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03/03/2015

Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.

3 hours

Last on

Tue 3 Mar 2015 06:00

Today's running order

0655

There’s been a virtual decriminalisation of property crime, according to a report from the Labour MP for Tottenham David Lammy in conjunction with the think tank Policy Exchange. The report shows that while crime levels overall have fallen, low-level crime such as shoplifting is on the rise. Lammy says it’s this kind of low-level crime that most people are subjected to rather than more violent crimes. David Lammy MP for Tottenham who is running to be Labour’s candidate for London mayor andΒ Matt Dukes, the Association of Chief Police Officer's national lead on acquisitive crime.

0710

An agent who spied for British intelligence infiltrating Al Qaeda has spoken to Radio 4. The individual who goes by the name of Aimen Dean is believed to have worked undercover for eight years and says he is going public in order now to confront jihadists. As a founding member of al-Qaeda in the 1990s, Dean became a key figure in its activities in Afghanistan and among the movement's supporters in the UK, before being recruited by the security services in 1998. His cover was broken in 2006. Peter Marshall has interviewed him for Radio 4's The Report.

0715

On Monday the fifth portrait of the Queen to appear on our coinage was unveiled. It’s been almost seven years since the current design on new coins, some of the old designs are still in circulation, depicting the shield of arms on the reverse was introduced. Frances Simmons, a coin expert based in London.

0720

The CEO of Sony has spoken for the first time about the high-profile hack of the company's email systems. In December, hackers leaked private internal emails in protest over the release of The Interview, a Seth Rogen film which told the story of the attempted murder of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. Kazuo Hirai, who has spoken to the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ's Rory Cellan-Jones at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, says the FBI has since told Sony that 90% of companies would not have been able to withstand such a hack.

0730

Barclays announce their full year results for 2014. The bank is expected to make a slight profit but also to set aside more money for potential foreign exchange fines and to add to its compensation tab for UK customer mis-selling. Antony Jenkins is Chief Executive of Barclays.

0740

Mel Brooks has carved a long and illustrious career out of making people laugh, with films such as Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein and the stage show The Producers. Now 88, his enthusiasm for performance remains undimmed and later this month he'll be on stage at the Prince of Wales Theatre for his first ever solo London show. While in town he'll also be honoured with a fellowship from the British Film Institute. Mel Brooks' career began as an entertainer in the so called Borscht Belt - or 'Jewish Alps' - where Jewish New Yorkers would flock for their holidays from the 1920s until the 70s. Mr Brooks was too busy to do an interview with the Today programme, so we asked his old friend Alan Yentob, the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ's Creative Director, to see if he could get the lowdown on his one man show.

0750

The Prime Minister will announce new measures to tackle child sex abuse today, including tougher sanctions on public sector officials who fail to act and prioritising abuse as a national threat.Β  Later this morning a serious case review in Oxford is expected to review that over 300 young people were victims of sexual abuse.Β  Professor Alexis Jay authored a report into sex abuse in Rotherham and will take part in the summit on Tuesday.

0810

The ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ has been given access to audio believed to be of Mohammed Emwazi, thought to be the IS terrorist Jihadi John, talking about being asked questions by UK and Dutch security services at Schipol airport after being refused entry to Tanzania in 2009.Β  The recording comes from an interview with his case officer at the advocacy organisation Cage and is believed to date from 2012.Β  In the recording Emwazi condemns β€œinnocent people getting killed” in Afghanistan and the 7/7 terror attacks.Β  our special correspondent Lucy Manning and Asim Qureshi, research director at CAGE which describes itself as β€œan independent advocacy organisation working to empower communities impacted by the War on Terror.” He was Mohammed Emwazi’s case officer and recorded the interview with Emwazi that we are playing today.

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Mel Brooks has carved a long and illustrious career out of making people laugh, with films such as Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein and the stage show The Producers (see 0740).

0830

The World Health Organisation has updated its figures on the Ebola outbreak in the three worst affected countries. In Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guineas alone there have now been 23,913 cases with 9,714 deaths. But a report out today from Save the Children looking at lessons learnt from the crisis is warning that as many as 30 countries are vulnerable to an Ebola style epidemic due to weak health systems. The warning comes as a high level meeting is held in Brussels to discuss the response to the crisis. Our correspondent Andrew Harding reports from Liberia looking at how the country is trying to rebuild after the outbreak and Justin Forsyth is Chief Executive of Save the Children UK.

0840

Three British men have been arrested for allegedly plane-spotting in the United Arab Emirates. Conrad Clitheroe - who's 54 and from Woodley - and 45 year old Gary Cooper from Reddish - travelled to Dubai on February 18. They were joined there by an expat, Neil Munro, who's originally from Greater Manchester. The three were driving past Fujairah airport making notes of the plane numbers when arrested. They've been held in jail since Sunday 22nd February. Valerie Clitheroe is Conrad Clitheroe’s wife.

0845

A report commissioned by a member of the Treasury Select Committee has criticised the Bank of England’s investigation into its handling of the forex scandal. Lord Grabiner carried out a review for the bank into allegations that members of the Bank’s staff might have been involved in rigging the Β£3 trillion a day foreign exchange markets. He found that the Bank’s Chief Foreign Currency Dealer Martin Mallett was guilty of β€˜an error of judgement’ for not raising concerns that banks might have colluded over the foreign currency markets, but found no other fault with members of the Bank’s staff. Jesse Norman MP is a Conservative Member of the Treasury Select Committee and commissioned an independent legal assessment of the Grabiner review. This will be discussed at the Treasury Select Committee hearing later today with the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney and Bank Chairman Anthony Hapgood.

0850

The ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ has been given access to audio believed to be of Mohammed Emwazi, thought to be the IS terrorist Jihadi John, talking about being asked questions by UK and Dutch security services at Schipol airport after being refused entry to Tanzania in 2009 (see 0810). Hanif Qadir is founder & CEO of the Active Change foundation.

0855

Having to constantly charge your mobile is the uniting force behind modern living. Nowadays, we are tethered to our smartphones and are always having to top them up with power. This weekend, Ikea announced wireless charging (where a charge point is built into furniture), while Samsung announced their handsets will no longer have removable batteries. How reliant are we on charging points, and how annoying do consumers find poor battery life? Fevzi Turkalp is editor for tech advice site, GadgetDetective.com and Daisy Buchanan writes for the Telegraph & the Guardian.

All subject to change.

Broadcast

  • Tue 3 Mar 2015 06:00