At 10pm, Sophie Raworth will be here with a full round up of the days news. Before that, newscast. Laura, shall we do that old thing of which character from friends are you . But do it with chris mason, who has still never seen a single episode . What, still . Still . Well, i suppose he has been quite busy in the last few years. Yeah, have i missed this new one as well . Has that been and gone already . You would not have a clue who any of the people are or what theyre talking about. No. Has it been on, though . It was on today, wasnt it . Yeah. Well, its streaming, so it is on all the time. 0h. Right. This is one of those newfangled, all the kids are doing it that way. Didnt exist when friends first existed in 1996. No but chris, you still havent watched any of it . No, i havent. Maybe illjust watch this new one and just. Thats it, ill be caught up, wont i, in one go . Well, luckily, us political geeks had the one with Dominic Cummings this week, which was a special seven hour long reunion episode, with many fewer laughs. And there werent many friends in that Ba Bum hey this is like a sitcom, like, with a team of top writers not really. Anyway, welcome to newscast. Newscast. Newscast, from the bbc. Hello, its adam in the studio. And laura in the same studio, still two metres apart, looking increasingly like well still be two metres apart after The End ofjune, but lets see. And chris, bunking down in the sanitised Broom Cupboard of news until goodness knows when. And thank you to everyone who listened to the previous episode of newscast where laura and i rattled through at Breakneck Speed the seven hours of Dominic Cummings Evidence about how the government handled the pandemic at various points, and i have to say, my head is still spinning a little bit from all the names and the dates and the claims and the meetings and the plans and the allegations and everything, and i think it will probably be by The End of the weekend before i sort of reach a settled kind of view about what i think about it all. News fest, is how i would define it, but also, i think actually for loads of people watching, notjust the seven hours. But for people who will have seen the front pages this morning, people who will have heard the Odd Snippet when they listened to the radio, people who watched the Telly News last night or, you know, were looking at the headlines on their phone, whatever else it did, it made a lot of things come roaring back. And im afraid, for a lot of people, if theyve lost Loved Ones or were very affected by covid for all sorts of different reasons, it really might have reopened some old wounds. Beyond any of the politics of it, and lets just not think about that for a second, it was a real kind of, wow. Strip out the hyperbole, strip out the politics, goodness me, this country has been through something unreal in the last year. And a tiny little sense, you two, ive been off for the last couple of days with a spectacular bit of diary management. Well done. Not watching friends, though. No, i didnt make time for friends and i didnt catch. And so, yeah, didnt spend all seven hours watching Dominic Cummings, but the bits that i caught, i was thinking, my goodness, you get, in a tiny little burst, albeit packed into seven hours, an insight into what the inquiry in The End will look and sound like, as we hear so many competing testimonies from deep inside government about what was happening, as you say, in that period that rakes up for so many people all sorts of horrible memories. Thats right, and you wonder, actually, in 2021, orwhenever the inquiry starts, in 2023, thats a different prospect, holding an inquiry, compared to when chilcot started after all sorts of things that happened behind closed doors. I mean, the government is attacked often for not being transparent enough, but my goodness me, governments now generally are much more transparent, whether they like it or not, than things were, you know, ten, 20, 30 years ago, so actually, so much will be already out there by the time it gets around to an inquiry. Anyway. What has been happening today in day two, is the people who have been mentioned have been reacting to it, so we will get the reactions in a second but first of all, here is one of the jaw dropping bits where Dominic Cummings was talking about the Prime Minister. Fundamentally, i regarded him as unfit for the job and i was trying to create a structure around him to try and stop what i thought were extremely bad decisions and push other things through against his wishes, and he had the view that he was Prime Minister and i should just be doing as he wanted me to, and that is obviously notl sustainable for very long. The truth is that senior. Ministers, senior officials, senior advisers like me, fell disastrously short. Of the standards that the public has | a right to expect of its governmentj in a crisis like this. When the public needed us most, the government failed. So some of that was put to Borisjohnson Today when he was getting on with the job, as he would say, by visiting a hospital. Some of the commentary i have heard doesnt bear any relation to reality, and what people want us to get on with is delivering the Road Map and trying, cautiously, to take i our country forward. Theyre just basically not engaging with it, are they, the government . Not really, not engaging with any of the specifics. The Prime Ministerjust doesnt really want to go there. They have said, oh, there will be a public inquiry, there will be time for all of that, Blah Blah blah. But they dont, its like they dont want to dignify the specific claims with detailed answers. But it doesntjust mean they can stick their fingers in their ears and it all goes away, particularly for Matt Hancock. You know, the problems are, well, there are a lot of things to answer. Lets have a listen to What Cummings said. I think the Secretary Of State for health should have been| fired for at least 15, 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions, in meeting after meeting, in the Cabinet Room and publicly. Ouch i mean, blimey, even hearing that again for the umpteenth time. It is extraordinary, really extraordinary, isnt it . Notjust a passing glance, absolutely direct. So we had Matt Hancock, didnt we, doing the Running Away Thing outside his House Yesterday . And then a few words when he came back. Do you mean vigorously going for a jog in front of the Assembled Press Photographers outside his house . That was it, wasnt it, and, yes, sprinting down The Street and then doing a lap of The Block and coming back. Possibly. And then he appeared in parliament. And then he appeared in parliament, and then hes been at a Press Conference as well, doing a bit of defending. Yes, and the bit were going to play of that News Conference is a very specific bit because one of those 15 20 things that Dominic Cummings accused him of doing was having promised in the Cabinet Room to senior people in the government that people leaving hospitals and going into Care Homes right at the start of the pandemic in march were being tested for covid. Dominic cummings said that didnt happen. We actually knew it didnt happen straightaway. We know it didnt happen, yes. What we dont know is whether or not Matt Hancock actually made that promise. Ah, but what we do have is Matt Hancock going on the record with this very carefully phrased answer. Have a listen, and i think the first sentence here is the key thing. Of course, we committed, | and i committed to getting the policy in place, but it took time to build the testing. We didnt start with a big | Testing System in the uk, and then we built that Testing System and that is why the 100,000 target was so important because it really accelerated the availability of testing. I committed to delivering that policy now, you could hear that multiple ways, couldnt you . You could. Anyone would imagine he might be a politician. Yeah. You could, you could hear it as him saying, well, im not denying that i made that promise, or you could hear it as him saying, of course i didnt make that promise because that would have been ridiculous to make because at that point, we all knew there werent enough tests. Or he could have been saying, or he could have meant, i did mean that promise, but what people should have obviously understood i meant was. That it wasnt happening today. That there werent enough tests so of course we were going to try to build it up as quickly as possible, but, you know, in that classic political way, and today, we had one of those Press Conferences where Downing Street was getting handy with the mute button. Yeah. So actually, lots of us tried to ask that question and then to clarify when he didnt quite answer it, so he didnt quite deny it but he didnt quite. I think i heard you getting cut off, actually. I wondered. Its a classic. Yeah, well, anyway, there we are. Lets not go there. Crucially, that rhetoric had gone, though, hadnt it, laura . Yes. I saw you tweeting about it, that rhetoric over and over again, we heard from Mr Hancock and i think others as well, about a shield being thrown around nursing homes, Care Homes. Yes, from the start. Yeah, exactly, and that. Well, he could have said it, and he didnt say it, and its notjust important to look at the precise nature of what he did say but also what he chose not to. Yes, and that was actually my question to him was, can you stand there today and say it is still true that the government protected Care Homes from the start . And he didnt stand there today and say that, so i suspect that that claim, which we have heard Again And Again And Again And again, has now been retired, because frankly. If youll pardon the pun. Families know its not true, right . Yeah. Care home managers know its not true. Yeah. Lots of mps know its not true. We were on this programme, our Newscast Audience were saying, no, its not true. People were getting in touch with us to say things were going wrong in Care Homes. Now, that doesnt mean it wasnt difficult, it doesnt mean that the Government Wasnt trying to do their best, but i think, and in fact, Dominic Cummings accusation of Matt Hancock and that phrase was, i think he said it was ridiculous or did he say it was nonsense . Nonsense, nonsense, ithink, yeah. So, its not that surprising that the Health Secretary has. Let that phrase go out to pasture, but i think there are still tricky things for him. I dont think this has all unwound, yet, although at The End of that seven hours of testimony yesterday, there wasnt one huge, shall we say, dom bomb, the headline that some of the front pages said, that was a sudden, giant, pow, oh, my goodness, this completely upsets the apple cart, shocking as a lot of it will have been for many, many people. Well, somebody who knows exactly what it is like making those decisions in those rooms about how to battle the pandemic in a part of the uk is our Celebrity Guest on newscast tonight. It is the outgoing First Minister of Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster. Hello, arlene. Hi, its the first time ive been called a Celebrity Guest, but there you go, maybe thatsj because im leaving office soon and im getting a new moniker. Yes, so it is your first time on as First Minister, but also probably last time on as First Minister, but hopefully not your last time ever on. Yeah, i think its my last time on as First Minister, yes. Right, there you go. And its an excuse for me to tell my trademark Arlene Foster story about when i first met you at a tory Party Conference and one of your super fans ran up and said, i cant believe im Meeting Arlene phillips in the flesh, its so exciting laughter well, there are not too many arlenes in public life so, i mean, i used to love watching Arlene Phillips on strictly come dancing, so im quite a fan of Arlene Phillips myself, i so i didnt actually mind him saying that to me. Thats great. We should have got her on as well that would have been great. Yes. It would have been podcast gold. There you go, an idea for the future. Absolutely, get all the arlenes in one room, a bit like Nigel Dodds told me there used to be a gathering of nigels. I we could have a gathering of arlenes. That would be good. I love that. Who went to that . Youd have Nigel Dodds, nigel lawson, nigel farage. Yeah, well, nigels not a name thats often used now by new mums and dads, so i think they were trying to say that nigels were dying out. And i havent met too many arlenesl who have been born recently, either, so that is probably the same. Nigel mansell could stay off the drink and do the drive home. And one lastjoke, obviously, the number of arlenes would be the ar number. 0h before we find out about your reflections on your time as First Minister, and im sure theres loads of fascinating stuff you can tell us, what did you think about the whole borisjohnson, Dominic Cummings, covid kind of drama that was happening at westminster this week . Well, it wont surprise you to know i didnt exactly have seven hours. To sit and watch the whole drama. I but i cant say im particularly. Surprised about dominic wanting to get it all off his chest and he certainly did all of that. Tell us and tell our Newscast Viewers beyond Northern Ireland why you are standing down and why particularly now . Well, im standing down now| in the middle of a covid crisis because my party colleagues decided that it was time to have a new leader, and once that is made clear to you through the media, i dont think theres any option but to stand down and allow. A new leader to be elected, i so that is what is happening. Tonight, theres a ratificationl of the new leader taking place in a hotel in belfast, so that will happen. | i will leave the leadership tomorrow, and then shortly after that, depending on what the new leader wants, i will move out. As First Minister as well. How painful a process is that, learning, as you say, through the media, that your own party that you have served want rid of you . Well, its not particularly pleasant. I think i said a couple of days after what had happened that politics is brutal, but even by dup standards, it was pretty brutal, in terms of what happened. I had absolutely no idea, and was telephoned by a close colleague that this was happening on monday evening, and then by tuesday morning, i it was all in the papers. So, yeah, it wasnt. Particularly pleasant. There was of course another way. Of doing it, but colleagues decided to go down a different route. And arlene, do you think its different and more difficult for women in public life . So i know when you gave your statement, you said some quite spiky things, actually, about how women in public life are treated differently. Theres been a Court Case as well about something that happened to you on Social Media, that, you know, you can talk to us about if you wish, but i know there are some legal implications there, too. But as someone who has been involved in, you know, tough, Front Line politics, i dont think anyone would accuse you of being a wallflower or being soft or not being able to take criticism. But how do you feel about the differences between the treatment of men in politics and women in politics that persist to this day . Yeah. Well, i mean theres No Doubt theres a difference made between women, generally, in public life, i will say that, Notjust In Politics but in your own profession and indeed in the world of business. Women are treated differently than | men, theres No Doubt about that. | were judged on our hairstyles, our |weight, our clothes, what we say. | so if michelle and i, the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, have a political dispute, it is categorised as shrill and possibly even a catfight, whereas if men are having. A political disagreement, its a strong disagreement on principle. We are described as emotional, i men are described as passionate. So ive seen all of the differences throughout my time as a womanl in politics, and i think one of the reasons that i got involved in politics as a young woman back in the 80s is that actually, from 1979 to 1990, l the Prime Minister of the united kingdom was a woman, so there was nothing strange about women stepping forward | and getting involved in politics. And some of the correspondence that ive received from young women and older women since ive announced that im stepping down has been really encouraging, because theyve said to me, we hadnt realise how important it was to have a female leader until you were leaving. But now we realise it was important to us, j and it was an encouragement to us. Its the well trodden line of, you cannot be what you cannot see, and i hope if weve achieved the fact that young women. Want to get involved in politics in Northern Ireland, then that is, to me, a good legacy. And i have dedicated my life to trying to make Northern Ireland a better place. And just because im leaving Front Line politics, i will continue to be an advocate for Northern Ireland, because i passionately believe in the place. How will you do that . Well, you dont have to bej elected to be an advocate. And i intend to advocate in relation to those who are in need. I want to do some work about Social Media, if im honest, l because youve referenced the Case Today. Turns out you Cant Sayl what you like on twitter and get away with it. The Case Today is that you won a Libel Action against a Tv Celebrity Whod said something about your private life and you got quite a big payout as a result. The government is trying to do something about this now, in what was called the 0nline harms bill. Adams been paying more attention than i have and its now called the 0nline Safety Bill. Theyve changed the name. But when you look at that legislation, when you look at those proposed new laws, do you think that they actually do enough . I mean, you referenced the kind of abuse that youd got as a woman in public life. Does the bill go far enough . Its a hard balance to strike. It is a hard balance to strike, l and as someone who believes in freedom of speech, and i do passionately believe in that and i think its important that that is defended, what i worry about is when people act on twitter as if its The Wild West and they can say whatever they like, and then others join in and pile in to cause. Maximum harm and damage. Its important that that is called out. | so the anonymity has to be challenged. Im not suggesting that people have to put up their True Names if theres a reason why they dont want to do that. But somebody needs to know who owns the Twitter Account and be held accountable if they decide to tweet harmful and abusive and, frankly, libellous comments. So thats the route i want to continue with. I welcome the fact that the government have identified that there is a real issue here. I havent for Obvious Reasons had time to study the new legislation and get behind that, but i will. One of the things i am concerned about is visiting schools around Northern Ireland, which is one of the things i love doing most as First Minister, j visiting schools and engaging with young people, is how widespread the Abuse And Bullying is on Social Media towards young people. Young people are self harming because they cannot escape twitter, Social Media. I always reflect on the Fact Thatl when i came home from school, i didnt see my friends till the next day. The telephone was down the hall. It rarely rang. If it did ring, your Mother Or Father came to see who was on the phone i remember that dreaded noise of the other receiver being picked up and told, dont be on too long, your grannys ringing. But i think that nowadays, and i see this right across the young people that i engage with, there is no escape. Theyre walking around with it all the time and its pinging. And the abuse is there, and i think that needs to be not only called out, but dealt with. But to be clear on the policy solution, it would be to introduce something into this 0nline Safety Bill that isnt there at the moment in the Draft Legislation which would basically encourage Social Media companies to make you sign up with your real name and your picture rather than lki7313401 . Who could that be . Dont use my initials sorry, um, bkl13 i am saying that, because someone. Needs to know who owns the account. Then if there is abuse coming from that account, people can be challenged around it. Thats really, really important. First minister, lets talk about brexit. All sorts of details we might want to get into, as you might imagine. But first of all, lets play a little clip. You may be familiar with this. I now want to introduce a man who is not only a good friend to me, he is a fabulous friend to The Union and a promoter of The Union and therefore, i want to introduce the Prime Minister of the united kingdom of great britain and northern Ireland Crowd boris, boris listeners to the podcast will not be able to see Arlene Foster smiling and then laughing at The End of that. Why is that your reaction . Because its played quite a bit. Obviously, thats from the conservative Party Conference in 2019, before the Prime Minister decided to go down the Route Of what is now the Northern Ireland ireland protocol, which has been causing grave damage to Northern Ireland in terms of the economy and the fact that we now receive parcels| from great britain with Customs Declarations on them, the fact that our Medicine J Supply from great britain, if its not dealt with very soon, will be under threat at The End of the year, i the fact that there is vat on Second Hand cars moving from great britain into Northern Ireland, the fact that Soy Cant be brought over from great britain into Northern Ireland in pot plants. The Prime Minister was warned about this in so many ways, and repeatedly, by my colleagues in the house of commons, before he decided to proceed with this. As you know, we voted on the Programme Motion that brought an end to the then government. There was then the i westminster election. Boriss big thing was to get brexit done, and i can understand why. People rallied to that. But unfortunately for us in Northern Ireland, Brexit Hasnt been done and thats the problem. When you look back at what must have felt like a real roller coaster, there are two things i want to ask you. Can you think of what your best moment was and what the hardest moment was, and also, newscasters who used to be brexitcasters will remember, or people who followed the news, that there was a summit where Theresa May thought she had got a deal, then apparently there was this Phone Call, ring ring, from Arlene Foster, during the lunch between her and jean claudejuncker, and she had to disappear during the Foie Gras or whatever they were having in brussels. What did you say on the phone . Well, in terms of the best moment, i i think it was after the election i i in 2017, when we held the balance i of power and of course had the Phone Call in the middle of the night from Theresa May around working together to try and form a government. Hmm . I was curious about what she might have said. Was it basically help . No. She said she wanted to speak with me, and the fact that we had ten members of parliament and we were unionists and we were right of centre in terms of our political outlook, and of course we believed in brexit, that we should work together and try to form a government. You know, we wanted to helpi and they wanted to make sure that they could form that government, i so thats how the Confidence And Supply agreement came about in 2017. And the worst . Maybe it was that too no, it wasnt. People said to us at the time, i what are you going to ask for, are you going to ask for a Cabinet Position or look for something. For the dup as a party . We actually got £1 billion extra in terms of spending for Northern Ireland, which was the right thing to do because it meant Everybody L in Northern Ireland benefited. And that was the deal, as overtly as that . That was the deal. And that Phone Call with Theresa May, would you divulge that now or do you want to come back another time and tell us exactly what really happened . Well, we were just shocked at the content of what had been agreed. And i had a meeting with my colleagues and we decided i needed to let her know we were very unhappy, and that was what i did. Directly, very directly . I mean, i spoke to the Prime Minister directly, yes. Thank you for coming on, First Minister. What is the first thing youre looking forward to doing once you no longer have to take calls from People Like Us . I am looking forward to spending a bit of time with my family. My children have become, overnight, a lot older. I have a 21 year old, a 19 year old and a 14 year old, so im looking forward tol spending time with them. And fighting the trolls online, which sounds like your new mission. Well, its certainly part of what i want to do,. For ordinary young people and for women who find themselves attacked just because theyre different from how people i want them to be. I think thats wrong. Everybodys entitled to their opinion, but theyre not entitled to cause harm to people, and thats important to say. First minister, thank you very much. Thank you. Enjoy a good old rest, but do come back another time. The First Ministers first appearance, her last as First Minister, but maybe not her last appearance ever. So if she comes back, she would be the former First Minister coming on for the first time as the former First Minister, having been on tonight for the first time as the First Minister. Night night, everyone, bye newscast. Newscast from the bbc. Well, some of us probably looked at the Sky Today wondering wheres all this fantastic weather were promising . Just a little while longer. It is going to improve. It was a temporary blip on friday. It is going to turn increasingly sunny and warmer as we go through the Bank Holiday Weekend into next week. But heres the cloud from friday, you can see a little hit and miss. There were some showers around. The best of the weather was across Northern Scotland and closer to the north sea coast, and thats because High Pressure� s building here. The Weather Fronts which are trying to get in are stopped by this area of high Pressure Think of the High Pressure as a mountain and it stops the Weather Fronts coming off the atlantic. So, the Weather Front thats been here across the west is in the process of disintegrating, so its raining itself out. The clouds are starting to break up, but it does mean that Saturday Morning is going to be pretty overcast, murky and even drizzly in some areas, so we will have to wait a little while longer. Well call it a cloudy morning on saturday, but then brightening up as we go through the course of the afternoon. I think second half of the afternoon should be absolutely fine for most of us. So, heres the forecast for saturday. Starts off a little grey, the best of the sunshine probably across eastern areas of the country. Could be a few local brief showers here and there. Look at the temperatures 21 in london, 19 in liverpool, were expecting around 20 or so in glasgow. And High Pressure is firmly in charge of our weather on sunday. Light winds, strong sunshine, dont forget that. Weve not been used to the sun so far this spring, so slap on the sunscreen if youre out for any lengthy period of time. Temperatures up to 23 degrees around merseyside on sunday. After that, the High Pressure really does become quite dominant across the northwest of europe, so notjust here in the uk but scandinavia, parts of Central Europe as well. The High Pressure is a vortex in itself, so its actually going to be drawing in warmth from the southern climes and spreading it across the uk and keeping the Weather Fronts at bay out in the atlantic. So, our temperatures on monday easily getting up into the low 20s throughout the country. Thats it from me. Enjoy the Bank Holiday Weekend weather. Tonight at 10, the victims of the fishmongers hall attack, killed by a convicted terrorist after a string of failures by police, M15 And Probation services. An inquestjury says Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones were unlawfully killed by Usman Khan at a prisoner rehabilitation event. Their families say the authorities let them down. Probation and police teams directly responsible for Khans Supervision were staffed by officers with little or no experience of terrorism offenders. There was praise for the bravery of those who tackled khan on london bridge, and an apology to the victims