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04/05/2017

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

3 hours

Last on

Thu 4 May 2017 06:00

Running Order

0650 ΜύBritish and European researchers have developed a blood test that can tell whether men with advanced prostate cancer will respond to the standard drugs used to fight the disease. The test could prevent thousands of men undergoing unnecessary treatment. Dr Gerhardt Attard is from the Centre for Evolution and Cancer at The Institute of Cancer Research.

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0655 Very little is known about the dinosaurs that lived in Africa 66 million years ago, just before they were wiped out by a huge asteroid. But now a fossil from one of the last dinosaurs living in Africa before their extinction has been discovered and it helps scientists to get a much better understanding of dinosaurs in the region at that time. Dr Nick Longrich is a Senior Lecturer in Palaeontology from the University of Bath’s Milner Centre for Evolution and led the study.

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0710 ΜύRussia has proposed a new peace plan for Syria, involving the creation of β€œde-escalation” or safe zones around the country. The plan has the support of the Syrian and Iranian governments, and Putin claims Trump backs it - elements are similar to a plan put forward by Rex Tillerson. Have the big powers finally agreed on a joint approach that could work? Bassma Kodmani is a member of the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee, the main opposition body negotiating peace talks.

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0720 Controversy is surrounding the proposal to tear down four confederate statues in New Orleans. One statue celebrated a white supremacist group that fought to bring down a post-civil war council because it had black members...it is the only one to have been brought down so far; the others are due to be pulled down any day. There have been protests because the first monument was taken down in the middle of the night. Bryan Stevenson is founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama.

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0730 The two contenders for the French presidency traded insults in a fiery TV debate last night. Centrist Emmanuel Macron said his far-right rival Marine Le Pen's strategy is β€œto lie", while she called him a shameless "darling of the system". Jim Naughtie is our special correspondent in Paris.

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0750 If you've ordered something online recently there's a good chance it was delivered to your home by the company Hermes - it has contracts with some of the UK's biggest retailers. Well it’s facing legal action - the GMB union has launched a case at an employment tribunal. It claims that the company is falsely classing its drivers as self-employed and as a result, claims the union, the drivers are being denied their rights. β€˜David’ is a courier for Hermes & Maria Ludkin, Legal director for GMB.

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0810 Russia has proposed a new peace plan for Syria, involving the creation of β€œde-escalation” or safe zones around the country. The plan has the support of the Syrian and Iranian governments, and Putin claims Trump backs it - elements are similar to a plan put forward by Rex Tillerson. Have the big powers finally agreed on a joint approach that could work? Lyse Doucet is our Chief International Correspondent. Dr Lina Khatib is head of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the international affairs think tank Chatham House and Kurt Volker is the former United States Permanent Representative to NATO.

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0820 NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has sent back the sounds it encountered as it drove through the rings of Saturn in late April. The lack of sound suggests to scientists there are very few dust particles between Saturn and its rings. Dr Bill S. Kurth is the principal investigator for Cassini's radio and plasma science instrument.

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0830 The two contenders for the French presidency traded insults in a fiery head to head TV debate, in a key moment of a long and bitter campaign. Centrist Emmanuel Macron said his far-right rival Marine Le Pen's strategy is β€œto lie", while she called him a shameless "darling of the system". Katya Adler is our Europe Editor.

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0840 Scientists have started counting birds from space. They are using the highest-resolution satellite images available to gauge the numbers of northern royal albatrosses. This endangered animal nests almost exclusively on a group of rocky sea stacks close to New Zealand’s Chatham Islands. Dr Cleo Small Albatross expert at RSPB and advisor on the research.

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0850 When the Berlin Wall fell, many assumed we had reached the "end of history" and the spread of liberal democracy was inevitable. But since 2000 the number of functioning democracies has fallen, and countries like China have proven that you don't need the vote to create a booming economy. Is liberalism really in trouble or is a shakeup badly needed? Ed Luce is the author of the Retreat of Western Liberalism and Pankaj Mishra is the author of The Age of Anger.

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Broadcast

  • Thu 4 May 2017 06:00