Shock News: The Weekly Round-Up
This week, on the Shock News show, Benny, Luca and Adam discussed the latest national, international and local headlines.
Starting with politics, they discussed what the future holds for Zack Polanski, the Salford-born Green Party leader. This week, he was defeated in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election by Labour's Sagal Abdi-Wali. She won 12,292 votes, in comparison to Polanski's 8,928 votes.
The defeat comes at a rocky time for the Green Party. At the party's conference in Brighton earlier this month, a controversial proposal was voted through- whereby the party took the official position that Zionism was racism. Whilst Polanski didn't vote himself, and says that if he had done he would not have voted in favour, it has lead to the chair of the Jewish Greens, Vivien Lichtenstein, calling for Polanski to quit.
The Greens surged in the polls following Polanski's election to the leadership in September 2025, polling at over 17% in March. They also won February's Gorton and Denton by-election, with Hannah Spencer becoming the party's first ever North Western MP. However, they are now polling at just over 9%. With this decline, some are questioning whether Polanski is the right person to lead the Greens into the next General Election.
In international news, Donald Trump has said that President Zelenskyy should be replaced as leader of Ukraine, saying that the war cannot possibly end whilst he remains in charge. It comes as the US and Russia have agreed a deal for the Americans to buy Diesel from Vladimir Putin's nation. Amid the deal, Trump has said Zelenskyy had "better stop" striking Russian oil refineries. On the show, we discussed what this deal, and Trump's latest comments mean for Ukraine's future in the war.
The UK continues to support the Ukranian effort in the war, with Defence Secretary Wes Streeting refusing to support the American's deal with Russia. The latest developments have also raised questions surrounding the future of the special relationship between the UK and the USA, due to their differing views on Ukraine.
This weekend, a man died after being mauled by a tiger at Yorkshire Wildlife Park. Police are investigating the incident, but the park has confirmed that the animal will not be put down. On the show, we discussed how ethical zoos are.
To finish off, we spoke about all of our favourite things in Salford, as the area celebrated its 100th year with city status this weekend. Videos of local Salford community groups were projected onto the Maxwell Building and Salford Shopping city as part of the celebrations.
You can watch this week's Shock News here:
The Shock News Show is live at 4pm every Sunday on Shock Radio, and can be watched on Shock TV every Sunday evening.
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