Lets start with the story thats dominated the uk Political Agenda for the last few days. Rishi sunak says its Utterly Wrong to blame him forfailing to tackle the issue of unsafe concrete in school buldings. As thousands of children return to classrooms today after the summer break, its emerged that more than a hundred schools in england and scotland will be closed or partially shut. Its over Safety Concerns about what is known as raac a type of concrete, thats known to be at risk of crumbling. Our Political Editor chris mason reports on a busy first day back for mps. You probably hadnt heard of it until the other day, but this stuff concrete that can get crumbly is building into a political mess. Did rishi sunak, when he was chancellor, walk away from repairs happening sooner . The man who used to be the Department For Educations most senior Civil Servant reckons he did. I was absolutely amazed to see that the decision made by the government was to halve the School Rebuilding programme
A type of concrete, thats known to be at risk of crumbling. Meanwhile, in the last couple of hours another twist with the Education Secretary caught on camera voicing herfrustrations about the media coverage. This is Gillian Keegan after an interview with itv news. Does anyone ever say, you have done a good job cos everyone else has sat on thei and done nothing . No signs of that, no . The footage was captured by itv news as the Camera Repositioned for extra shots at the end of an interview with the minister, while she was still wearing her microphone. Gillian keegan has apologised for those remarks. Gillian keegan, you said everyone else had sat on their backsides which suggests you think people had been pulling their weight, who are you talking about . It was nobody in particular, it was an off the cuff remark after the News Interview had finished or apparently after it had finished. I would like to apologise for my choice language there. That was unnecessary. But it was an off the c
Just released this photo on x, formerly known as twitter, Showing Natalie and judith on that call with biden. Mr biden also released a statement after their release was secured saying, i am overjoyed that they will soon be reunited with their family, who has been wracked with fear. From the earliest moments of this attack, we have been working around the clock to free american citizens who were taken hostage by hamas, and we have not ceased our efforts to secure the release of those who are still being held. Earlier, us Secretary Of State Anthony Blinken said the us is relieved about the hostage release. Our correspondent Barbara Plett usher has more. The release of the hostages disrupted the day here at the state department. We were sitting down for the Daily Briefing and then we were told that it would be delayed for two hours because of Breaking News. Now, they didnt say what the Breaking News was, but we knew what it was. And so when we returned to the briefing room, there was anot
Is the normal midterm blues, but on steroids. What were seeing here is partly because of that mood of the nation, partly because the brand, the tory brand, the conservative party brand was damaged in September 2022 and earlier through partygate as well, and that is still feeding through into the public psyche. So, yes, to some degree, theres a pattern and its feeding through to the by elections. But patterns can also be broken by unexpected events. All change in a land normally wary of the new. Tories will be hoping there will be limits to these new habits. Thats all from us. Im back on monday. Until then, have a good weekend. Goodbye. Breaking news from Around The World 2a hours a day, this is bbc news. Rabbi meir hecht knows bothjudith and Natalie Raanan personally. He spoke to me just after the news of their release. Judith prays every week in our congregation, for every sabbath, every holiday, and we miss her and shes been a part of our congregation in such an important way, and as
with me now are hannah weisfeld, founder of yachad uk a britishjewish organisation which supports the palestinian state. and hamze awawde a member of the palestinian delegation for hands of peace, which empowers american, israeli and palestinian youth to become agents of change. you are both there at the vigil on sunday. as we had another week of digesting what is happening in the middle east, the incredible pain still being felt by both sides, can you tell me about what the experience was like on sunday to come together to talk about something a bit more hopeful, about a future that might be more peaceful? it a future that might be more peaceful? a future that might be more eaceful? . , ., ., , ., a future that might be more eaceful? ., ., , ., peaceful? it was a way to show hope, because one peaceful? it was a way to show hope, because one of peaceful? it was a way to show hope, because one of the peaceful? it was a way to show hope, because one of the victims