The Democrats have taken Congress, and Pete Hegseth is the obvious first target. Eurozone inflation has hit four percent, and the people raising rates can’t touch the thing driving it. England’s GPs are about to trial a world-first blood test for cancer. And ten years ago today, my interview with Jamal Edwards went out. Four stories this Wednesday, and what our guests told me about each one.
The Democrats take Congress. What happens now?
The Democrats have won both the House and the Senate, in what the AP calls a strong rebuke to Donald Trump. Trump’s answer: “I wasn’t on the ballot.”
Last year, Michael Terpin told me exactly what a Democratic win would mean: “If they win, the last two years will be nothing but impeachment hearings. And so nothing will get done.”
▶ Watch Michael Terpin from 52:21
The obvious first name is Pete Hegseth. House Democrats filed articles of impeachment against him in April, over the Iran war, boat strikes and classified information, and USA Today now calls a vote likely. No vote has happened yet, and removing him would take two thirds of the Senate.
So why is he still there? Anthony Scaramucci told me a year ago. Trump, he said, is slower to fire people now. The Signal row “would have fired him for sure in the first term. And I think the president’s looking at it like, I don’t want to give scalps to the liberals, and let’s keep the team together.”
▶ Watch Anthony Scaramucci from 31:43
Now the liberals run Congress.
Eurozone inflation hits four percent
Eurozone inflation has reached four percent, the highest since September 2023. Energy is up 20.8 percent, while core inflation sits at 2.5 percent. A rate rise in December now looks likely.
But can a rate rise bring down an energy bill? I put this to Nomi Prins in 2022: “Some of the major components of inflation, there’s nothing that the central banks can do about it, and yet they’re the ones telling us, we got you… we’re going to jack up these rates.”
And her answer on who makes that call: “We don’t elect these people. No one gets to vote for the head of the Federal Reserve or the head of the European Central Bank or the head of the Bank of England… Yet what they do has such a real impact.”
Prices they can’t control, from people nobody elected.
England’s GPs trial a blood test for several cancers
England’s GPs are about to trial a world first: a single blood test for several cancers. At least 200 practices and more than 20,000 patients aged 45 and over with abdominal symptoms will take part. It’s a trial, not a rollout, and a positive result isn’t a diagnosis.
David Sinclair told me what happened when he asked his own doctor for a test like this: “He said, what test? You mean you can actually do that now? And I wanted to reach over and strangle him, because he’s the guy that should be on top of this, not me.”
▶ Watch David Sinclair from 57:03
That was his own experience, and his own frustration. If this trial works, the next doctor might already know.
Jamal Edwards, ten years on
Ten years ago today, my interview with a young man from west London went out. His name was Jamal Edwards. He got a camcorder for Christmas, started filming his friends on the estate, and helped launch Ed Sheeran, Jessie J, Dave and Skepta.
This week, his channel, SBTV, turned twenty. Jamal isn’t here to see it. He died in 2022, aged 31. His sister Tanisha carries on his work, and on 11 November the artists he believed in will play the O2 in his name, raising money for the Jamal Edwards Self Belief Trust. Tanisha calls it a celebration of her brother’s legacy.
I asked Jamal what success meant to him: “I feel success is when you die, your name still carries weight and lives on.”
▶ Watch Jamal Edwards from 1:26
Jamal, your name does live on. You believed in young artists before anyone else would, and it was an honour to sit down with you. Thank you.
Which of these stories are you watching? Tell me on X at @brianbrose.
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