A Journalist Has Entered The Top Secret Military Chat
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, we look at the fall out after a journalist revealed that he had been mistakenly added to a groupchat where US security leaders were discussing air strikes in Yemen.
Many of the security officials on the Signal app chat have been testifying at a worldwide threat assessment hearing in the Senate.
Adam is joined by BBC chief presenter in Washington Caitríona Perry and former Pentagon top US government security official Celeste Wallander.
Plus, a lawyer investigating former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe has found "credible evidence" he and his staff mistreated two female team members. He denies the allegations. Chris is on to explain what’s happening.
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New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bit.ly/3ENLcS1 Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Chris Flynn with Anna Harris and Shiler Mahmoudi. The technical producer was Ricardo McCarthy. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.8 | Hello, Big Story was brewing in the US in between the last episode of newscasts and this one, |
| 0:10.6 | which is a journalist from The Atlantic magazine, apparently by accident being added to a quite |
| 0:18.8 | sensitive conversation on the signal messaging app |
| 0:21.8 | amongst quite senior members of the Trump administration where they were talking about |
| 0:25.9 | a military strike on the Houthis in Yemen. |
| 0:29.4 | And it also included some quite kind of fruity geopolitical analysis from J.D. Vance. |
| 0:34.4 | And it also included a quite amazing use of emojis by Michael Walsz, who's |
| 0:39.3 | Donald Trump's National Security Advisor, who used a fist bump, a flame, and an American flag. |
| 0:47.2 | So let's haul in our emoji correspondent, Katrina Perry in Washington. Hello, Katrina. |
| 0:52.6 | Hello, smiley face. |
| 0:54.8 | Yeah, exactly. That's the emoji I associate with you. |
| 0:57.9 | Before we dig into the details, I always like finding out what people's most used emojis are. |
| 1:02.2 | Do you have your emoji keyboard to hand? What's in the top left corner? |
| 1:06.8 | I have my little device. Let me open it up. I just have to make sure I'm not in any group chats here lest I send messages. I don't intend to send. Let's see. |
| 1:15.1 | Fully transparent. Ooh, okay. Right. So my most used emoji is crossed fingers. Okay. Revealing. |
| 1:23.7 | Here you go. Next. My second most used is gridded teeth. |
| 1:30.1 | Also revealing about what you've been through in the last few months. |
| 1:32.8 | My most used one. |
| 1:34.3 | But my third one, oh yeah, go on. |
| 1:34.7 | No, what's your third? |
| 1:35.4 | What's your third? |
... |
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