US China Relations and Navy Uniforms

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK If your best finance people are doing expense reports, chasing receipts, or spending time on monthnd clothes, it's time to get BEX AF, a GentTic finance that eliminates that work before it starts Learn more at brex d. com slash AF. Pros, save more on what you need to get the job done right. Right now, add Lowe's! Get fifteen percent off, select custom entry and interior doors. Plus, save eighty dollars on the DeWal twenty Volt Max two tool combo kit, now just one hundred sixty nine dollars. And at the Lowe's Pro desk, bring us your materials list and get a quote in minutes. Handwritten, a photo, or even a sticky note is all you need Keep your jobs moving faster and on budget at lows. Vllot through seventy eight while supplies last. Selection varies by location the newsick quiz, sorry, you know how is one of a word hass been on your mind. I'm AndyZaltman. let's get cracking. We've got a pl lot to a lot to get through this. We have team, There's still time to turn this ship around against Team Captain. This ship is already a submarine O Tam ship, we have Mary Black and Ian Smith Team submarine Nish Kumar and back on the correct side of the Atlantic for one week only, the Times Washington correspondent, Katie Balls. Any one of whom could be Prime Minister by the time you hear this year In fact, Katie, will visit to these shores is suspiciously timed for that one. For our first question in this week's at the Time of Recording spepecial, go to Nishian Katie. Who could soon be going? Wh has left, and who could be back? I guess who could be going is Kiest Stara. I mean could be is a huge huge thing to say at the moment as we recallord on Thursday night. The person who is definitely going is West Streeting. So West Streeting has quit as health secretary, but he said that he's not mounting a direct challenge. So the guardian is reporting that the fact that he's not challenging Stalmer immediately suggests he does not have the requisite eighty one MPs to mount a challenge directly And listen, I rarely speak for this country, but I think I can when I say than God The issue I have with Wes Streeting is one of the key problems that Kizarber has had in the last few months is that there's this idea of his association with Peter Mandelson and his decision to employ Peter Mandelson as the ambassador to America. Now that was obviously contentious because Peter Mandelson, and this is a term I've had legally cleared, was pedophile adjacent That's technically a legally clearable term because he was photographed on several occasions next to Jeffrey Epstein. Therefore he was literally adjacent to a pedophile, right? And so that's obviously been a huge problem for Kistmer. So it makes no sense to then replace Kist Amer with the only person closer to Peter Mandelson in the government, a man who's so close to Peter Mandelson that he had to release his own WhatsApp messages, which never happens because something good is going on. L The only time someone releases their WhatsApp messages is when a husband's being accused of adultery and goes, fine, read my phone and see, there's nothing going on. You're paranoid, you're crazy cow. And what I have to believe what I have to believe for this country is as much as we've been through a lot and we have low expectations for ourselves is we have to believe that we deserve more than a Pime mininister who is pedophile adjacent adjacents So Katie, you went to America where we tend to look upon things as being quite chaotic, and you've come back here and now this. this you claiming responsibility for the mayhem unfolding before us? Yeah I was looking for the chaos when I went to America and then I started to get a slight concern that I was in the wrong place. So I was here the past week, but I think what've a very slow almost coup this week where everyone seems to know they want to go after Kiristama or they're not happy of him. but no one has quite been willing to do the firing, starter shop because they're all worried. and I think West Streeting is one of them that if they do, they're going to be blamed, that they will not get to wear the crown. And therefore every day has been this like kind of everyone's staring and saying, well, you resign, then I'll resign, but I don't trust you to resign. So I think we have almost Downing Street version of traitors playing out. So whoever ends up Prime Minister fundamentally they'ell a shpebag. Unless they're a faithful. Aout Alan Car Well mean ye mean you just can't rule anything out these days. could well happen. And who is going to be coming back, it seems? Oh, well At the time of recording, Josh Syimmons is standing aside from the constituency that we've all heard of Make a field And I only found out that Makerfield isn't a place, it's a suffix So it's for Ashton in Makerfield and Ins in Makerfield. I've done the research on Wikipedia. Ashton and Makerfield is known as the Centre for the Manufacture of locks and hinges. So it would be ironic if Andy Burnham comes back and still can't get in. Yeah And Andy Burnham is planning on Coming back If he can win a by election if he gets allowed in by the NEC, if he loses a by election, it's funny. I'm not saying that's what I want to happen, but it's objectively funny. That's the best we can really aim for at the minute. just to be objectively funny Is that his sort of his strength as a candidate Marary is the fact that he's not been in Westminster, is this where we are now that actually that's better's a strength for rather than a weakness? I mean, well, it should be a strength, but it seems a bit bizarre to be spending your entire career going, I don't want to be in fact, that sounds like me to be in Westminster, but let me come back and join the whole sphere. so no I'm not convinced that it will happen anytime soon. Its just it's a great reality show at the momute. That's what it feels like. You know, we're just watching this love is blind play out exceptiously, not love. Hate is blind. I't know much about a show. Well, I mean, West Streeting in his resignation letter said, whereere we need vision, we have a vacuum where we need direction, we have drift. I mean, just something to pick up on that. You know vision and direction Do you necessarily want mean this trus had both vision and direction. The problems were what she was seeing and where she was going When Starmer s came in, we'd have this sort of the chaos of Tras and Boris Johnson before that. Well, lots of people when they came in would say you know the adults are back in the room and we're going to have a very stable period of government. I'm going to go back to debating policy. And when I left about a year ago to go to America, it wasn't looking great for K Starmer unraveled in the way it has since, but it's its own version of psychorama. So I mean it is in some ways has all these parallels with a Boris Johnson story. Now Boris Johnson, it was party gay, Kirarmer, it's Peter Mandelson. and then I think just the sense that everyone is just warn now and now no one wants to get behind him. And this is obviously the Labour government, which made so much of ' We're going to clear up the sleeves.. And I think now every kind of five minutes you can see people digging up these tweets of what We're streeting, Kirststarmer Angela Ryna were saying as they were pushing out Boris Johnson over party g And of course the Torys are enjoying it back too, but Perhaps'll just keep going in full circle because it probably shouldn't be lost on us that if Kistama does go, I mean how many prime mininisters in about seven years, it might also be some problems with the country? Well look, we can't start blaming ourselves. out of the sort of current front runners that we've talked about Wh would you personally like to see take over as Prime Minister? Well, I want it to be a woman, right? because I need to have at least one female prrime Minister that I can root for. because I mean you had Theresa May with our hostile environment. you had Liz Truss being Liz Truss And I'm sure that Margaret Thatcher was looking up at both of them and thinking, you know, you go girls. No, I'm ready for somebody like Claudia Winkleman, you know She's used to working with traitors. She under the right circumstances, she's okay with murder. you know, I'm like You'ot got a good CV for it. H or Miriam Margalies just for the gam. A. Ian, who would you like to? S you take over. I ever got of anyone Well, I guess mister Blobby for stability, just to sort of get things going a bit. Or if you really want to double down on your choices, let's give it to Peter Mandelson. Let's refuse to let people you know get us down go, No, you know what? He's al right I'll do it. I am in many ways a combination of our last two Prime Ministers. like Starmer, I'm profoundly unpopular with the British public, and like Rishi Sunak, I'm an under talented, over promoted brown man Yes, well, let's summarise that. The Prime Minister is clinging to power after a showdown meeting with Wes Streeting on Wednesday morning, was described as a crunch meeting. the kind of crunch meeting you might have alone in a deserted river with a crocodile. Streeting left Downing Street after just seventeen minutes whichich suggests there were four three minute rounds under the Queensbury rules between after streeting resigned Stama came out fighting like a supermarket trolley in a canal. He's still just about visible above the water, but you wouldn't necessarily expect it still to be so by Monday. So this is all in the context of the election results from last week, which it's fair to say did not go particularly well for Labour. In terms of the Scottish election result, the SNP leader John Swweenney said after the SMP's victory that Scotland needs to make sure its parliament is protected from what The English. It was Farraage, wasn't it? Yes. Nigel Farraage. Yeah. Yes. No the Scottish elections. I'm just hung up on the fact that it was a daytime count because not only was it daytime, but they also cut out the channel halfway through, so you had to scour about on the internet. But like there was one of my colleagues, Angus Robertson, he lost his seat And when he was standing on the stage beside him, there was a person dressed as a gannet. like the bird. And this is what I mean. That hit's different at four in the afternoon. Whereas at four in the morning you're like, this is the best thing ever. WrestleMania taking their turn, you know, k It' be funny to see someone dressed as a gannet likeike as a joke candidate, win And just take the head off and go, No, no, no, no, no I've got no policies. All the policies are give me all your chips. How the hell have I done this? It's all fun and games till the mask comes off and it's way street. I quite like the idea of combining our general election coverage with the masked singer the end of every count. A. But Of course in Scotland we also had two trans MSPs have now been elected. And I mean of course that's great' progressive. It's such a horrible time for a minority. But the thing that's really the cherry on top for me is that JK Rowan is now represented by a trans MSP He in terms of the state of Scotland, so the SMP won but with a sort lower vote share, how do you see the sort of independence movement at the moment? Well, it's still got a pro independence majority. The Greens did better than they've ever done because they're actually on the same number of seats as reform at the minute. because the other thing that people don't realise is that the Scottish Parliament is actually designed to prevent a majority. It's got a mixed system where half of it's proportional. So it's more democratic, but it's also insufferable when you want to stop ideas getting into bent. But no, I think it's definitely still on the agenda. Absolutely. It's not designed to sort of foster collaboration and cooperation. It's supposed to, isn't it How's that supposed to work in politics? It's kinda like if you tryed to force siblings who hate each other to actually sort out a funeral, that's the sort of atmosphere that's in this st. Sounds like you're pitching for a new reality show there Labour managed to lose Wales which I mean that's yeah it's an astonishing phrase because it suggests Kirarver somehow managed to leave a whole country down the back of a fridge. Welsh labour was It's one of the most successful political parties in the world, right? Because it's been the single largest party in the Senate since deevolution And now that streak is over. And I think Star's got to flip the narrative here and call himself a history maker. know not all history makers are positive H that Do you think Kat as politics in the UK just completely fractured. We saw the results from those if we have that in a general election with the biggest party getting about twenty five percent. We've got a system that barely functioned when there were two parties that commanded almost the whole vote. How will it cope with five or including the SNP and Bomry seven parties splitting everything? Well it starts to get potentially very messy, particularly if it's quite slight when you're in a first pass the post system. We have had that refrain the two party system is broken. I think the question now being asked in Westminster is is it actually broken this time? Because how people vote in locals doesn't always represent what they're going to do in a general election when you might want to say you want to stop barraage, you want to stop the greens in that kind of sense. But certainly I think All the signs are thereful pretty dysfunctional parliament the next time around if there's no majority, but then again We've had a majority that was pretty big and it was still quite dysfunctional. The Greens leadader Zak Polansky faced criticism this week for failing to do what on his boat, anyone Raise the flag of the Jolly Roger. He was paayid council tax. Yes. cororrect. Listen. Oviously this is serious. anyytime a political leader is not paying tax, that's always serious. But let's just all take a quick second to say this is the funniest possible scandal to happen to the leader of a Green partarty. Not paying your council tax on a narrow boat It's like a heartbeat away from Zach Polansky getting rumbled for putting cardboard recycling in his compost bin It was a slightly larger sum of money involved with Nigel Farage facing a parliamentary inquiry for the the five million pound Gift what I in this what do you say is mean, which do you think technically is a bigger sum? five million pounds or Zack Bolansky' unpaidount. I tell you what I see with this. It's more nonsense from the biased Bolshevik corporation. Okay. How dare you How dare you judge Nigel Farage based on the things that he's done This this tide of woke nonsense. Just because Nigel Farage got five minute pound, that's from his friend. That's what friends do. How do you think I' got this gig on the news quiz? I sculpted a statue of Andy Zolzmann out of Manchego because I know Zaltzman loves two things statues of himself and cheese. The man loves cheese so much if he sends you a text listing the things he's eaten in that day, you can get gout in your eyes I do have both of those things in my house at the moment. She's and a statue of mur the context of that, my dad was a sculptor and he sculpted me when I was seven. I think the thing with this Nigeah Farage story is he does seem to be changing his tune slightly. So when it first came out, he doesn't seemed as though he wants to particularly talk about it, number one. But it was the idea that this was all for his security, so five million do on security. He obviously didn't declare it because he wasn't an MP at the time is now being looked into by Parliament. but He's since given an interview where he said it was for security, but it was also you know, a well done gift for delivering Brexit. Right. So I mean those two are quite different things, aren't they?? In terms of the meaning of words, they seem to be Yeah. yourour gift is security. Yeah. I mean you could argue that the milkshake was also a gift definitely declare that. I guess Ian, you let he who has never been given five million pounds by a Thai based crypto billionaire and immediately bought a new house cast the first stone.. some slack, do you think? Yeah, well I've been in a similar situation, really? I guess the reason why it's very clear it's suspicious is that the Cervatives have also lodged a complaint about it And when you're getting a gift that the consonservatives are like, This don't feel right. There was a quote from a Conservative partarty spokesperson who said, fiveive million is an enormous amount more than most people will earn in a lifetime. I imagine before adding In our party. Mer of youock He also said, I can't be bought by anybody Which didn't used to be true when he still had his cameo for about eighty qu, he would say whatever he wanted I le he's getting good money for now, he's realized that you can get more than eight quin, he's got five million. five million quin per cameo. I've gott to get on that thing, man. Well, at the end of that round, the scores are six points all The ultimate cookout starts with the ultimate ingredients. At Whole Foods market, no antibiotics ever burgers and kebabs are prepped and ready to throw on the grill. Fire up a juicy ribeye. Grab creamy potato salad and savory flatbreads from the prepared foods department, and round it all out with three hundred sixty five brand condiments, chips and dips at everyday low prices Whole Foods Market, Make your summer sizzle Caesar Sports Book is the only sportsbook app with Caesar rewards. Bet the tournament action and more. Download the app using promo code radio DYW and place your first bet of a dollar or more for a chance to double your winnings on your next ten bets. Open to new users in New Jersey who are twenty one or older. Max bet of twenty five dollars for boosted winnings, Max addditional winnings twenty thousand five hundred dollars hundred per bet. Profit boost tokens expire fourteen days after receipt. See Cesars dot com slash promos for full terms. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call one eight hundred gambler We have special bonus questions this week in which our teams can double their points for each round. Nish and Katie. I'll give you the first choice of category The categories you can have are immortality Holes or nipples ol Potholes. O. How this week did a Somerset based Lorry guarantee itself in nomination in the twenty twenty six metaphor for the State of the Nation of the Year Award So this is a truck that had been called out with stuff in it that they needed to fix potholes. Yeah. It got stuck in a pothole. Yeah, I mean, it does seem to say quite a lot about where we are as. I mean could anything encapsulate Britain in twenty twenty six more than a lorry cent to fix a pothole at a forty five degree angle in a pothole? Al the name of the company is stabilized pavements.' just a truck that says stabilized pavements at an angle that a truck should not be at They sent a breakdown Lorry to get it It broke down on. To be fair they did say stabilised pavements not the road. If we're going to go true, British, let's be pedantic about it. I think they should monetise it and rebrand it as the leaning Lorry of Walton. Yes, if the current cross and crumbly state of the UK needed a new poster vehicle, it got one this week When a Lorry sent to repair potholes in Somerset got stuck in a pothole, thus I suppose, filling it Let's move on now to our American round. Who got out their fanciest China this week? The Chinese? Yes, correct. Yes.ome. too welcome Donald Trump. his first trip of his second t to China, he also went in his first t or China. And mean theyve really went mean he loves a pageant. he loves over the top ostentation and they really played that card hard, didn't they? They went for it yeah. The Chinese a big state banquet, but also military to welcome him. We know that Donald Trump likes the military. He did try last year to have a military parade around the time of his birthday, which was inspired by the military parade you get in China in Russia But the Americans didn't quite get it right because all the soldiers were smiling. which is not what you meant to do. These are obviously massively important talks. There's a lot going on. the states of Taiwan, America's trading relationship with China, various issues around AI development. And it's good in that situation to not over prepare So the night before he went, he posted on social media fifty times in three hours. And the posts were not I am revising very hard. The posts rang from sort of more conspiracy theories about the twenty twenty election, sort of accusing Barack Obama of treason A phhotoshopped image of Donald Trump on the hundred dollarars bill. Somebody's got to turn the White House Wi Fi off after ten PM. Yeah, so the meeting between President Xi and Trump, if you were a fly on the wall at that meeting, whose sandwich would you vomit on first It's quite a tough call, isn't it U It's one of your most surreal questions. There is the Chinese president questioned whether the US and China can transcend the Fusicides trap. And I just thought that's what I've been thinking for a long time. Can they transcend the Fusicides trap It's one of those things where I've been interested in the Fucicides trap for a long time and you might be thinking to yourself, Ian, have you had to write that phonetically on your notes? But yeah, just can they transcend it though? Yeah I think you've fallen into into the trap? Is this A I a Fucicides trap? Is it thu or fu? Thu The Thucydides trap. Yeah right. And now imagine if I was someone that didn't know what that was I do obviously know what that thing is.. Well I certainly do and I wouldn't want to patronise anyone by saying. The Thucidides Trap is a political theory stating that when a rising power threatens to displace an established ruling power, the resulting structural stress makes violent conflict the rule rather than the exception. There we go. Another thing I've understood. So the scores are now twelve to Nishian Katie nine to Ian and Mary, but you have a chance to double your points With your bonus question, so the two topics left are immortality or nipples, the big two. Wh whichich one are you going to go for? Yeah, nipples please. Yeah. The Royal Navy is set to redesign some of its uniforms because what look too like nipples? buton the buttons placement. Yes, buttons. The buttons are like directly over where the nipples would be. Yes. And I believe the exact phrasing of the complaint is looks like we got robot nipps that robot in it? Yes. That was the exact terminology used. Yes. And it's going to cost us money apparently. Yeah, two hundred thousand let's talk it up. two hundred million pounds for the Royal Navy to redesign these female officers uniforms. I mean, when people talk about us, Britz being buttoned up about sex I think this story proves it quite bit Couldn't they try and style it out and say that those are protectors for the nipples against bullets I think so. You've got to protect the tes guys.. We've got to get the teets and tanks covered The first time that phrase has appeared on radio for for a while. Is it right that it was so I read that it was like Princess Anne. Was Princess Anne complaining or have they just used Princess Anne as a sort of focal point for Like I guess basically to men reading the story, but you know nipples, you know women. He is one. He is a famous person that we can't imagine a story about buttons being in an inappropriate place unless we have a sort of famous. So we've just been looking at pictures of Princess Anne in a uniform and going, All right, that's where her nipples are, I guess. And as you get older the buttons get lower Yeah The Navy said it was a positive step for women and the majority of the cost of the new jackets would be offset by reducing the number of uniforms issued in future. Isn't that worse? Are all our Royal Navy servicemen and women going have to prance around jacketless, nipples or kimbo? What is this country coming to I think instead of like uniforms or camouflage, they should make