Summary
The government announces England's pandemic plans for winter. Fergus and Vicki are here with Adam to go through the ‘Plan A’, which includes booster jabs, and the potentially more dramatic ‘Plan B’. Vaccine passports haven’t been ruled out. And in a surreal turn of events at the announcement, Boris Johnson and Professor Chris Whitty ended up in a spat with rapper Nicki Minaj – and even our very own Laura Kuenssberg was brought into it. Prince Andrew is being sued in New York over allegations of sexual assault by Virginia Giuffre, but his new lawyer says the legal papers haven’t properly been served. Emily Maitlis comes in to break down the details and talk about the possible significance of *that* Newsnight interview.
And, hey presto: the Magic Circle has its first female president! We’ve conjured up the pioneering magician herself, Megan Swann, who tells us about her new job and has a special trick for Newscasters.
Today’s Newscast was made by Emma Close with Danny Wittenberg and Georgia Coan. The studio director was Emma Crowe. The editor is Jonathan Aspinwall.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:04.7 | Hello, today the government unveiled its plan for dealing with COVID in the autumn and winter, |
| 0:10.3 | but there then emerged a news story no one could have predicted as a result. |
| 0:15.0 | The government versus the pop star Nicky Manage and it all started because Chris Whitti and Boris Johnson at the press conference |
| 0:25.0 | were asked about some tweets she'd done |
| 0:27.0 | spreading misinformation about the COVID vaccine. |
| 0:30.0 | Many of those people, I regret to say, |
| 0:32.0 | I think know that they are peddling untruths, but they still do it. |
| 0:36.0 | In my view, they should be ashamed. |
| 0:39.0 | And I'll leave it at that. |
| 0:41.0 | And I look, I'm just on that, Steve, I'm not familiar with the works of, or not as familiar with the works of Nicki Minage as I probably should be. |
| 0:48.0 | But I am familiar with Nicki Kanani, a superstar GP of Bexley, who's appeared many times on before you, who will tell |
| 0:56.9 | you that vaccines are wonderful and everybody should get them. |
| 1:00.2 | So I prefer to listen to Nicky-Kennani. |
| 1:03.2 | Would Miss Menage remain silent? |
| 1:05.1 | No, she absolutely would not. |
| 1:08.0 | Yes, hello Prime Minister Boris, it's Nicky Manage. |
| 1:13.0 | I was just calling to tell you that I thought you were so amazing on the news this morning. |
| 1:19.0 | And I'm actually British. |
| 1:22.0 | I was born there I I went to university there I went to Oxford I |
| 1:29.2 | went to school with Margaret Thatcher and she told me so many nice things about you. I'd love to send you |
| 1:39.1 | my portfolio of my work since you don't know much about me I'm a big big start in in the |
... |
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