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The Standard episodes

November 03, 2021 Cleo Smith: A happy ending for missing girl and family
Cleo Smith, the missing four-year-old in Australia, has been found safe and well after disappearing 18 days ago from her family’s tent at a campsite. Police officials and the Australian Prime Minister have spoken about their joy and relief to have reunited the little girl with her family. John Dunne, Crime Reporter for the Evening Standard, walks us through this incredible story with a happy ending.
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8 min
November 02, 2021 Accessibility issues at COP26
The UK has had to apologise to an Israeli minister who couldn’t attend the COP26 summit because the venue was not wheelchair accessible. Israel’s Minister of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources tweeted that it was "sad" the UN "does not provide accessibility to its events". So, just how does the UK compare when it comes to disability rights and accessibility?
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6 min
November 01, 2021 Andy Serkis, COP26 and The Most Important Comic Book on Earth
In line with COP26, we find out about the celebrity comic book which is trying to combat climate change.
We speak to Rewriting Extinction's Paul Goodenough and Hollywood star Andy Serkis who, with a host of other names, have teamed up to create 'The Most Important Comic Book on Earth' - a book full of original comics aimed at highlighting the climate and biodiversity crisis.
They want more creatives to come up with innovative ways to spread important messages and they tell us about their hopes for the world’s most talked about climate change summit.
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9 min
October 29, 2021 Insulate Britain: Protests, Public Support and COP26
Insulate Britain spokesperson and eco-home builder Craig Scudder discusses the group’s continuing protests, the need for public support and his hopes for the upcoming COP26.On Friday, some activists from the group decided to try and walk along the M25 into oncoming traffic to get their message heard. Craig tells the Evening Standard; the group is not officially changing tactics to walking along motorways and will continue their sit-ins on key routes instead. He also talks about protests on roads as a ‘last resort', apologises to those affected, and discusses the UK’s position as host of the upcoming COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow.
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6 min
October 28, 2021 Girls Night In Boycott: Students take action over nightclub spiking
As reports of people being spiked by injections continue to rise, students and young women across the country have held boycotts against nightclubs to raise awareness of the issue. Data from a student survey as well as figures from The National Police Chiefs Council show there is a real problem growing for people on nights out. The Evening Standard’s feature writer Katie Strick discusses the growing epidemic of injection spiking, how widespread the issue appears to be, and what campaigners are asking clubs to do in response.
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6 min
October 27, 2021 The Budget 2021: The pros, cons and thinking behind the government’s spending plans
The Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced his budget for the UK’s recovery from the pandemic. It was full of terms about the country becoming a ‘World Leader’ in things like innovation and science, as Mr Sunak laid out his plans to boost the economy post-covid. HSBC’s Senior Economic Advisor and Evening Standard columnist Stephen King discusses some of the highlights, which measures are questionable and how the Chancellor’s decisions will impact the wider economy.
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9 min
October 26, 2021 Covid 19: Leaked documents reveal £18billion cost of Plan B
New leaked documents show the cost of rolling out the government’s proposed ‘Plan B’ for tackling coronavirus could reach up to £18billion.The files, leaked to Politico London Playbook show the cost to the economy could be between £11billion and £18billion, if the measures were in place for five months. The back-up plan by the government includes a return to working from home, covid passports for indoor venues, and a return to mandatory facemasks. The Evening Standard’s Political Editor Nick Cecil discusses the leaked documents, what the government is thinking about the spread of coronavirus, and looks ahead to the Chancellor’s budget announcement on Wednesday.
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7 min
October 25, 2021 London’s ULEZ expansion: Why is it needed?
Ross Phillips from the not-for-profit group the Cross River Partnership discusses the new ULEZ expansion in the city, how it works, why it’s needed, and how Londoners can live with it. The city’s pollution charge zone officially became 18 times bigger on Monday, in a bid to improve air quality across the capital. The Ultra-Low-Emission-Zone, also called ‘ULEZ’, now extends out to the North and South circular roads.
It means a charge of £12.50 a day for travelling through the zone, which affects drivers whose cars or vans don’t meet the minimum emissions standards.
The mayor of London Sadiq Khan says it will cut the amount of carbon being emitted by more than 100 tonnes - equivalent to about 60,000 vehicles being taken off the roads.
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7 min
October 22, 2021 Inside Chernobyl: Robodogs decommission nuclear tomb
Thirty-five years after the world’s worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl - or Chornobyl in Ukrainian - Professor Tom Scott, a nuclear expert at the University of Bristol and Royal Academy research fellow, is using robo dogs to help local scientists decommission the exploded reactor entombed in a decaying “sarcophagus”.
A sarcophagus is the size of a small cathedral and was built over Reactor 4 following the 1986 explosion to contain radioactive lava, contaminated soil and debris from the blast - but the construction materials meant it would only last a couple of decades, and the roof sprung a leak.
So in 2019, construction of a giant hanger-like arch was completed over both the reactor and sarcophagus to encase everything for a century so dismantling and clean-up of waste from the reactor’s remains could continue.
Hear the story of how Professor Scott’s team is using camera-equipped robotic dogs to 3D-map parts of Chornobyl too dangerous for humans due to intense radiation.
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8 min
October 21, 2021 Covid: how can we stop its winter advance?
A possible 100,000 Covid cases a day - that was the warning from Health Secretary Sajid Javid. It’s looking like another difficult winter for Londoners going about our working lives, and we know how those everyday tasks become logistical challenges - no wonder the London Chamber of Commerce is urging “decisive” government action about the road ahead.
So how will this uncertainty hit the pound in our pocket, how should we prepare ourselves for winter, and how is the infection rate looking right now? We get insight from the Evening Standard’s Health Editor Ross Lydall and Consumer Business Editor Jonathan Prynn.
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10 min