What will 2026 look like around the globe? Will the second phase of the ceasefire in Gaza ever happen, will Ukraine and Russia agree to Donald Trump's peace deal, and what about the World Cup? To explore what and who will shape the world in 2026, on this final Fourcast episode of 2025, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined by two of Channel 4 News' most experienced international journalists who have seen quite a few power shifts and peace deals in their time: Lindsey Hilsum and Jonathan Rugman....
Dec 22, 2025•36 min
Phase one of Donald Trump’s ceasefire in Gaza appears to be holding, but it's precarious as hundreds of Gazans have been killed since it began and hundreds of thousands remain homeless and displaced.The Israeli defence force still occupies much of the territory and Hamas have re-established themselves in some areas.So is phase two - with its transitional authority and international peace force looking any way possible?Benjamin Netanyahu says it's close, but what's the view of the Palestinians?On...
Dec 11, 2025•40 min
As Ukraine prepares to present a revised peace proposal to Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is prepared to hold elections in months - a long-standing demand from Moscow.Meanwhile European leaders appear to be edging closer to seizing frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine. So is the peace process entering a decisive phase - or is this just another round of political theatre? On this episode of The Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to the Russian ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin ...
Dec 10, 2025•30 min
China is in an age of rapid technology development with AI, robots and drones - and many fear this relentless progress, and Xi Jinping’s desire to reabsorb Taiwan, will bring it into direct conflict with the United States. But is China’s rise as inevitable and smooth as its leaders want it to be? Our International Editor Lindsey Hilsum has returned from a trip to China where she was Channel 4 News' correspondent for years. She was wowed by technological progress - but also found a younger genera...
Dec 04, 2025•33 min
The blaze that engulfed seven high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district was the deadliest the city has seen in over 70 years. At least 156 people have died, 30 are still missing, while 15 have been arrested for alleged manslaughter. Grief has overwhelmed the city and fuelled an uncontrollable anger towards those in power. Today - almost a week after the fire - we ask how the tragedy unfolded, why Hong Kong is still enraged and what it tells us about the city that once prided...
Dec 02, 2025•36 min
For months after Vladimir Putin’s fullscale invasion of Ukraine, Western leaders predicted Russia’s economy was on the brink of collapse under sanctions - and yet it didn’t. It transformed into a wartime economy, fuelled by military production, redirected trade routes, and deeper ties with China and India. But now there are signs this may be changing - with industrial output slowing, inflation rising, and severe labour shortages as hundreds of thousands of working-age men have either died, emigr...
Nov 27, 2025•27 min
As Rachel Reeves prepares to deliver the budget on Wednesday, she faces the political nightmare of having to come back for more tax, having said she wouldn't and she's already made it clear that whatever she does the burden will fall on all of us, not just the rich minority - but the left and the Greens are demanding a wealth tax, while the right and Reform are demanding welfare cuts and tax cuts. Voters are disillusioned, inflation is stubborn, services are still struggling and faith in the pol...
Nov 24, 2025•52 min
With the budget just days away, Rachel Reeves is facing yet another black hole in the public finances - after ditching plans to raise income tax, it’s been widely reported that the government will go for a “smorgasboard” of tax rises and spending cuts to plug the gap, but critics on the left and right say it won’t address the deeper structural rot in Britain’s economy. So on this episode of The Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined by two economists with radically different visions for how to...
Nov 21, 2025•34 min
US and Russian officials have drafted new proposals to end the Ukraine war but they would appear to require major concessions from President Zelenskyy over territory and weapons. Will they be acceptable to the Ukrainian President, and what about his forces fighting on the frontline? On this episode of the Fourcast, Matt Frei speaks to the award-winning filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov who has a new film just out that follows a brigade of soldiers as they attempt to liberate the village of Andriivka in...
Nov 20, 2025•22 min
The NHS is facing one of its deepest crises - a string of maternity scandals, from Shrewsbury to Nottingham, Oxford to Leeds. Hundreds of babies have died or been left severely injured in hospitals meant to keep them safe. So why does this keep happening? Is it about funding, training, or a system that protects itself instead of patients?On this episode of The Fourcast, Krishnan Guru Murthy is joined by Jeremy Hunt MP, who was the Health Secretary between 2012 and 2018; Channel 4 News Health and...
Nov 13, 2025•27 min
Labour is facing an extraordinary rift at the top of government. Health Secretary Wes Streeting has strongly denied claims that he is plotting to overthrow Prime Minister Keir Starmer, saying that attacks are a sign of a toxic culture at Number 10. The story erupted after an anonymous briefing suggested Streeting could be preparing a leadership bid - a claim he has strongly rejected. But the row raises bigger questions: how loyal is the Cabinet? Who is really pulling the strings in No 10? And wh...
Nov 12, 2025•37 min
The BBC is in meltdown: both the Director General Tim Davie and the Head of News Deborah Turness have quit in the same weekend after a leaked memo accused the corporation of systemic political bias - an edit of Donald Trump’s speech ahead of the January 6th riots at heart of the memo. The President has now piled in, threatening a billion dollar lawsuit. So what is really going on? Was this a right-wing coup against public service broadcasting - or the consequence of genuine bias inside the BBC? ...
Nov 10, 2025•29 min
While COP30 gets underway in Brazil - Donald Trump is ripping up climate policy, blasting his allies for falling for what he calls the ‘world's greatest con job’ and trying to get big business to follow his lead - and yet in New York, Zohran Mamdani - a left-wing populist unafraid to tout a green agenda - has just won the mayoral race and in the UK, the Green Party has surged under Zack Polanski. So is the direction of travel really a climate rollback - or is a new left preparing to claim power ...
Nov 06, 2025•26 min
After months of a “vicious cycle of mutual retaliation”, as Xi Jinping has put it, Donald Trump and China's president seem to have come to a truce after their first meeting in nearly six years. Meeting in South Korea, Xi agreed to stop withholding China’s rare earth exports for a year and start buying soy beans from America again. While Trump said he would reduce tariffs and suspend port fees on Chinese ships. But how long will this amicable relationship last? Will all of this signal a closer ti...
Oct 30, 2025•32 min
Is Keir Starmer’s immigration strategy doomed to fail? Despite tough language, a one-in-one-out returns scheme with France and speeding up the closure of asylum hotels, Labour continues to plummet in the polls. So, why is it going so badly? Has Keir Starmer, as some of his critics say, just been playing into Nigel Farage’s hands by elevating the issue, or will it work out in the long run? To discuss all this and more on the latest episode of The Fourcast, Jackie Long is joined by Channel 4 News ...
Oct 29, 2025•24 min
Is the UK government complicit in the destruction of Gaza? That's the assertion in the new book by journalist and polemicist Peter Oborne, with both Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak under fire for backing what he calls Israel's “criminal assault” following the Hamas attack of October 7. What's more, he says, the British media played its part too: colluding with the government as well as misrepresenting or under-reporting those voices opposed. On this episode of the Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy spe...
Oct 23, 2025•42 min
As Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s latest meeting reportedly descended into another shouting match, the war in Ukraine feels as volatile as ever - and, according to some, more dangerous for the world than at any time since the Cold War.In this episode of The Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by Serhii Plokhy, professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard and author of The Nuclear Age. He warns that fear is once again driving nations towards the bomb - and that we could soon see dozens more nuclea...
Oct 21, 2025•30 min
In 2011, Virginia Roberts Giuffre became known as the most outspoken victim of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Her campaigning against their abuse and trafficking helped to get justice for many women, but she was perhaps best known for a now-infamous photograph, taken when she was aged just 17, meeting with Prince Andrew. She claimed it was taken prior to one of three times she was forced to have sex with the King's brother. Encounters he vehemently denies took place but which have led to...
Oct 21, 2025•35 min
With the IMF warning that we’re in an AI bubble that could be worse than the dot-com crash if it bursts — and even OpenAI’s Sam Altman admitting the market is “kind of bubbly” — what happens to the global economy if the AI boom implodes? Are we witnessing the next dot-com bust, or just the growing pains of a genuine technological revolution? To discuss it all on the latest episode of The Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined from Silicon Valley by entrepreneur, author and futurist Jerry Kaplan, and from...
Oct 16, 2025•32 min
After two years of war, a deal has finally been struck. Hostages are coming home, Palestinian prisoners and detainees are being released, and Israel and Hamas have declared that the fighting is over. But can this really be the end?In this episode of The Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin - a man who has spent nearly five decades talking to both sides of the conflict, including Hamas.From back-channel talks to the Trump administration’s surprise role, Baski...
Oct 13, 2025•49 min
After two years of relentless war, devastation, and loss in Gaza — a ceasefire has finally been agreed that will see all remaining Israeli hostages freed in exchange for thousands of Palestinian detainees. It’s a stunning diplomatic breakthrough, driven by Donald Trump’s personal intervention — but can this fragile deal really end the war, or is it just another pause before the next explosion of violence? In this special episode of The Fourcast from Hostage Square in Tel Aviv Krishnan Guru-Murth...
Oct 09, 2025•27 min
As Kemi Badenoch fights for her political life at the Conservative Party conference, the Tories face a growing threat from the right. With high-profile defections to Reform UK and deep internal divisions, is this the beginning of the end for the Conservative Party?In this episode of the Fourcast, Cathy Newman speaks with former deputy prime minister and Conserative MP Baroness Therese Coffey, and Lord Daniel Finklestein, columnist for The Times and also a Tory peer. They unpack the party’s ident...
Oct 07, 2025•29 min
The Conservative Party Conference is underway in Manchester where the Tories are in turmoil, trailing badly in the polls and staring down electoral oblivion as they are squeezed between Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and Keir Starmer’s Labour Party. Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride joins Cathy Newman on this episode of The Fourcast to explain how the Conservatives plan to regain momentum and rebuild their reputation as the party of economic competence — but is it too little, too late?...
Oct 06, 2025•15 min
Nadine Dorries was once a Tory loyalist and Boris Johnson’s closest ally — now she’s defected to Reform UK, the party leading the polls under Nigel Farage. She claims Farage is the only leader who can deliver the change communities need, but are Reform’s headline promises really workable? And how does Dorries reconcile joining a party whose leader launches blistering attacks on her old boss, Boris Johnson? She joins Cathy Newman for her first sit down interview since defecting....
Oct 02, 2025•33 min
Labour’s deputy leadership contender and Keir Starmer ally Bridget Phillipson joins Krishnan Guru-Murthy on The Fourcast to set out her vision for the party. She talks about the threat from Reform UK and Nigel Farage, and how she would still hold Keir Starmer to account even though she’s a cabinet minister and widely believed to be the prime minister’s preferred choice. Plus - does she prefer Tony Blair or Gordon Brown?
Sep 30, 2025•16 min
Rachel Reeves’ big speech on the economy dominates the second day of the Labour Party conference. Ahead of the November budget, the chancellor warns that there will be harder choices and refuses to rule out tax rises. But with growth sluggish, polls tightening and Reform making gains, can Labour really deliver the change it promised?In this episode of The Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murphy speaks to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray to discuss the prospect of tax rises, and how Labour...
Sep 29, 2025•20 min
Award-winning Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah was sacked after posts she made about Charlie Kirk on social media sparked a storm of controversy. Her dismissal has become a flashpoint in the debate over free speech, newsroom policies, and the future of press freedom in America.In this episode of The Fourcast, Karen Attiah speaks to Cathy Newman, reflecting on the circumstances of her firing, the political pressures facing journalists, and why she believes her case is a test for how far opi...
Sep 25, 2025•27 min
As a UN commission concludes that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and international pressure grows with more nations, including the UK, moving toward recognising a Palestinian state, is there any hope for a two-state solution?Can Israel and Palestine ever coexist side by side in peace, or has the violence, mistrust and the events of October the 7th and its aftermath made that dream impossible?In this special extended episode of The Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined in Jerusalem by A...
Sep 18, 2025•1 hr 10 min
A UN commission investigating the Gaza war has concluded that Israel is committing genocide, adding its voice to growing international concern from legal scholars and human rights organisations. It doesn’t have the force of a court or the UN Security Council. But as a commission of eminent legal experts, its findings carry significant moral weight. Arab Barghouthi is the son of Marwan Barghouthi, who is perhaps the most popular Palestinian leader in the occupied territories. He has been in jail ...
Sep 16, 2025•32 min
For the third time in his political career, Peter Mandelson has fallen from high office in a scandal linked to rich and powerful men - this time it was his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein that was his undoing. Lord Mandelson was sacked from his role as UK ambassador to the US after leaked emails showed him offering support for Epstein even after a sex offence conviction. Downing Street said the Prime Minister found 'the depth and extent of the relationship reprehensible...
Sep 11, 2025•29 min
