The News Agents

It’s polling day in elections across Great Britain. Labour is braced for a battering, at the hands of insurgent forces on every side. Birmingham is a microcosm of that picture: an unloved Labour administration dealing with complex problems and complex politics.
But here it’s not just the Greens and Reform the party must contend with, but the rise of the so-called Gaza independents. A new political force appealing largely to British Muslims who, like everyone else, are disatissfied with the status quo.
Is this really a new sectarian politics, as the newspapers suggest? And if it is - should we be concerned about who is propelling those forces? With the control of the biggest local authority in Europe up for grabs, Lewis has gone home to England’s second city to find out.
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Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing, is back asking questions of those in power. His new best-seller investigates the mysterious death of young Zac Brettler in the heart of London. What does it tell us about dark money, lies and corruption in this gilded city - now home to the world’s billionaires? And why were the police either unwilling or unable to provide his family with answers? We talk about identity, reinvention and oligarchs in his latest book, London Falling.
Later, Trump's Project Freedom in Hormuz ends on day one - has Trump capitulated or is a deal, finally, in sight?
The News Agents is a Global Production.
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

Donald Trump launched "Project Freedom" over the bank holiday weekend - a "humanitarian gesture", aimed at guaranteeing the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz still stubbornly being controlled by Iran.
The Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, announced today a "red white and blue dome" over the area as he insisted that the US holds all the cards in the conflict. There's just one problem: nobody seems to be buying it. Ships aren't moving through the Strait in any real volume, and there were fresh attacks from both sides over the weekend despite a ceasefire. Has Trump forgotten who started this war? And have other world leaders stopped listening to him?
Later, has Zac Polanski peaked too soon ahead of the local elections on Thursday? One poll shows his approval ratings plummeting over the last week - why?
The News Agents is a Global Production.
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

In the last weeks, the funding of the Reform party has attracted more and more attention. This is a party which tells us they are heading to Downing street, a party tipped to the top the poll in next week’s English local elections.
We now know that Nigel Farage’s party has been given over £12m from a single donor, a Thai based British businessman, crypto billionaire, Christopher Harborne. And we also now know that just before Nigel Farage was elected an MP in 2024, Mr Harborne gave Farage a gift of £5m, never before declared.
How could it be that Reform, a party we are told which is preparing to be government, is so dependent on a Thai based crypto billionaire? What does it say about the way we fund politics? And politics to come?
The News Agents is a Global Production.
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

The Bank of England Monetary Policy Report might sound like a dry and dusty economic report - and often it is - but today's made for truly shocking reading for Britain.
Its analysis shows living standards are already falling and, as a result of Trump's war in Iran, inflation could go above 6%, and as many as six rises in interest rates might be needed by the end of this year. That would mean rocketing mortgages, eye-watering increases in food prices, and job layoffs with the UK economy stunned by the fallout from Trump's war with Iran. Is there any sense of a way out of this mess from the White House? Or is Trump happy to sink the global economy if it increases his chances of pummelling the regime in Tehran into submission?
Later - 40 days until the world's most prohibitively expensive World Cup kicks off. Is America actually trying to keep people away?
The News Agents is a Global Production.
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/