Podcasts about national statistics

There's an exciting opportunity to join the team behind the UK's largest producer of official statistics. Hywel Davies has been finding out about a new work placement scheme with The Office for National Statistics.

How do we value nature? How do we price it and define its asset value? This week we're looking to a recent report issued by the UK Office of National Statistics to provide illustration of four ocean functions that underlie our capacity to sustain life on Earth. The ocean's contribution to the past, present, and future of the world economy and civilization is the core principle for real calculation of the value of natural capital and its relation to human endeavor. Part one of a series of new ideas, technologies, theories, and innovations that contribute to a larger public awareness of the need for new financial approaches that will enable change, sustainability, and survival in the future.About World Ocean Radio World Ocean Radio is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide. Celebrating 16 years in 2026, providing coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. Episodes of World Ocean Radio offer perspectives on global ocean issues and viable solutions, and celebrate exemplary projects.World Ocean Radio: 5-minute weekly insights in ocean science, advocacy, education, global ocean issues, marine science, policy, challenges, and solutions. Hosted by Peter Neill, Founder of W2O. Learn more at worldoceanobservatory.org

The Office for National Statistics has released the migration figures for the last quarter — and whilst the government is celebrating, Julia Hartley-Brewer isn't buying it. She's joined by Reform UK Councillor and Deputy Leader of Durham County Council Darren Grimes, who forcefully argues that nobody voted for the rampant levels of migration over the past decades. From David Cameron's broken promise of reducing it to tens of thousands, to Boris Johnson's staggering 944,000 net arrivals, the British public have been consistently lied to — and are now footing the bill in housing, healthcare, schools, and council translation contracts running into the tens of thousands.Former Head of UK Border Force Tony Smith then joins to drill down into the raw data. Net migration is down to 171,000 — but 88,000 new asylum claims, a 3% boat removal rate, and nearly a fifth of the UK population now foreign-born tells a very different story.Also: Julia discusses the viral clip of Rachel Reeves getting heckled at a Leeds petrol station… and her questioning the British-ness of her heckler. Plus, the Reform candidate for the Makerfield by-election faces media scrutiny over deleted tweets.Julia Hartley-Brewer broadcasts on Talk from Monday to Thursday, 10AM to 1PM.Available on YouTube and streaming platforms, along with DAB+ radio and your smart speaker. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

According to the Office for National Statistics, only around four in ten UK businesses live to see their fifth birthday. And for most of the ones that do make it, the bottleneck isn't the market - it's the founder. Our guest today learned that the hard way. Thea Brook spent over a decade as a CFO scaling startups into the tens of millions, built her own restaurants and product brands, and then ran the conventional playbook of working harder and growing faster straight into burnout and a brain haemorrhage. She rebuilt from scratch, and founded CALMM - now giving more than 250 founder-led businesses senior leadership brains on tap across strategy, ops, marketing, people and finance. Her blunt lesson: the skills that got you here are rarely the ones that get you past here. Thea's course can be found www.theabrook.com/workshop Thea's advice: When scaling, look inside your own business to find solutions: keep looking withinMake the most of what you have already and your assetsRecognise that it's not all about starting a business and being an entrepreneur, it's about owning a businessThe visionary side of things can be stimulating and fun - but the operating, the actual doing, can be hardAllow yourself strategic thinking time: assess your thinking and your doingAlways accept you're learning and never be afraid to ask questionsFF&M enables you to own your own PR & produces podcasts.Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2024 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason.  Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on instagram @fallowfieldmason. MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod. Link &  LicenceText us your questions for future founders. Plus we'd love to get your feedback, text in via Fan MailSupport the show

Paula Constant “2030 Target: £100m revenue, £30m EBITDA and £20m SaaS ARR”Paula Constant joined Personal Group as CEO in July 2023. It took just six months to stop the share price continuing its 5 year downtrend and achieve a 167% rally in less than 3 years.This was done by achieving double digit growth whilst still being on a reasonable valuation, building a rock solid balance sheet and paying a very chunky dividend.And there's more still to come. Paula has ambitions to more than double revenue and profits over to 2023 by achieving £100m in revenue, £30m EBITDA and £20m SaaS ARR.Personal Group Holdings Plc (AIM: PGH) is a workforce benefits and insurance provider. Its vision is to be the champion of affordable and accessible insurance and benefits, keeping businesses and their employees happy, healthy and protected. The Group is proud to support the health and wellbeing of c. 1.25 million UK employees.The Group's insurance provides employees with access to affordable, individual policies for hospital, recovery and death benefit plans. The Group's award-winning benefits platform, Hapi, brings together extensive employee benefits, discounts and rewards, in one responsive platform. As well as being sold direct to employers, the Hapi platform supports Sage's Employee Benefits offerings for SMEs.This comprehensive range of offerings, powerful platform and unique sales model of face-to-face, one-to-one engagement with employees, provides Personal Group with a strong market position from which to grow.  Head-quartered in Milton Keynes, the Group has built an extensive blue-chip customer list over its 40-year history, including Airtanker, B & Q, Barchester Healthcare, British Transport Police, British Airways, Merseyrail, Office of National Statistics, Randstad, Royal Mail Group, The Royal Mint, Stagecoach Group plc, and The University of York.For further information on the Group please see www.personalgroup.com

According to the most recent data from the Office for National Statistics. For boys, the top name was Noah, which replaced Oliver from the previous year. For girls, the top name was Olivia, which remained the same for the sixth year in a row. Other popular names for boys included Henry, Arlo, Sebastian and Luca, while for girls, Freya, Florence, Willow and Alys were among the favourites. There are many factors that can influence parents' choices, such as family traditions, personal preferences, cultural backgrounds, religious beliefs, and even celebrities. For example, some parents may name their children after famous actors, singers, sports stars, or characters from books, movies, or TV shows. What about uncommon names? Why do some parents opt for these unconventional names? What are the predictions for popular names in 2024? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here: ⁠Why is black associated with grief?⁠ ⁠Should you sleep with socks on?⁠ ⁠How can I get the most out of daytime napping?⁠ A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance. First broadcast: 29/12/2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to the British Fertility Society, between 9% and 15% of couples will encounter fertility problems, while Fertility Network UK says that “over 3.5 million people in the UK go through some kind of fertility challenge.” Interestingly, the total fertility rate in England and Wales actually increased slightly in 2021, according to the Office for National Statistics. But that was the first increase in a decade, with the general trend being towards lower fertility, a pattern also seen elsewhere in the world, and in developed countries in particular.  Why are more people facing fertility challenges then? What about environmental factors? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here: ⁠Why is sugar bad for our memory?⁠ ⁠Does the law of attraction really work?⁠ ⁠How can I stay trendy buying only second hand clothes?⁠ A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance. First Broadcast: 28/2/2024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Miles and guests unpack how the ONS is collecting the prices from more than a billion supermarket checkout and online sales to measure UK inflation.  Transcript Scanner data podcast transcript Miles:  Hello and welcome to statistically speaking, the official podcast of the UK's Office for National Statistics. I'm Miles Fletcher, and in this episode, we're taking an in depth look at a very big change in how the ONS produces its estimates of inflation, no longer the sole preserve of clipboard wielding prices collectors roaming the supermarket aisles. The digital revolution has now fully arrived. From this month, the UK's inflation indices are now partly based on millions of prices data gathered directly from the tills or scanners, to be precise. How is it all done? What is the role of Taylor Swift in all this? Yes, there is one. And what are the benefits for economists, decision makers and all of us ordinary folk who worry about the cost of living. Here to unpack it all for us is Mike Hardy, who has led the project here at the ONS, and top economist and former member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, Jonathan Haskel, professor of economics at Imperial College London. Professor to start with you: to understand what's changed, it'd probably be helpful to remind ourselves how consumer prices inflation has until now been calculated. Essentially, it was the ONS and its agents checking the prices of 1000s of items on a monthly basis to see how they changed.   Jonathan: Yeah, that's right, and the ONS has gone to an enormous amount of effort in order to make that collection representative and make it consistent. But of course, in the modern era of scanner, data, computers, e commerce, things like that, there are other ways of doing it. I guess the important point, which Mike can talk about some more, is that one of the things that we know from statistics is that having a big sample isn't necessarily going to be better if you have a representative sample to start with. So I think one of the interesting points about all of this is whilst the scanner data is collecting many more data points, it's a fascinating check on the representativeness or otherwise of the ONS survey and the procedures thus far as to whether the actual average of all of that will turn out to be very different or similar to what's done before. It's a great advantage to have all of this extra data, but one shouldn't overstate either the advantage or use it as a way of rubbishing what the ONS has been doing in the past.   Miles: So to put it this way, perhaps then, what the ONS has traditionally been doing in collecting prices, is to take this big monthly snapshot of retailing and prices, and what people have been paying for items. What it's got now, what it's moving to in the digital age is moving from a still picture, perhaps to a rolling 4k video, and from that, it can find out exactly what has been missed out of the inflation calculations previously.   Jonathan: Well, I'll just put a little bit of a spin on that. One of the things that the price collectors do, and they're very, very careful to do, is to make sure that that snapshot is consistent across the snapshots, if you sort of see what I mean. So there is a bit of a rolling element to those snapshots already, because, for example, if you're going to collect the price of, let us say, Ladies jeans, which is something that I was doing with the price collector recently, you want to be sure you collect the price for the same good over time. And the point about the price collectors is they're extremely conscientious about making sure that, in the case of ladies jeans, they are coloured blue. They've got either a flared leg or not a flared leg. They've got the same number of pockets, they've got the same amount of stitching, they've got different decorations on them. To make sure that those goods remain the same is actually very important, and that's something actually which the hand collection can do. And as I say, I think that means that the snapshot element is maybe not quite the right metaphor, if I may say, miles. It is the relation. It's a consistent element over time, a consistent snapshot if that's using a metaphor   Miles: That said it's more than just blindly following the same list of products every month. But nonetheless, the traditional way of doing things has had significant. What do you think those are?   Jonathan: I guess the limitations are that when one is collecting a sample, any kind of sample at all, one is always doing one's best to try to hope that that's a representative sample, and having more data then is going to help if it turns out that the sample is unrepresentative. So I think that's one part of it. I think the other part of it is, of course, it's becoming increasingly costly to hand collect these numbers, and you know, like any public agency, one wants to be as careful as one possibly can with taxpayers money. That's the sort of second thing. And the third thing is, especially in the era of the Internet and dynamic pricing and so forth, these prices change, you know, at sort of dizzying rates as firms change their prices throughout the product cycle of the good. And therefore the sort of consistent snapshots may miss some of that variation,   Miles: And all that data, of course, is out there to be learned from, isn't it? Essentially, Mike, is that what the scanner data project has been, it's been all about harvesting that data and using it to produce what's being described as a step change in how inflation is calculated.   Mike: So we've been transforming our consumer price statistics for some time, and we've been acquiring a wide range of data sources with the aim of improving the quality and granularity of our consumer price statistics. So in recent years, we've used administrative data for rail fares and second hand cars, and we will be incorporating grocery scanner data for 50% of the grocery market, where we will be moving from using around 25,000 prices for those retailers to 300 million derived from the sale of over a billion products, so much more granular and rich information on the prices within those retailers. Importantly, as well, we not only have the price of everything within a store, so we move away from the sample that Jonathan described. So taking the price of a small number of products within each store to collecting all of the prices within store, from supermarket checkouts to also getting a better understanding of how much of each product people are purchasing. So that gives us a much clearer picture of inflation by using these large administrative data sets.   Miles: Because the purpose here is to get a sense of how the cost of living is changing for people as well, isn't it? And presumably, if you're just checking the same prices of the same goods month after month, you're not understanding about how price changes are influencing people's purchasing decisions. Does it help with that?   Mike: Yeah, so the scanner data, as I said, gives us a complete kind of picture of all the prices within a store, and it gives us the underlying quantities, so how much of each particular product is being purchased, it also gives us the price at the till, rather than the price on the shelf. So that captures a number of different things that we were unable to capture with the sample data. So the first being if consumers switch from a premium to a value brand, for example, in response to cost of living rising. We pick that up in the scanner data and also discounting, we can better reflect that particularly store cards, because we now understand for a particular product, total spending on that product and the quantity of that product sold, which allows us to get an average price for that product. So we better capture store discount cards, which are available in many of the supermarkets.   Miles: And so by getting a sense of the changing availability of products and what people are actually spending on them, it becomes much more useful then as a cost of living index as well as simply a measure of price change. Yes.   Mike: So the way we currently produce our inflation statistics is that we have a large virtual shopping basket of goods and services. There are 760 items in that basket. We set the weights at the start of the year, and we set the basket, and then we track the prices of those 760 representative items throughout the year. What the scanner data allows us to do at a very detailed level for certain is what we describe as consumption segments. So a consumption segment would be rice for example, is to reflect change in consumer spending patterns within that consumption segment. So for example, if somebody changes the type of rice that they're buying, they decide to buy microwave rice instead of basmati rice, or they decide to switch from a premium rice product to a value rice product, then we'd capture that in the scanner data on a monthly basis, whereas in the previous approach, we'd just monitor the price of a small number of products. So maybe we would monitor the price of microwave rice and basmati rice just over the year. But now with the scanner data, we have the price of all rice sold within a store, and we can reflect people's changing consumer spending patterns when purchasing a particular consumption segment, which I've described here as rice. Miles: And that in turn, I guess, can also influence the way you weight the index as well in future, because that's a fundamental part of calculating inflation that perhaps a lot of people don't fully appreciate. Mike: Yeah, so it'll still be a fixed basket, but the lowest level of aggregation, so that the most detailed data that we have -  that data that's coming in from retailers, where we have the kind of total sales plus the quantity, which allows us to derive a price or a unit cost within that calculation - we would reflect kind of change in weights at that very detailed level. But it will still remain a fixed basket that most of our stakeholders are familiar with, because at a higher level in the aggregation, we constrain the weights at the start of the year. Miles: What was involved in getting these changes so far? It sounds like a huge project, and presumably, first you had to get the retailers on board. Mike: Yes, that in itself was a huge undertaking. We've been engaging with the grocery sector for a number of years. We have the Digital Economy Act in the UK, which is a legal gateway for us to access the data. But instead of using the legislation, we wanted to work collaboratively with the retailers. So we started by engaging with them and requesting the data naturally. They had a range of questions about what we needed the data for, how we were going to publish it, how it was going to be stored. We needed to ensure that we were kind of meeting all of their requirements in terms of them transferring across the data, and they needed to be confident that we are using it for the public good, and there wouldn't be data leaks from their perspective, so that the data are tightly controlled. So that was a process in itself, which took a number of years. Then the existing systems that we have at ONS had to be moved to the cloud because they just simply weren't capable of processing the millions and millions of data points that we have for scanner data. And the scanner data is very different in nature to sample data, so we had to develop a wide range of methods to use the data. So we have two advisory panels. Jonathan's actually Chair of our stakeholder panel, but we also have a technical panel as well. So over the number of years that we've been developing this project, they've been advising us on the methods that we should be using. We've also been engaging with international experts and other national statistics institutes as well. So we had to, you know, gain access to the data. And that's a fairly new area for ONS, commercial kind of data partnerships. You know, we had to move all of the existing IT infrastructure to the cloud, because you need to aggregate the scanner data with the kind of locally collected data, so the data collected in stores. And we also had to develop a wide range of methods as well. The challenge here as well is that our risk appetite is close to zero with consumer price statistics. They are used to inform pensions, benefits, taxes, student loans. So we need to get the numbers right. So our risk appetite has been quite low, and that's quite a difficult tension to manage when you're kind of trailblazing in a number of different areas, whether that's data acquisition systems and methods, but at the same time, you need to ensure that you get the numbers right. So we've ensured that we've taken some time to make sure that, you know, we're comfortable with the methods that are in place and the processes to be able to produce our inflation statistics on a monthly basis.   Miles: And one of the reasons, I guess, it's taken a few years to get all this in train and deliver the results is you had to check whether or not your new estimates of inflation were going to be radically different from the ones that have been published already, because that would itself have had some pretty profound consequences, wouldn't it? How did you provide that assurance? Mike: We make changes to our consumer price statistics every March. That's when the basket is updated. That's when the weights are updated. So going back to the beginning of last year, we felt in a reasonably good position to implement scanner data at that point in time, we were nearly ready, but working with the stakeholder advisory panel and broader group of stakeholders. So over the last year, we've been parallel running the data in the background. So every month, we obviously publish the numbers, and then alongside that in the background, we've been producing prices index and other measures, including grocery scanner data and cross checking it against the published estimates.   Miles: How closely do they align now? Mike: Very well. So the impact at a headline level, for the duration of the impact analysis, which is from 2019, up to pretty much the current period, is kind of negative 0. percentage points for CPI. So that is a small impact at headline. We should note, though, that in 39 of the 66 months, the headline rate would have been different, albeit slightly different, in most of those months. A number of takeaways from this. I think we can have confidence, as Jonathan said, in the kind of sample approach that we currently take at a headline level, you know that's robust. We have a good sample design. What the scanner data allows us to do is get deeper insights into what's driving inflation. So over that period, we tended to find that inflation was slightly higher at the beginning of that period, and then lower from 2022 onwards. And that's why the average over the period is small, because there's an element of off setting. But I'll give you one example of where we've been able to provide deeper insights. So from 2022 onwards, where inflation, utilizing the scanner data was slightly lower, in some of the categories, actually inflation was higher, such as bread and cereals and oils and fats. And that can be attributed within those categories to breakfast cereals and margarine, which are products affected by the Russia, Ukraine war. So we're seeing the impact at a more granular level using the scanner data and being able to better capture changes in price,   Miles Did it have a slightly predictive effect? Then you could spot early examples of inflationary pressures coming through better than has been possible before.   Mike: Well, I wouldn't say early. You know, our role is to produce inflation for periods in the past, forecasting inflation is more of a job for the Bank of England, but at a more detailed level, yes, we could definitely see insights that we were not able to see with the sample data that we were using prior to the implementation of scanner data.   Miles: And Jonathan, from the economist point of view, looking at the new scanner data driven inflation estimates and the path of price changes that that reveals, does it materially change the macroeconomic story?   Jonathan I'm not sure it does actually miles, which may come as a big disappointment to listeners to this podcast who are thinking: well, why has Mike and his team put in all this effort? But in a sense, it's actually a very good result because it goes back to what I was trying to say earlier on, which is it suggests that the sampling frame that the ONS were using to sample a subset of all these prices was actually a pretty well chosen frame. So on the sort of headline kind of effect, it doesn't change things much. Where it does change things is in the detail, as Mike has just been saying, and especially since this is groceries data around food inflation and food prices. And the reason, Miles, I find that important, and I think the community of economists will find that important, is I had the privilege of being on the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee up until a year and a half ago, and especially Mike mentioned it during the war in Ukraine, we were very attentive on the committee to changes in food prices, because changes in food prices turn out, the evidence suggests, to be extremely salient to consumers when they're thinking about, you know, how their cost of living is really affected. So since there's going to be much more colour on how it is those food prices have changed, I think that's going to help policy makers, for example, at the Bank of England, get under the hood a little bit of the types of price changes which are very salient to consumers.   Miles So would it be fair to say then, looking back as a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, thinking about potential changes in interest rates, it might not necessarily have led you to make a different decision, but it would have made you better informed or more confident in that decision.   Jonathan I think that's right. I don't think we would have changed our decision. And in any case, one never makes policy decisions in hindsight, you know. What we know now about the covid vaccine, we didn't know then, and so of course, we would have made a different decision, but we didn't know that. Now, I don't think it would have changed the decision, but as I say, I think since especially these food prices are so salient to consumers, it's going to allow the current Committee, which you know, again, to be clear, I'm not on, so this is just me speculating. It's going to allow the current committee to have a much better view as to what these various price changes are and what it is consumers are doing. And that's going to turn out, I think, to be extremely, or potentially extremely important. Because if the current rise in energy prices is maintained for a long time that might well feed through to food prices in various ways, and then we're going to need all the detail that Mike and his team are providing in order to make better policy.   Miles Lots of information about price changes here, but also we're getting an insight into sales volumes as well. Are we not, Mike, even though we're not at this stage actually using these data to compile the retail sales indices?   Mike: So we're not at this stage, the focus is consumer price statistics and using the scanner data for 50% of the market in March. And then there is a plan to expand that market coverage moving forwards and onboarding more retailers. There's potential to use these data sources in other parts of the ONS, you know, for example, in national accounts, for household expenditure and for retail sales. And we'll work collaboratively with the retailers if we want to use their data for other statistics moving forwards. But there are certainly benefits to using these data sources beyond prices   Miles You mentioned earlier work that had to go on with retailers to get them to get their confidence in all of this, and presumably there needs to be a clear message to shoppers, it's not about spying on people's shopping habits?   Mike No, it's a really good point, actually. So we do not have access to what individuals are purchasing. We just get aggregated data. So for a product that's sold within a store, we know the total value of sales, and we know the number of that product that have been sold, we do not know what individuals are purchasing in store, so we don't have access to the loyalty card data which would give us that information.   Miles And that brings us to a very important point that's always worth stating about official statistics. Generally, the ONS will never publish anything that discloses the identity of any individual or indeed any retail outlet, so we can't even say which specific retailers are taking part, although you do have good coverage of the sector,   Mike Yes, so at this stage, we can just say we have coverage of 50% of the market. Co Op are the only retailer that are happy to be named, and we've previously done a press release with them. The other retailers that are included within that 50% have explicitly asked not to be named as a data provider, which we will obviously respect. Miles And as you say, it's all put into a big aggregated pot of data anyway, although it does provide some local and regional insights as well, of course, that perhaps weren't there in such quantity before   Mike It does. So the scanner data that we receive for the retailers that are providing data, we have that broken down by store. So what we do by region is aggregate each of the retailers data together with our local collection data. So I should highlight that that's not disclosive. So it's not possible to identify any retailer within those statistics, but we will be publishing some micro data by region for our stakeholders. I should also note, as well Miles, we've talked a lot about the impact of the headline level being quite small, there are other benefits to this project. So one is that it de risks the ongoing production of consumer price statistics. So some of the systems that we previously had in place had been in place since the 90s and they needed to be moved to a modern alternative so as part of that work we've done that, and also it sets a really good foundation for the future. So now we have the IT infrastructure, the methods in place to be able to use alternative data sources for other parts of the basket. So it gives us a very good foundation to transform our consumer price statistics moving forwards.   Miles Jonathan, coming back to you and the economist's point of view, what is the potential? We talked already, obviously, about the corroborative value of producing inflation statistics with much more certainty than before, but what do you see as the broader economic value and insights that we're getting from this now?   Jonathan I think there are two. One is, as I was mentioning before, a more sort of forensic vision about what it is that consumers are doing. The second, though, is a little bit more indirect, but let me put it on the table anyway. Miles, which is, as Mike has been saying, in order to implement this, the statistics agency ONS, or whoever, whichever statistics agency in the world is going to do this is going to need to invest in it and new processes and new equipment and so forth. And that, of course, spreading that good practice over all areas of this, and I'm not just talking about the ONS, I'm talking about any statistics agency anywhere in the world, will be very, very helpful, because, of course, that would improve all of the data collection processes in the statistics agency, and for economists, that would be an enormous boon.   Miles Mike, can we turn to some of the other benefits and some of the other aspects of the general improvement of inflation statistics that coincide with the introduction of scanner data this month. Intrigued to hear about something called the Taylor Swift effect. Can you unpack what that is and why it's relevant to all this?   Mike So the famous Taylor Swift effect. This is in relation to hotel prices. So we currently collect previously collected hotel prices on a particular date in the month, and when there was a Taylor Swift concert close to one of the cities that we were collecting hotel prices in, that had an impact on hotel prices on that particular day, so that then, in turn, had an impact on the hotels index, which then kind of fed into the headline measure. So what we've done in response to that is to collect prices on two days during the month, so that those kind of one off events such as a Taylor Swift concert or, you know, a sporting event, do not have such a disproportionate impact on our headline measures of inflation. We still want to capture that price increase, but by collecting on two dates over the month rather than one, we're softening its impact. And I think that's only right because it's not necessarily representative of hotel prices across the UK.   Miles So you can't blame Taylor Swift for higher inflation. Is the message as it was simply a quirk of how prices were collected by taking those single points, which sometimes happened to fall on days when there were big events going,   Mike Yes, that's because we were collecting the hotel price on, you know, one particular day during the month. We've already announced that we'll be changing that for the forthcoming year to two dates during the month. But you know, something we may consider over the medium to longer term is whether we use administrative data for hotels, and that would certainly soften the impact of one off events in a particular city, because you'd be collecting data over the entire month. We already collect data across a wide range of locations, but having many more data points would soften the impact of those kind of one off events.   Jonathan You're right to ask Miles about the Taylor Swift effect on inflation. And I had the privilege of being on the Monetary Policy Committee at the time, and I remember we discussed this. There's bad news and good news so that the bad news is that I was only vaguely aware of Taylor Swift's music. Thanks to my children, I know something about it, but I was no great expert. The good news was that, because the ONS were very open about the collection protocols, which Mike has just talked about, we were actually able, as a committee, to sort of reverse engineer what inflation would have been had Taylor Swift not been there. And that enabled us to essentially look through what was just a volatile bit of the index. So I'm pleased to say that this was an example where, you know, communication between bureaucratic agencies, which can maybe be improved, and often it's maybe not as good as it might be, was a case where, actually, it worked quite well. And I think it's for others to judge, but I think the bank did not make a bad policy mistake.   Miles Yeah, I guess it's a limitation, isn't it? Of calculating inflation, you've got to pick a day on which to take the sample prices. If you happen to pick the day when Taylor's in town, it's going to have a distorting effect.   Jonathan Oh, and sporting, as Mike was saying, sporting effects, the World Cup and all that kind of thing. But as I say, I think this is just an example of where, in fact, the lines of communication between the bank and the ONS actually work very well. And as I say, we were very aware on the committee I was on at the time. We're very aware of what the biases were, and I think that's sort of quite a nice, sort of mini lesson for how the bureaucracy worked. Even if our musical taste didn't work quite so well, at least the bureaucracy did function on this occasion.   Miles It wasn't you there pushing up the hotel prices in Cardiff then! I think we can be fairly, fairly confident of that. But we have another example, though, don't we? A more regular example recently, and that's the collection of airfares. It's similar thing, isn't it, over holiday periods gone?   Jonathan Well, again, that's exactly right, but again, I sort of hate to be, you know, boring the listeners with a tale of bureaucratic interrelations. But as I say, I think this is an example where the communication between the policy making authorities and the stats agency worked well on this occasion. We're aware of the ONS protocols. They were open with us, but you know that was not to be then pushed on further about how these things are collected. And if you're aware of that, you can then go to the Monetary Policy Committee, or whatever it might be, and make them aware about what all these biases might be. And so what I think is an important effect in the headline, has less of an effect on the chances, as I say, in this in this case of the bank, of making a policy mistake,   Miles You can make sure these things are priced in as they say but there's a point about public confidence as well, though, isn't there? People are rightfully sceptical, and a lot of people claim there's nothing as misleading as an average particularly when it comes to the collection of prices.   Jonathan Well, it's both the average and the volatility, which I think is difficult. And so when ONS staff are on the radio explaining what the inflation numbers are, they often get rather held up in some ways of explaining particularly volatile components, such as hotels and such as airfares, and I don't know what that does for the confidence of people in the overall index. I mean, in some sense, that means that the ONS are doing their job about collecting what the index is and sticking to international protocol on all of this, which in some sense is a confidence booster. But I can quite understand that people listening to a description about how volatile these things are, they might just say, Well, you know, I'm really not sure about what this index is telling me. So I think it's a communications problem ultimately as well.   Miles Well, certainly. Well, we work hard at the ONS to mitigate, as you say, but I guess the fundamental point for people to understand is that the more data that's going in, the more reliable your estimates, at least more comprehensive your estimates are going to be coming out,   Jonathan But also the protocols that Mike's been talking about, if I may say, about not concentrating data collection on a particular day which might coincide with a Taylor Swift concert. Or in the case of airfares, it might be half term on that particular day, and the airfares are particularly high and so forth. So flexing those methodological issues, I think, is going to help smooth out some of this volatility.   Miles Okay, in terms of the International picture, how advanced would you say the UK is now compared to other, you know, similar economies and the way it calculates inflation?   Mike So there are some countries that adopted scanner data, you know, a number of years ago, such as the Netherlands: early adopters. I think they've had scanner data in their consumer price statistics for at least 10 years, perhaps more. Then there are a range of other countries that are in a similar position to us who have recently stood up projects to utilize scanner data. So, you know, during our journey, we've relied heavily on international best practice and working with other NSIs to learn from them and their experiences of utilizing scanner data. And now we're in a position where we're about to implement grocery scanner data. You know, we've ensured that we are also sharing best practice with other NSIs as well, as they start to embark on this journey.   Miles So not quite the first but among the sort of first wave, then?   Mike Among the chasing pack, I'd say Yes,   Miles Jonathan, could I finish off with you then with a question all about the bigger distant future. When you take a big step forward like this and introduce a huge increase in the amount of data, it presents a sort of tantalizing vision of the future, Jonathan, does it not? Where we're able to measure the economy almost in in real time, and the insights that that might be able to produce is that pie in the sky, or do you think we will get there eventually, that you could almost have a daily estimate of GDP, if that was worthwhile, or, perhaps more usefully, real time estimates of household incomes, for example, see how people are getting on?   Jonathan I think Miles, it's a fascinating conjecture, and my immediate reaction is, we don't want to overstate this again, for the reason I've been saying it's not necessarily the case that more data is better. We want to be sampling representatively which the ONS seems to have been doing, even though it's only collecting 25,000 prices a month. Those 25,000 appear to be fairly representative. On the other hand, if there's a lot of dynamics to those prices, you know, discounts, changes in quality, you know, sort of digital changes to all these various prices. We want us as a statistics agency and as a measurement community, to be picking all that stuff up as well. So that seems to me to be the vision about going on the digital side and collecting all of this: that we can get much finer grain information about these prices. But as I say, I don't want to overstate it. Mike won't take any of the credit, but I'm going to give him some credit. It is down to Mike and his team. As I say, that 25,000 prices turns out to be an amazingly representative sample of the approximately now 300 million prices which are being collected instead.   Miles Well, it's a lovely fitting note on which to wrap it up, and that is a fitting moment to leave this topic. Our sincere thanks to guests Mike Hardy and Professor Jonathan Haskell. Also to our producer Julia short. It's time for me to say goodbye as well as this is my last podcast before I stand down as head of media for the ONS after 13 fascinating years. But you can expect these podcasts to continue as of course, will the ONS itself. So don't forget to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Goodbye.  

The Office for National Statistics has said that by 2029 it expects more deaths than births in Britain. Simultaneously migration could go into reverse soon, with more people leaving our shores than arriving. But how will a shrinking - and ageing - population affect our politics, our economy and our lives?This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestoryGuest: Tom Calver, Data Editor, The Times and The Sunday TimesHost: Manveen Rana.Producer: Olivia Case.We want to hear from you - email: thestory@thetimes.comRead more: Could Britain's population actually start shrinking soon?Further listening: Britain is in a cancer crisis. Will a new strategy fix it?Clips: Sky, ITN, BBC.Photo: Getty Images.This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Unemployment among young Londoners has hit a nine-year high, and the latest figures show the jobless rate in the capital disproportionately affects 16 to 24-year-olds. So, is the future for young Londoners truly bleak?In this episode, host Tamara Kormornick is joined by the Standard's business editor Jonathan Prynn to unpack the most recent figures from the Office of National Statistics. Together they explore why so many young people in the capital are facing a growing shortage of opportunities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's solo episode, I recapped the most popular story and edition from last year, plus shared new good vibes about returning tribal land, safer design for women, inclusive recognition for same-sex couples, and more!Here are this week's good vibes:California returns 17,000 tribal acresWorld's first disabled dog park thrivesSouth Korean census finally recognizes same-sex couplesDOT backs advanced female crash test dummyBABES Act wins real travel protectionsGood Vibes to Go: Bernadette's GVTG: Read Emily St. James' novel Woodworking about a sweet teacher-student friendship. It's a great, easy read with good vibes and interesting characters.  Read the Stories.Subscribe to the 5 Things newsletter.Watch 5 Things Live on YouTube. Join thousands of readers by subscribing to the 5 Things newsletter. Enjoy some good vibes every Saturday morning. https://5thingsdei.com/

Figures have revealed where people moving to Kent from London are choosing to set up home.According to data from the Office for National Statistics, nearly six in 10 people who've moved to Dartford since 2011 came from the capital, while more than a third of those who've relocated to Folkestone and Hythe in the same time were so-called DFLs.Hear from Local Democracy Reporter Dan Esson who compiled the data.Also in today's podcast, a Kent teacher has told us government plans to tackle misogyny and toxic behaviour in schools should focus on positive masculinity.Teachers are going to given specialist training and a helpline will also be set up for pupils. Hear from John Still who teaches in Medway.The Tunbridge Wells MP has again called for the boss of South East Water to resign following major supply issues in the town at the start of the month.It's after David Hinton said in an interview that he wants to remain in his job - and 'absolutely empathises' with customers. We've got reaction from Mike Martin.A Medway MP is calling for those responsible for creating an illegal waste dump in her constituency to be prosecuted.Up to 40 lorries a day used to be seen taking tonnes of rubbish to Bramletree Wharf in Borstal near Rochester.It's expected to be one of the busiest days on Kent's roads for the Christmas getaway.The RAC reckons 3.6 million journeys will be made today ahead of what's being dubbed Snarl-up Saturday tomorrow.Operation Brock remains in place on the M20 and lorries will be queued between Maidstone and Ashford if there are delays at the Port of Dover.And in sport, it's a trip to Fleetwood Town for Gillingham in league two this weekend.The Gills are on a run of six games unbeaten, but five of those have ended in a draw. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The first quarter of 2023 has seen food inflation in the UK surpass 16%, according to the Office for National Statistics. Such inflation rates hadn't been seen for forty years. It's contributed to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, and an increasing number of people are struggling to afford to buy enough food. With all that in mind, many people's number one concern right now is keeping their supermarket bill as low as possible, regardless of how healthy what they're eating is. But there are ways of sticking to a balanced diet even on a shoestring budget. Isn't healthy food always expensive? What are the tips to buy healthy food at a low cost? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here : ⁠⁠Are men still being paid more than women?⁠⁠ ⁠⁠What makes us ticklish?⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Why are there calls for a halt to AI research?⁠⁠ A Bababam Originals podcast. A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance. First Broadcast: 12/4/2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textIn Episode 265 of The Data Diva Talks Privacy Podcast, Debbie Reynolds, The Data Diva, talks to James Robson, Data Protection Officer for the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. Together, they explore how public sector organizations and political entities navigate modern data protection challenges while balancing public trust, transparency, and societal benefit. Their conversation highlights why research data, safe data environments, and responsible access structures are increasingly essential for tackling complex social problems.Debbie and James discuss the importance of privacy-preserving data sharing for research and the practical realities of enabling societal value without compromising individual rights. James describes his work supporting research ecosystems, including the creation of secure data archives, the role of the Office for National Statistics, and how the United Kingdom's “five safes” framework helps protect high-risk datasets in controlled environments. They also examine the ethical considerations around using sensitive data to improve outcomes for vulnerable groups, and how organizations can design safe, centralized systems without sacrificing privacy.In the final segment, Debbie and James reflect on the future of data minimization, trust, and governance. They consider how architectures that strictly limit data use could reshape long-term privacy protections and discuss the human element required to steward data responsibly. Their conversation underscores the need for collaboration across government, research institutions, and technology teams to build trustworthy systems that support both privacy and public benefit.Support the showBecome an insider, join Data Diva Confidential for data strategy and data privacy insights delivered to your inbox.

Why marry? Jane Austen began her novel Pride and Prejudice with the observation "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife". Recent figures from the Office of National Statistics show less than half the adult UK population are married or in a legal partnership and predictions are that by 2050, only 3 in 10 people in the UK will marry.Shahidha Bari hosts Radio 4's round-table discussion programme Free Thinking, which brings together philosophical and historical insights in a conversation about issues resonating in the present day. Her guests this week are: columnist Zoe Strimpel, who has been considering the history and current state of the family in a 5 part series running on Radio 4 this week Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, biographer of Thomas Cromwell and author of Lower than Angels: A history of Sex and Christianity Dr Reetika Subramanian from the University of East Anglia, who hosts a podcast called Climate Brides. Reetika is one of Radio 4's current researchers in residence on the New Generation Thinkers scheme run in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Psychoanalyst and literary scholar Josh Cohen Philosopher and film scholar Catherine WheatleyProducer: Luke Mulhall

'Marriage is the real rebellion' argues Madeline Grant in the Spectator's cover article this week. The Office for National Statistics predicts that by 2050 only 30 per cent of adults will be married. This amounts to a ‘relationship recession' where singleness is ‘more in vogue now than it has been since the dissolution of the monastries'. With a rising division between the sexes, and many resorting to alternative relationships like polyamory, how can we defend marriage?For this week's Edition, host William Moore is joined by political editor Tim Shipman, assistant editor – and parliamentary sketchwriter – Madeline Grant and the Spectator's diary writer this week, former Chancellor and Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng.As well as the cover, they discuss: how Rachel Reeves benefited from the OBR Budget leak, whether through cock up or conspiracy; what they thought of Kemi Badenoch's post-Budget performance; whether it is fair for Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds – in an interview with Tim – to say that ‘the architects of Brexit ran away'; and finally, how inevitable was the idea of ‘progress' when thinking about Britain's Industrial Revolution.Plus: Kwasi explains why he agrees with Tim that the Budget should be confined to the 19th Century. Produced by Patrick Gibbons. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'Marriage is the real rebellion' argues Madeline Grant in the Spectator's cover article this week. The Office for National Statistics predicts that by 2050 only 30 per cent of adults will be married. This amounts to a ‘relationship recession' where singleness is ‘more in vogue now than it has been since the dissolution of the monastries'. With a rising division between the sexes, and many resorting to alternative relationships like polyamory, how can we defend marriage?For this week's Edition, host William Moore is joined by political editor Tim Shipman, assistant editor – and parliamentary sketchwriter – Madeline Grant and the Spectator's diary writer this week, former Chancellor and Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng.As well as the cover, they discuss: how Rachel Reeves benefited from the OBR Budget leak, whether through cock up or conspiracy; what they thought of Kemi Badenoch's post-Budget performance; whether it is fair for Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds – in an interview with Tim – to say that ‘the architects of Brexit ran away'; and finally, how inevitable was the idea of ‘progress' when thinking about Britain's Industrial Revolution.Plus: Kwasi explains why he agrees with Tim that the Budget should be confined to the 19th Century. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts. Contact us: podcast@spectator.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

According to the UK Office for National Statistics, September 26 was the most popular day to be born over the last two decades, which falls 39 weeks and two days after Christmas day. Babies are born with certain reflexes that result in involuntary movements. These are called primitive reflexes, and the movements happen automatically without the baby sending a message to their brain. Such reflexes develop during the foetal period and indicate that the baby's brain is functioning well. What are some examples? Isn't it just the cutest when a baby grabs your finger? Do these reflexes remain with babies as they develop into children? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here: ⁠Is it bad to drink water with a meal?⁠ ⁠Are Skyr yoghurts really good for you?⁠ ⁠Why is physical contact important for our health?⁠ A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance. First broadcast : 20/11/2021 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The cost of living crisis has seen food prices increase by as much as 65% according to the Office for National Statistics meaning that the average British household spends an extra £600 pounds a year on food. But considering that there is also about 4.5 million tonnes of food waste annually the possibility of reducing wasted food as well as bills has never been more needed. Reducing your bill at the checkout comes down largely to planning. Getting organised about how, when and where you buy your food as well as how you store and cook it is essential. For starters buying in bulk can really reduce costs. How can I reduce the amount I spend on food? How can I reduce my food waste? How can technology help? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here: ⁠How much do surrogate mothers get paid?⁠ ⁠What is the Barnum effect?⁠ ⁠How to spot, prevent and treat heatstroke ?⁠ A podcast written and realised by Amber Minogue. First broadcast: 08/12/2022 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Britain's jobless rate has surged to its highest level for more than four-and-a-half years, as the labour market continues to weaken. London had the highest unemployment rate of any region in the UK at 6.5%, up 0.5% since the previous quarter, the Office for National Statistics reports. Hikes to employer national insurance contributions have been largely blamed for the trend. But the grim jobless figures make a December interest rate cut from the Bank of England a near certainty. The capital has been hit particularly hard because of its large numbers of relatively low paid workers in hospitality and retail. It comes ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves' autumn budget later in the month, when it's widely expected that she will break Labour's manifesto pledge and increase taxes in an attempt to kickstart the UK's sluggish economy. The Standard's Business Editor Jonathan Prynn is here with the latest. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode 50, the season finale of Season 5 of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom was joined by James Benford, Director General of Surveys, Economic and Social Statistics at Office for National Statistics, where they have a candid discussion regarding the turnaround job at hand after recent public scrutiny and high-profile errors.They dig into what went wrong, the impact on trust, and how new leadership is refocusing priorities, rebuilding quality, and resetting culture, plus more, which includes;How a turnaround mandate is reshaping ONS culture, leadership, and structure after the June review.Why transparent acknowledgment and correction of high-profile errors is central to rebuilding trust.How grand tech ambitions drift without clear use cases and why that must change.Why building a single data platform without a clear use case became a costly lesson in purpose-led design.How ruthless focus and prioritisation are creating space for excellence in core statistics.Why survey response rates are falling globally and how ONS is adapting to the new reality.How digital-first, user-centred survey design can lift completion and reduce bias.How alternative data sources add power and why third-party data quality and governance matter.Why multidisciplinary teams are non-negotiable.How recognising data and AI as economic assets will reshape national accounting.Why GenAI and ML can raise quality while saving time.How “Stats GPT” style access can make official statistics easier to find, query, and use.Find more information on the general reset underway at the ONS, and the detail on the statistics and the surveys discussed in this episode.If you wish to provide feedback on what ONS is currently doing, please use this mailbox:

In this edition of The Naked Scientists: Among British people vapers now outnumber smokers for the first time. From Big Bang to Big Crunch - the new theory showing the expansion of the Universe might be slowing down. And, evidence that our early ancestors, three million years ago, may have excelled at DIY!Linda - So these are the annual population survey statistics from the Office for National Statistics that look at smoking, it was the main focus, so smoking in the UK but also vaping behaviour. And we see that for the first time the proportion of people aged 16 and older who vape is higher... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Two distinguished leaders in federal statistics—Nancy Potok, former chief statistician of the United States and CEO of NAPx Consulting, and Connie Citro, senior scholar at the National Academies' Committee on National Statistics, join hosts Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein this month. Together, they discuss how the ASA is working collaboratively with other organizations to identify ongoing […]

In CI News this week: The Office for National Statistics cuts ties with Stonewall amid accusations it fell prey to the lobby group's pro-trans ideology, Sheffield University comes under fire for warning students about ‘graphic' scenes in the Bible, and gambling firms are taken to task by the advertising regulator for airing adverts that appeal to children. You can download the video via this link. Featured stories ONS exits Stonewall scheme after census' dodgy trans data Sheffield Uni slaps ‘violent' trigger warning on Gospel accounts Top psychiatrist warns teenagers against ‘stewing brains in cannabis soup' Betting ads with child appeal ‘irresponsible', regulator rules

According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of births in the UK continues to fall. Experts are even talking about a “baby bust”, the opposite of the “baby boom”, to describe these statistics, which have reached the lowest level since records began in 1938. One explanation for this could be that people are having children later than previous generations, leaving them with a reduced fertility window. In 2020, the Office for National Statistics notes that the average age at which women become mothers is 30, compared with 26 in 1975. In addition to this, the latest ONS birth data, released in 2020, reveals that 28% of women have their first child after the age of 30 and 5% after the age of 40. Can you run into problems if you want to get pregnant after the age of 30? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here: Could intentional lazy parenting foster your child's independence? What causes tocophobia, the fear of pregnancy and childbirth? ⁠Why do children have imaginary friends? A podcast written and realised by Amber Minogue. First Broadcast: 27/2/2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Rachel Reeves approaches a tricky budget, her job has got that much harder. Some of our most fundamental economic data, statistics that policymakers are used to accepting at face value, suddenly have major question marks over their accuracy.The UK's top stats agency, the Office for National Statistics, finds itself under considerable pressure as falling response rates to its surveys leave politicians flying blind. David Aaronovitch asks what this means for government decisions and how the ONS can rebuild confidence in its most vital statistics.Guests: Georgina Sturge, research affiliate at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford Professor Denise Lievesley, former Principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford Chris Giles, economics commentator at the Financial Times. Peter Lynn, Professor of Survey Methodology at the University of EssexPresenter: David Aaronovitch Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele Producers: Nathan Gower, Kirsteen Knight, Cordelia Hemming Studio engineer: Duncan Hannant Editor: Richard Vadon

The latest unemployment figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the jobless rate has risen to its highest level since the pandemic in 2021 - but analysts also say the jobs market is stabilising after a year of volatility. Meanwhile, wage growth in the UK cooled slightly over the summer, from 4.8 per cent to 4.7 per cent. Does this mean that getting a job is becoming harder? And how do these statistics play out in the capital? Joe Evans, a researcher at the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank, is here to help us unpack the figures. And in part two, The Standard's Commissioning Editor and Culture Writer Vicky Jessop joins us to review Guillermo del Toro's new Frankenstein film, which is in cinemas from October and on Netflix from November 7. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We spend over a third of our lives sleeping. It allows our mind and body to recharge, which is vital for a number of reasons. It helps our immune system to ward off diseases, and the brain to function properly. And yet as many as 16 million adults in the UK suffer from sleepless nights, according to estimates from the Office for National Statistics. You may have noticed that your own optimal sleep duration is different from that of other people you know well, like family members or friends. But some things are common to all of us, like the regularity and quality of sleep in particular, which are very important pillars in reaping the benefits of good sleep. What are the health risks if you don't sleep enough? What's the minimal advised length of sleep? Why do some people need more sleep than others then? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here : ⁠Why is Camilla becoming queen and not queen consort?⁠ ⁠What is Extinction Rebellion ?⁠ ⁠Could I save more money by cash stuffing?⁠ A Bababam Originals podcast.A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance. First Broadcast: 8/5/2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Wednesday, September 3rd, A.D. 2025. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Jonathan Clark Turkish persecution of Christians heats up The Turkish Association of Protestant Churches reports Christians in Turkey faced increased persecution last year. The persecution often came in the form of hateful speech either in person or online. And, iIn two cases, assailants fired guns at church buildings.  Turkey also banned many foreign Christians from entering the country in recent years. Nine of these Christians appealed the ban. However, a court ruled against them and published their names. Media outlets branded the Christians as enemies of the state. Many social media comments called for them to be put to death. Turkey is ranked 45th on the Open Doors' World Watch List of the most difficult countries worldwide to be a Christian.  2.5 million acres of European Union burned The European Union is experiencing its worst wildfire season since records began in 2006. Nearly 2.5 million acres of land have burned so far this year. Spain and Portugal account for over two-thirds of that area. Between the two countries, over 1.5 million acres have burned with much of it happening in just two weeks. Birth rates in England and Wales continue to fall The U.K. Office for National Statistics reported last week that birth rates fell to a new low in England and Wales. Other developed countries are also seeing low birth rates like the United States, France, and Italy. However, there appears to be a political gap in fertility. John Burn-Murdoch of the Financial Times wrote, “From the US to Europe and beyond, people who identify as conservative are having almost as many children as they were decades ago. The decline is overwhelmingly among those on the progressive left, in effect nudging each successive generation's politics further to the right.” Quebec, Canada to ban public prayers Quebec, Canada's largest province, is planning to ban public prayer. Quebec's Secularism Minister Jean-François Roberge said, “The premier of Quebec has given me the mandate to strengthen secularism . . . This fall, we will therefore introduce a bill to strengthen secularism in Quebec, in particular by banning street prayers.” The move comes in response to Muslim prayer gatherings. However, it would apply to all religions including Christianity. Nearly 65% of Quebec's population identifies as Christian. Psalm 10:4 says, “The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek [the Lord]. All his thoughts are, ‘There is no God.'” Univ of Michigan fired Christian doctor who objected to transgender surgeries In the United States, a federal court ruled in favor of a Christian in a religious liberty case. Back in 2021, the University of Michigan Health-West fired Valerie Kloosterman for her beliefs. The Christian physician assistant refused to support transgender procedures or pronoun usage. The latest ruling allows her case against the university to move forward.  Kayla Toney, counsel at First Liberty Institute, said, “Today's decision is a reckoning for institutions that discriminate and punish caring people of faith.” Bill Gates funds embalming of deceased newborns to harvest organs Modernity News reports the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is funding a new gruesome project. The project involves embalming deceased newborn babies who died in neonatal intensive care units. Researchers would harvest tissues and organs from the babies for artificial intelligence development. LifeNews noted, “The Gates Foundation's involvement is seen as particularly troubling given its history of funding abortion.” 150th anniversary of Japan Bible Society And finally, the Japan Bible Society is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. In the 1870s, American and European Bible societies established branches in Japan. These early Bible societies translated the Scriptures into Japanese in the 1880s. Their work laid the foundation for the current Japan Bible Society. Bible distribution in Japan picked up in the 1940s as 2.3 million copies of the Bible were distributed. After World War II, the Japan Bible Society became a fully self-supporting Bible Society.  Its website says, “Since then, the Japan Bible Society has not only been serving the Japanese people but also other Bible Societies that are not yet independent.” Psalm 22:27 says, “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You.” Close And that's The Worldview on this Wednesday, September 3rd, in the year of our Lord 2025. Follow us on X or subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

This week on The Curve, Faiza Shaheen is in the hosting chair and is joined by Laurie Macfarlane - co-director of Future Economy Scotland. They discuss the latest research on UK unemployment and whether or not we can confidently trust the figures coming out of the Office for National Statistics.In the extended episode, available to Macrodose members on Patreon, Faiza and Laurie discuss Trump's brand of authoritarian capitalism and it's implications for other economies.Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.

UK inflation has risen more than expected to 3.8 per cent today, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. It's the highest since January 2024, and when Labour came to power last summer, inflation was just 2.2 per cent. We're joined by Jaya Sood, a senior economist at the New Economics Foundation to discuss. And in part two, The Standard's Culture Writer India Block joins us to talk about the frenzy caused by Labubu collectibles - and the growing backlash against blind box toys. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

England goalkeeper and Lionesses legend Hannah Hampton joins Nuala McGovern on Woman's Hour fresh from winning the UEFA European Women's Championship. Born with a serious eye condition, doctors told her she should never play football. She came into the recent Euros with questions over her ability to fill the gloves of recently retired Mary Earps. To add to that, she revealed her grandfather had died just days before the biggest tournament of her life began earlier this summer. Despite this, Hannah had an extraordinary tournament, particularly in those agonising penalty shootouts. She joins Nuala McGovern to chat all about it. In June this year in Pakistan, Bano Bibi, a mother of five, and Ehsanullah Samalani, a father of three, were accused of having an affair and were shot - on the orders of a tribal leader, according to police. The event caused outrage, not just because it was another so-called ‘honour killing', but because the authorities only took action after a video of the shootings went viral, more than six weeks later. Nuala is joined by Azadeh Moshiri, Pakistan Correspondent for BBC News, and Sheema Kermani, a woman's rights activist, dancer and theatre director who has been working with women in rural and marginalised communities for 50 years. Writer and director Celine Song's semi-autobiographical debut Past Lives earned her two Oscar nominations and a host of other accolades when it was released in 2023. She talks to Nuala about her second film, Materialists, a romantic dramedy starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans, and how it was inspired by her own time working as a matchmaker for high-net-worth individuals in New York. Construction employs around 1.4 million people in Great Britain, according to the Office for National Statistics, but only around 15% of those people are women. And they don't always have a positive experience, with 30% having reported sexual assault at work and 64% saying men were paid more for the same role. So, as the industry faces a recruitment crisis, how could it evolve to become a safer and fairer place to work and encourage more women into construction? Nuala explores the problems and the opportunities with Faye Allen, author of Building Women, and Dr Carol Massay of Unity for Construction, who've both worked in the industry for more than 30 years. And we remember long-serving Blue Peter editor Biddy Baxter, renowned for turning the children's show into a television institution, who has died at the age of 92.Presented by: Nuala McGovern Produced by: Sarah Jane Griffiths

 Critical Thinking  Combatting Domestic Abuse (Part 2) Black Spy Podcast 199, Season 20, Episode 0010 Below is a concise yet data-rich overview of the current domestic violence situation in the UK, as discussed in Part One of the Black Spy Podcast, featuring host Carlton King (“The Black Spy”), neuroscientist Dr Rachel Taylor, and journalist Firgas Esack. Host Carlton King (“The Black Spy”) sits down with Dr Rachel Taylor, a leading neuroscientist, and journalist Firgas Esack, to dive deep into these figures. This episode explores not only the statistics but the human, systemic, and gendered dimensions of domestic violence—shining light on under‑reported experiences, prevention strategies, and why these numbers matter. This is Part Two of an extremely informative series on Combatting Domestic Violence—essential listening for anyone looking to understand and address this crisis in modern Britain.

The First Minister answers questions from Party Leaders and other MSPs in this weekly question time. Topics covered this week include: Joe FitzPatrick To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the Sarcoma UK report, Unique Among Cancers. Tim Eagle To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports that several local authorities are delaying the introduction of a visitor levy. Marie McNair  To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made of the latest Office for National Statistics inflation statistics and any implications for its work to support low-income households.   A full transcript of this week's First Minister's Questions is available here: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-26-06-2025

The great un-retirement is a term that has been coined to explain the fact that people are working longer or even coming out of retirement completely to return to work. Find out why this is happening in this episode. In a poll by Rest Less, a digital community that supports the over-50s, 32% of members said they would consider returning to work or that they were already working again. And statistics back this up. The Office for National Statistics reports that there are now more people aged 50 and older in work or looking for work than before the pandemic, while figures from the Centre for Ageing Better show that the number of people aged 65 or over entering the workforce rose by 173,000 in the first quarter of 2022. Why are so many people coming out of retirement? What problems do older people face when looking for a job? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the latest episodes, click here: ⁠Why do we get addicted to social media?⁠ ⁠What are the dangers of using Botox?⁠ ⁠How can I wake up refreshed every morning?⁠ A Bababam Originals podcast, written and produced by Amber Minogue. First Broadcast: 24/10/2022 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A parade of pauses WAR! Middle East at it again Oracle earnings - wow! Tesla robotaxi spotted PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter ** Look At Album Art ** - So bad  Warm-Up - More pausing floated - We have a CHYNA deal -  kind of - Saying goodbye to Brian Wilson - Tesla - back in buy mode Markets - War! Middle East again (US seems to be helping ?) - Within 2% if ATH and then... - Oracle blows the roof off - UK economy shrinks - bigly ***A NEW Closest to the Pin! Middle East Again - Israel launched a series of airstrikes against Iran early Friday morning local time, targeting locations it said were related to Iran's nuclear program, sparking market fears of a wider conflict. - Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, chief of the Iranian Armed Forces and the country's most senior military official, was killed during the strikes, alongside the commander-in-chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami, Iranian state media reported. - The Israeli airstrikes also targeted and killed two of Iran's leading nuclear scientists, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, according to Iranian news outlets. - Odd timing? - Markets initially took it better than expected - until Iran stuck back Valuations - As of the most recent update on June 5, 2025, the forward P/E ratio of the S&P 500 is 21.70. This reflects a decline from 22.44 in the previous quarter and 25.20 one year ago, 10 -year average is about 19 PE Forward Chart Something we discussed on TDI  - Presidential Cycles - The U.S. stock market tends to follow a four-year cycle aligned with presidential terms. Historically, the first year of a president's second term (4 years apart in this case) often mirrors the first year of a new presidency in terms of market behavior—marked by uncertainty, policy re-calibration, and sometimes muted performance - While the first half of the first year can be choppy due to post-election adjustments and early policy moves, the second half—especially Q4—has historically shown stronger performance. This is often attributed to: Stabilizing policy direction after early-year volatility Investor optimism around fiscal planning and budget cycles Seasonal tailwinds like the holiday rally and year-end portfolio rebalancing Presidential Cycle UK Economy- This is why we need to dig further than the headline (more beneath the surface) - The U.K. economy shrank sharply in April as global trade tariffs and domestic tax rises kicked in, data showed Thursday. - The latest monthly growth figures from the Office for National Statistics showed the U.K. economy contracted 0.3% month on month in April, following growth of 0.2% in March. - It was also more than the 0.1% fall economists were expecting. - “After increasing for each of the four preceding months, April saw the largest monthly fall on record in goods exports to the United States with decreases seen across most types of goods, following the recent introduction of tariffs,” --- The real culprit: ----- Domestic tax rises have also been blamed for the steep decline in economic activity. British businesses have been confronted with an increase in national insurance contributions and rise in the minimum age from the start of April, while a temporary tax break on property purchases also came to an end in March. - ----The change in the Stamp Duty Land Tax (paid when buying property or land) in April meant there was a decrease of 63.5% in U.K. residential property transactions from the previous month, the ONS noted, with buyers rushing to complete purchases before the tax break ended. US Economy - U.S. consumer prices increased less than expected in...

The first quarter of 2023 has seen food inflation in the UK surpass 16%, according to the Office for National Statistics. Such inflation rates hadn't been seen for forty years. It's contributed to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, and an increasing number of people are struggling to afford to buy enough food. With all that in mind, many people's number one concern right now is keeping their supermarket bill as low as possible, regardless of how healthy what they're eating is. But there are ways of sticking to a balanced diet even on a shoestring budget. Isn't healthy food always expensive? What are the tips to buy healthy food at a low cost? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here : ⁠Are men still being paid more than women?⁠ ⁠What makes us ticklish?⁠ ⁠Why are there calls for a halt to AI research?⁠ A Bababam Originals podcast. A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance. First Broadcast: 12/4/2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters, Dame Diane Coyle argues that traditional measures like GDP no longer capture economic realities.Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. She is also the director of the Productivity Institute, a fellow of the Office for National Statistics, and a member of the UK's Competition Commission. Drawing on her deep expertise, she proposes an alternative framework for measuring productivity that enables better policymaking.In her conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, she discusses the shortcomings of GDP—such as a lack of accounting for immaterial goods or natural capital, alternative measures of progress, and how corporate leaders should rethink their approach to measurement.Key topics discussed: 01:32 | The shortcomings of GDP as a measure of productivity09:14 | The issues of inflated GDP statements11:12 | Alternative measures of productivity and progress13:47 | A time-based approach to measuring productivity16:39 | How productivity measurement works in practice18:57 | Implications for corporate leadersAdditional inspirations from Diane Coyle:Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be (Princeton University Press, 2021)GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History (Princeton University Press, 2015)The Soulful Science: What Economists Really Do and Why It Matters (Princeton University Press, 2009)Sex, Drugs and Economics: An Unconventional Intro to Economics (Texere, 2002)

As summer heats up, deodorant becomes a faithful ally. But this product can be very dangerous. On May 2022 a 14 year old girl, Giorgia Green, died from inhaling deodorant. The teenager, who was on the autistic spectrum, liked to spray deodorant on her blankets as she found the smell comforting. "The smell of it gave her a certain sense of relaxation," said her father. Sadly her cause of death was found to be "unascertained but consistent with inhalation of aerosol” and although it is not common she is not alone. According to the Office for National Statistics, (ONS) "deodorant" was mentioned on 11 death certificates between 2001 and 2020. Though, it is likely that the actual number of deaths are higher than this, due to the fact that specific substances are not always mentioned on death certificates. What is dangerous in deodorant? Why are people not being made aware of the danger? Should we stop using aerosol deodorants? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here: ⁠What are earworms, the songs we just can't get out of our heads?⁠ ⁠Is it a good idea to sleep with my pet?⁠ ⁠Who are digital nomads, the new generation of remote workers?⁠ A Bababam Originals podcast, written and produced by Amber Minogue. First Broadcast: 23/2/2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to measure the good life? According to Cambridge University's Professor of Public Policy, Diane Coyle, quantifying progress doesn't involve traditional economic metrics. In her new book, Measure of Progress, Coyle discusses how economic metrics like GDP, designed 80 years ago, are increasingly inadequate for measuring today's complex economy. She argues we need new approaches that account for digital transformation, supply chains, and long-term sustainability. Coyle suggests developing human-centric balance sheet measures that reflect true progress beyond simple growth numbers. Five Key Takeaways * Economic metrics like GDP were developed 80 years ago and are increasingly outdated for measuring today's complex digital economy with global supply chains.* We lack adequate tools to measure crucial modern economic factors such as data usage, cloud services, and cross-border supply chains.* Economic statistics have always been political in nature, from their historical origins to present debates about what counts as progress.* Coyle advocates for a "balance sheet" approach that considers long-term sustainability of resources rather than just short-term growth figures.* While productivity growth has slowed for many middle-income families over the past 20 years, Coyle rejects "degrowth" approaches, arguing instead for better metrics that capture true progress in living standards.Professor Dame Diane Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. Diane co-directs the Bennett Institute where she heads research under the themes of progress and productivity. Her latest book is 'Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be', exploring the challenges for economics particularly in the context of digital transformation. Her current research focuses on productivity and on economic measurement: what does it mean for economic policy to make the world ‘better', and how would we know if it succeeds?Diane is also a Director of the Productivity Institute, a Fellow of the Office for National Statistics, and an expert adviser to the National Infrastructure Commission. She has served in public service roles including as Vice Chair of the BBC Trust, member of the Competition Commission, of the Migration Advisory Committee and of the Natural Capital Committee. Diane was Professor of Economics at the University of Manchester until March 2018 and was awarded a DBE for her contribution to economic policy in the 2023 King's Birthday Honours.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Some Labour politicians have been calling for a wealth tax, claiming a 2% tax could raise £24bn. Where are the numbers from and do they add up? A listener asked why housing in the UK is the oldest in Europe. We explain what's going on. The Office for National Statistics has changed how it measures the value of pensions and knocked £2 trillion off its estimates of wealth. Not everyone thinks it was a good change. We find out why.And Lent is here, but how long is the Christian fasting period? We look at the history of a very flexible 40 days. Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news, and the world around us. Presenter: Tim Harford Reporter: Lizzy McNeill Producers: Nathan Gower and Charlotte McDonald Series producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman Sound mix: Gareth Jones Editor: Richard Vadon

New figures from the Office for National Statistics show the UK economy unexpectedly shrunk by 0.1% in January. This comes only a few weeks after the Chancellor's pro-growth speech, and a fortnight ahead of her Spring Statement. Just how much pressure is Rachel Reeves under? And how likely is it that Labour will change their approach? Economics editor Michael Simmons and deputy political editor James Heale join Patrick Gibbons to discuss, as well as a look ahead to next week's expected announcement on reducing the welfare bill. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

It's a double celebration for Rachel Reeves today. Not only is it her birthday, but the UK economy grew by 0.1 per cent in the last three months of 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics' latest report. December, when the economy expanded by 0.4 per cent (the market consensus had been 0.1 per cent), was the saving grace. This helped tip the final quarter of 2024 onto the right side of positive growth. But it's not all rosy for the Chancellor. This morning's update won't take anyone in the Treasury off high alert, and there has been a development in the story about her CV. The BBC has been looking into her expenses during her time at Halifax bank. The Chancellor's response is that she had no knowledge that there was an investigation into wrongdoing. Will it be a happy birthday after all? Elsewhere, it's a big day at The Spectator. In this week's issue, we have launched The Spectator Project Against Frivolous Funding (SPAFF). This online tool lets readers explore the wastelands of government procurement contracts, reckless credit card splurges and absurd research grants. Spoiler alert: there's no shortage of material. Can you find more wasteful funding? Go to: spectator.co.uk/spaff Oscar Edmondson speaks to Kate Andrews and Michael Simmons. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

In episode 85 of the Eyes on Jesus podcast, Drew and Tim address the urgent and daunting issue of trafficking and its impact on the church and next generation. They discuss alarming global and U.S. statistics, including the fast-growing prevalence of platforms like OF among 18 to 24-year-olds. Highlighting the spiritual battle and the church's responsibility, they stress the importance of action, from partnering with organizations fighting trafficking to individual spiritual vigilance and repentance. What can you do to fight against the lucrative culture of perversion? Get the most comfortable shirts we've ever worn with powerful Christian messages! And support the show! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://kingdomandwill.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Use code: EYESONJESUS for 15% off Get all our links in one easy place! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/eyesonjesuspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Group on Facebook- Eyes on Jesus podcast community ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/eyesonjesuspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email feedback, questions or show topic ideas to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠eyesonjesuspodcast@outlook.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more information on Drew Barker: Follow Drew on ⁠Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/pastordrewbarker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Drew's church's website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://yes.online/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more information on Tim Ferrara: ⁠ ⁠ Get all his links in one place- to his social media, all 3 of his books, and more ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/discerning_dad⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 01:00 Personal updates 03:42 Addressing the Pervasive Issue of Trafficking 06:19 Global and National Statistics on Human Trafficking 10:14 The Lucrative and Dangerous Industry 12:23 The Church's Responsibility and Action Plan 15:02 Hotspots and Organizations Fighting Trafficking 16:45 Partnerships and Success Stories 17:34 The Dark Side of Major Events 18:07 Supporting Victims and Nonprofits 19:47 The Rise of OF 22:04 The Impact on Relationships and Society 25:02 A Call to Action for the Church 29:28 Repentance and Living for Christ 32:03 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

Today, the BBC's special correspondent Fergal Keane travelled with the first Jordanian helicopter delivering aid inside Gaza.Adam speaks to Fergal about what it was like to be the first international correspondent to fly with the Jordanians into Israeli-held territory in southern Gaza. And, the Office for National Statistics has projected a population growth of 7.3% between 2022 and 2032; the number is almost entirely based on the net migration of an estimated 4.9 million people over the 10-year period. Adam is joined by Stephanie Hegarty, BBC population correspondent, and Professor Sarah Harper, an expert on demography and Professor of Gerontology at the University of Oxford, to discuss today's ONS findings and what population scientists say about how demographics are changing around the world.You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhere Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Chris Gray with Miranda Slade, Anna Harris and Shiler Mahmoudi. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham.

Richie Allen with two hours of news analysis like no other. On today's show Richie discusses the UK's Assisted Dying Bill. A committee of MP's has begun hearing evidence from doctors and legal professionals to help shape the controversial legislation. Also on the show, The Office for National Statistics says the UK population will grow by 5 million people in the next decade through migration alone, Labour backtracks on broadening the definition of extremism and much more.Support YOUR Richie Allen Show here:

The government is encouraging pensioners to claim pension credit in order to remain eligible for winter fuel payments. Will people sign up - and might that end up costing the exchequer more than it saves?The Office for National Statistics has downgraded the status of a new statistic aiming to measure how many people are transgender. What went wrong?Cancer appears to be on the rise in people under 50. But are more people dying?And try your hand at a puzzle you're likely to get wrong.Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news.Presenter: Tim Harford Producers: Natasha Fernandes and Bethan Ashmead-Latham Series producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison Sound mix: Sarah Hockley Editor: Richard Vadon

*Content warning: childhood abuse, sexual abuse, homophobia, stalking, rape, physical violence, sex trafficking, suicidal ideation, and suicideResources:Darkness to Light: End Child Sexual Abuse - http://d2l.orgThe Army of Survivors - https://thearmyofsurvivors.org/National Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation - https://endsexualexploitation.org/End Violence Against Women International: https://evawintl.org/Survivor Space: https://survivorspace.org/Additional resources + non-profit organizations: http://www.somethingwaswrong.com/resourcesSources: Department of Homeland Security. (n.d.). Human Trafficking. Retrieved July 8, 2024, from https://www.dhs.gov/hsi/investigate/human-traffickingNational Human Trafficking Hotline. (n.d.). National Statistics. https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en/statisticsDarkness 2 Light. (2023). Child Sexual Abuse Updates. https://www.d2l.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Child-Sexual-Abuse-Updates.pdf​​Strauss Investigation. (n.d.). Ohio State University. https://straussinvestigation.osu.edu/Burga, S. (2023, April 23). Congress Re-Introduces Bill to Protect Kids from Online Sexual Abuse. Here's What To Know. Time Magazine. https://time.com/6273895/congress-re-introduces-bill-to-protect-kids-from-online-sexual-abuse/John-Michael Lander: An Athlete's Silence: ​​https://anathletessilence.com/John-Michael's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnmichaellanderSurface Tension by John-Michael Lander: https://amzn.to/3q7K1ptCracked Surface by John-Michael Lander: https://amzn.to/42499ukSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.