The Fourcast

Zack Polanski and the Green Party are facing pressing questions after Andy Burnham’s Labour held Keir Starmer’s former seat in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.
The result is a setback for Polanski’s hopes of challenging Labour on the left of British politics. With calls for his resignation after he declined to vote on the Green Party’s ‘Zionism is Racism’ motion, is this just a blip for the Green Party leader or is his leadership really under threat?
In this episode of The Fourcast, Jackie Long spoke to Green Party’s deputy leader Rachel Millward, as well as the political correspondent from the New Statesman Megan Kenyon and pollster from More In Common UK, Luke Tryl.

In the last few days a former German spy chief has been accused of selling state secrets, a British navy sailor has been charged with espionage and now two Latvians have been picked up near a British air base in Cambridgeshire - not to mention the mysterious goings on at RAF Fairford.
So are Western intelligence agencies facing a growing threat? Or was it ever thus? 
In this episode of the Fourcast Indicators, Krishnan Guru Murthy and Mark Urban are joined by former national security adviser Sir Mark Lyall Grant.

The unprecedented survival of Christa Pike following a botched lethal injection in Tennessee has plunged the American capital punishment system into a deep legal and constitutional crisis.
Sentenced to death at age 18 for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, Pike was scheduled to become the first woman executed by the state in over two centuries. However, after two lethal doses of pentobarbital failed to kill her, she survived and was rushed to intensive care.
Pike is now reportedly conscious and speaking in hospital while handcuffed to her bed.
In this episode of The Fourcast, Anushka Asthana is joined by Dr. Joel Zivot, an anaesthesiologist advising Pike's defence team,  Robin Maher from the Death Penalty Information Center, and "Surviving Execution" author Ian Woods. The panel asks: Can an execution ever truly be humane, or has America reached a breaking point with capital punishment?

The sudden withdrawal of American heavy bombers from RAF Fairford back to the United States follows a major incident near the Gloucestershire airbase. Five men were arrested near the base, with the UK government saying it showed "strong indications" of state-sponsored involvement from Tehran.
So why has the US pulled its bombers from the UK? Has the abrupt departure handed Tehran a tactical and propaganda victory? And what does the saga say about the UK’s special relationship with the US?
On this episode of the Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined by Dr David Jordan from the Freeman Air and Space Institute, former senior official at the Pentagon, Jim Townsend, as well as Trita Parsi from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

An Israel-bound Flydubai flight plunged more than 14,000 feet in just 30 seconds after the co-pilot allegedly attacked the pilot and tried to take control of the aircraft.

The plane eventually landed safely in Saudi Arabia after passengers and off-duty pilots intervened, but the incident has raised urgent questions about aviation security, insider threats and whether flights to Israel now face a new kind of risk.

Matt Frei and Mark Urban examine what we know so far, why Benjamin Netanyahu has compared the incident to a potential “9/11-style” attack, and what it could mean for Israel, Flydubai and airline security around the world.

There is currently no evidence linking the alleged attack to Iran or a wider terrorist plot.