The Leader | Evening Standard daily

Students across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are celebrating record-breaking success in this year’s A-Levels, with London doing the best in the country. Our Education Editor Anna Davis tells us why the Capital’s performed so well, and also looks at the mystery of why girls have done better than boys this year? She also discusses the dilemma facing universities with a record 435,430 people having a confirmed place, but also more people entering clearing and fewer courses available than last year.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A UN report into global climate change has laid bare how extreme weather events are set to increase in coming years with global temperatures set to rise by more than 1.5C. We're joined by one of the contributors to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change study, Dr Laura Wilcox of Reading University. She tells how as a scientist the findings are "scary," but insists there are still ways to turn things around.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Evening Standard’s Anthony France joins us from Tokyo where he’s been reporting on a unique Olympic Games. There have been Cold War-style defections of athletes, a typhoon, an earthquake, Covid-19 restrictions and even some events on the field like Simone Biles pulling out of competitions. But Anthony tells us how his mind has changed about the Games, shifting from wondering why it was happening at all to being impressed at how Japan has pulled it off “through sheer willpower”. He also tells us about some of the aspects of the coronavirus restrictions, including the joy of gourmet food delivery when you’re stuck in a hotel, and the mysterious ‘bus spotters’ lurking at stops in the city. But will it be remembered as a classic Olympics, up there with famous occasions like London 2012?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Evening Standard’s Jonathan Prynn tells us about the latest changes to England’s traffic light travel list system. He tells us which countries have been put onto the green list and has the ‘amber plus’ column been scrapped now that its only member, France, has been taken off it.  We also talk about the plight of around 6,000 British holidaymakers in Mexico. That country has just been placed on the red list and there aren’t enough flights to get everyone home by the time the change takes effect on Sunday.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Evening Standard’s political correspondent Sophia Sleigh is on the show to break down reports that 16-17-year-olds are to be offered the Covid-19 vaccination. We discuss why the move’s being made now and how difficult it might be to persuade busy young people, or sceptical parents, to actually take the shot. Under existing guidance, young people aged 16 to 17 with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious Covid infection should have already been offered a jab. Children aged 12 to 15 with certain conditions which make them vulnerable to coronavirus can also access the vaccine, as can those aged 12 to 17 who live with an immunosuppressed person, such as a parent or grandparent.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our political editor Nicholas Cecil joins the show to tell us about the government minister who says it’s the “duty” of older workers to get back to the office so they can guide their younger colleagues. Skills minister Gillian Keegan is also urging firms to use the summer to “ramp up” getting staff back into the office. She stressed that many young employees had missed out on key development experiences in their jobs because they have been working from home. However, the Government is under growing pressure to get civil servants back into Whitehall as it encourages more employees to return to the workplace in the private sector. Ms Keegan estimated that about 20 to 25 per cent of staff at the Department for Education are in the office on any one day at the moment.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Evening Standard reporter Rachael Burford tells us what happened at Heathrow when the first passengers arrived following the UK lifting quarantine restrictions for the vaccinated. She tells us about the scenes of joy as families kept apart by the pandemic, some for nearly two years, were finally reunited. At Terminal 5, dozens of families were waiting to see their relatives, who live in the US, as restrictions in both countries have made travel between them almost impossible before today. We also discuss London’s tourism industry and the hopes that summer might be saved with more people able to visit a city that’s been battered by three lockdowns.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this special edition of the Leader podcast we’re in Malawi to look at how a 24-year-old music student has become a hero in the country’s fight against Covid-19.  Maggie Mkandawire had to return to her home village from the capital Lilongwe when coronavirus restrictions fell in March 2020. Finding herself at a loose end, she started making affordable facemasks from a traditional cotton textile for those struggling to afford disposable ones. Soon she was embroiled in the fight against vaccine misinformation, tackling rumours and falsehoods from the injections making people infertile to claims they’re connected to Satanic cults. In this incredible story we hear from Maggie herself and the health official who credits her work for increasing vaccination take up and getting more people to wear face masks.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Leading travel journalist Simon Calder joins the podcast to try to explain what the government’s doing with international travel, as the UK opens up its borders but other countries keep theirs all but closed to Brits. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab’s hinted more destinations will be added to our so-called “green-list” and pressure’s being applied to the US to open up a corridor with the UK. But Simon says Joe Biden will “not be quaking in the Oval Office” with US domestic tourism on the rise, and Stateside airlines not suffering the same losses as their British counterparts.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

England’s opening up its borders to double-jabbed US and EU travellers, now will other countries let our tourists in? We speak to travel expert Paul Charles who suggests Washington’s unlikely to budge soon on its current restrictions against UK passengers as the Delta variant surges Stateside. But he suggests places like Italy and others in the EU might finally start to look more favourably on British travellers, possibly before the end of the summer. We also talk about how the new rules are going to work in the UK, and the pilot scheme at British airports that appears to have convinced the government it can be done safely.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Evening Standard’s political editor Nicholas Cecil takes a look at the stats as one of the country’s leading epidemiologists says the pandemic will be “largely over by October”. Professor Neil Ferguson, who was one of the scientists behind the UK’s first lockdown in March 2020, was talking to BBC Radio 4 as figures show another tumble in cases – in London it’s down 57% in six days. But the Prime Minister’s continuing to urge caution saying it’s “very, very important we don’t allow ourselves to run away with premature conclusions”.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As a huge clean-up begins following a night of flooding in parts of London, people are wondering how one of the world’s leading cities can be hit so badly by rainfall. Evening Standard reporter Rachael Burford’s been looking at that for the newspaper and tells the podcast there are “numerous” reasons behind it. London Fire Brigade had taken more than 1,000 calls by the early hours of Monday morning following the torrential rain and thunderstorms. Barts Health, London’s largest health trust, declared a major incident after water flooded the basement at Whipps Cross Hospital, causing damage to the electrical system. Newham Hospital was also affected. Parts of the Central Line in east London were suspended on Monday morning as engineers worked to repair damage caused by the weather. The Prime Minister’s released a statement saying his “thoughts are with everyone affected by the flooding”   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We know it can order groceries when your fridge is empty, turn on the lights in your house, even drive a car but could AI ever be smart enough to become an author? Computing pioneer Ada Lovelace thought it wouldn’t happen because machines can only work with programming inputted by humans, but writer Jeanette Winterson disagrees. Her new book 12 Bytes is an exploration of AI and the journey humans are taking to create a new kind of lifeform. She tells the Leader podcast that computers could very well develop their own ‘imaginations’ but once they do, what kind of stories will they tell and would we want to hear them? Jeanette is appearing at the Evening Standard’s Stories Festival, in association with Netflix. You’ll find the full line-up here.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our Political Editor Nicholas Cecil reveals how shoppers are being urged not to panic buy as staff at supermarkets are forced to self-isolate after being alerted by the NHS app. The “pinging” crisis is growing with Boris Johnson being urged to hold a meeting of Whitehall’s Cobra emergency committee to consider deploying the Army if necessary as a “last resort” to ensure supermarket shelves are not left empty in the coming weeks. Meanwhile Sadiq Khan is warning of his rising concerns over the “pingdemic” disrupting London’s “absolutely crucial” public transport, food supplies and bin collection services.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As the Evening Standard reveals a 7-year-old was caught taking a knife into his primary school to “stab another boy at afterschool club,” our investigations editor David Cohen tells us how we here. In a special report, he’s identified five reasons why knife crime has become such a problem in London, and what measures can be taken to reverse it. This year, 22 young people have met violent deaths in the capital; twenty of those were through stabbings. The worst year on record is 2008, when there were thirty deaths. Campaigners fear it’s inevitable that record will be broken  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.