Americanswers… on 5 Live! What next after US government shutdown?

Americast

BBC

Politics, Government, News

4.2 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In another extraordinary week in U.S politics, the US government has shut down for the first time in almost seven years after members of Congress failed to agree a last-ditch funding deal. Donald Trump has said federal workers could start losing their jobs in the coming days, but what are the other consequences of the shutdown for American citizens? And how long will the shutdown last?

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has hosted Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu again at the White House, this time to reveal proposals for a peace plan in Gaza. The plan itself has been accepted by Israel and welcomed by a number of Arab countries including Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Pakistan, Indonesia and Turkey. Hamas is yet to respond to the peace plan. We answer your questions about whether Trump’s proposals are a serious attempt at peace.

And, Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth have been speaking to U.S generals and military leaders from around the world, calling out “fat” soldiers and generals while announcing a new set of physical standards in the U.S military. But why did Donald Trump use his speech to suggest the military should use U.S cities as “training grounds”?

HOSTS: • Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter • Anthony Zurcher, North America correspondent

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This episode was made by George Dabby with Alix Pickles and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:07.2	We get it. Life is busy. You want to keep up with the news, but there's just too much going on.
0:13.0	Which is where newscast comes in. We do the work, and when you're ready to dig deeper into the day's news, you just pop us into your ears.
0:23.1	It does mean we have to put in the hard work though.
0:26.2	Listen to newscast every day on BBC Sounds.
0:29.7	Hello, it's Justin here. Anthony and I have just come off the air with Matt Chorley,
0:33.5	answering your questions, as we do every week on Five Live.
0:35.8	It's been a typically busy week, of course.
0:42.0	We're only at the halfway point, I suppose, but already been quite a lot of announcements in the US and abroad.
0:48.8	Announcements that have captured the attention of AmeriCasters. Not always a lot of detail to go on.
0:55.2	So we try during this episode to understand why the US government shutdown has happened, what it actually means for people in America, why that US brokered peace deal between Israel and Hamas, or at least
1:01.8	the peace proposals, have suddenly emerged, what's going on there and the wider situation in
1:09.3	the Gulf as well and the involvement of those states in all of that.
1:13.5	We kicked off, though, with news about the shutdown of the US government,
1:16.7	which obviously has a huge political impact,
1:19.1	but also potentially an impact on individual Americans.
1:22.0	And those two things, of course, are linked.
1:23.9	So we began with that. Welcome to America Answers.
1:29.4	Ameriast. Amer we began with that. Welcome to America Answers. AmeriCast. AmeriCast from BBC News. When Donald Trump calls, they say, yes, sir, right away, sir.
1:35.9	Happy to lick your boot, sir. We are the sickest country in the world. Oh dear. Are you worried
1:41.5	that billionaires are going to go hungry? Of course the president supports peaceful protest. What a stupid question.
1:46.8	Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?
	...

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