowie's stage costume. Did you get to try them on? Well, he had hips like a snake. He's so unbelievably pencil like. I was not prepared for that at all. So I have to answer your quiz by saying the answer is nothing. This is a deliberate attempt by the editor whose hip flask is even now emptying. It is a deliberate attempt by the editor, but I know the answer. Yes, I know that. From cast fest. Shameless. Shameless. What is the answer then? So the answer is, by the end of the 25th of April, you too will have performed at London's made avail studio. Okay, that is very exciting because that is where cast fest is being held. Yes. There's a link at the end of my life, probably, at the end. Where is the link? There's a link in the description of the podcast to cast fest. You see now you're just using words that I don't know what they mean.

And what is cast fest for the uninitiated? So that is when the producers have brought together all the people who are in your ear buds with all of newscasts, family of podcasts. Marvelous. What are you doing tomorrow morning? We're going to talk about voices from within Iran. We're going to listen to them. And we're also going to look at the impact on the aviation industry and the chase of life. Yes, that could be one of the things that is quite seriously disrupted, possibly in the months ahead. We are going to speak to Steve Reed, who is the community secretary about what's happening in the government, how the government is trying to grapple with this conflict. And we'll also be talking to Chris O'Shea, who's the boss of Centrica, which is one of the biggest energy companies. So that should hopefully be interesting, because one of the possible worries for people at the moment is, of course, what's happening with their energy bills? Short answer, which is down, they're not up, I would say. I think that's right. Let's scamper away into the distance by saying thank you very much for listening. Goodbye. Goodbye. Newscast. Newscast from the BBC. Thank you so much for making it to the end of newscast. You clearly copy right, Chris Mason.

O's stamina. Can I gently encourage you to subscribe to us on BBC Sounds? Don't forget, you can email us anytime. It's newscast at BBC.co.uk. And if you would like to join our Discord community to talk about everything newscast related, there is a link in the description of this podcast. And don't be scared, it's super easy to click on it and then get set up. Or you can WhatsApp us on 03301239480. And I promise you, we read and listen to every single message. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Bye. Craving the coffee flavor you love. But without the caffeine, Kachava's got you covered with their newest coffee flavor. This all-in-one nutrition shake delivers bold, authentic flavor, crafted from premium, decaffeinated Brazilian beans with 25 grams of protein, 6 grams of fiber, greens, and so much more. Treat yourself to the flavor and nutrition your body craves.

Go to kachava.com and use code news. New customers get 15% off their first order. That's K-A-C-H-A-V-A.com code news.

More episodes

More from Newscast

View all episodes →