On Saturday night, Israel warned its citizens to go to a safe room and prepare to spend the night there. Two hours later, Iran began sending drones into Israeli territory - revenge for the killings of 7 men in the Iranian consulate two weeks ago in Damascus, Syria. Of the 350 drones, 99 percent were intercepted. Tragically -and miraculously - there was only one reported injury - a 7 year old Israeli bedouin child. So what happens next? Does Israel retaliate? Or heed it's allies and 'walk away wi...
Apr 15, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week on The Sports Agents... An array of stardust as the likes of legendary jockeyAP McCoy and Team GB icon Denise Lewis joined Gabby & Mark on the podcast. Is your Premier League club trying to kill off season tickets and is Everton's latest points deduction fair? Does Seb Coe deserve credit for announcing prize money will be paid to Athletes who win gold at the Olympics - and after terror threats at Champions League games - how will Paris ensure fan safety at the Games this summer? Al...
Apr 13, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast On today's episode, we speak to Europe's first black leader - Vaughan Gething, the new First Minister of Wales. In an extended conversation, we talk his rise to the top of Welsh politics amidst experiences of racism, his political motivations and what is next for Wales if Labour return to power. Editor: Tom Hughes Senior Producer: Gabriel Radus Producers: Laura FitzPatrick Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell Video Production: Shane Fennelly and Arvind Badewal You can listen to this episode on A...
Apr 12, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast TW: This episode includes discussions around suicide. If you need someone to talk to, Samaritans listen. Call them on 116 123. Last week, The National Union of Education voted overwhelmingly at their conference to 'abolish Ofsted' - saying it causes more harm than good and needed urgent and fundamental reform. They can't, of course, but today we - with your help - are asking if Ofsted is fit for purpose. We hear from teachers and heads - our listeners - who tell us what needs to change. We speak...
Apr 11, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast William Wragg, the MP who found himself blackmailed by a person to whom he'd sent explicit photographs - last night resigned the Conservative party whip. It means Sunak has lost another MP - Wragg will quit parliament anyway after the next election. He was the victim of a honeytrap which lured him into believing the messages he was receiving from a stranger. But he was also unwise enough to share colleagues contact details when pressured by his blackmailer. Today we go back to the origins of the...
Apr 10, 2024•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast It is a truth near-universally acknowledged (amongst pollsters at least) that Labour will be the largest party at the next election. But how would they actually differ from the Tories in terms of what they do once in power? They've pledged not to raise taxes and not to remove the recent cuts. They're determined to be fiscally responsible - which means little room for spending plans. So what will actually change - at a moment when the country is crying out for repair? We talk to Shadow Health Sec...
Apr 09, 2024•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Police are re-examining claims Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner may have broken electoral law more than a decade ago by failing to pay a capital gains tax worth around £2000. Is there a real story here? Is it about impropriety? Class? Big money vs. small money? And who’s behind it? Later author of Autocracy Inc. Anne Applebaum on Donald Trump's plan to “end the Ukraine war“ and why it makes no sense. Editor: Tom Hughes Senior Producer: Gabriel Radus Producer: Laura FitzPatrick Social Media E...
Apr 08, 2024•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week on The Sports Agents, your questions for Gabby & Mark on everything from Olympics predictions, to how the panel on Match of the Day is selected! Plus, Sky Sports NFL analyst Phoebe Schecter on Louis Rees-Zammit's chances of becoming a regular starter for the reigning Super Bowl champs, after he made the switch from Rugby to NFL. And a closer look at the 'fractured' state of Golf - a week away from The Masters - with English pros Richard Bland and Laurie Canter on the reality of pla...
Apr 06, 2024•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ian Hislop, editor of The Private Eye and team captain on Have I Got News For You sits down with Lewis for an extended conversation about political satire in the modern era of the Westminster psychodrama, and what it was like to have contestants like Piers Morgan and Boris Johnson on his show. Editor: Tom Hughes Senior Producer: Gabriel Radus Producer: Laura FitzPatrick Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell Video Production: Shane Fennelly and Arvind Badewal You can listen to this episode on Alex...
Apr 05, 2024•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the early hours of Thursday morning Layla Moran - the only British MP of Palestinian heritage- received news she’d been longing to hear for months. Her family had finally escape from Gaza. Through perilous crossings and treacherous check points a family of five - including a seventy year old grandmother and two young children- had walked to safety. As Layla herself recognises their relief is starkly contrasted with the two million others who can’t escape. Today we hear that story. And we ask ...
Apr 04, 2024•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Prime Minister has called the Israeli Prime Minister's actions in Gaza 'increasingly intolerable' in a phone call with Netanyahu after the deaths of three British aid workers in an Israeli airstrike. The words are tougher than we've seen before. But the PM is now coming under pressure to end arms sales to Israel. Will he wait for America to move first? Is he watching to see where public opinion goes? Should Keir Starmer be more forthright - as the Lib Dem leader has been - in taking the init...
Apr 03, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast A new law has Police Scotland saying that they'd investigate every online hate crime. But what they've categorised as a hate crime has caused controversy. Why? And should the state decide what is and isn't a protected characteristic? And - Israel accept responsibility and apologise for a rocket strike that's killed foreign aid workers in Gaza. It comes after a precision stirke on the Iranian consulate in Syria. What is the IDF doing - and is it ostracising their greatest allies the US even furth...
Apr 02, 2024•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, The Sports Agents dug into why Arsenal are still in a league of their own when it comes to the commercial success of their Women's team, how Gabby became 'obsessed' with Andy Murray and if Gareth Southgate would be a perfect fit for Man United's new owners? And to keep you going over the extended Easter weekend Gabby & Mark also found out all about Corinthians FC - one of the finest teams in English football history, that you've probably never heard of! New episodes every Tuesday ...
Mar 30, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Your questions answered in a special Q&A edition of the podcast with Emily, Jon and Lewis. Editor: Tom Hughes Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell Video Production: Shane Fennelly and Rory Symon You can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The News Agents"! The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
Mar 28, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Forget everything you know about an exploding world population. The sad truth is, our birthrate is plummeting globally to the point where there soon won't be enough young workers to take care of the aging population. What happens then? Can you financially incentivise people to have kids? Should we be thinking harder about immigration? And why does this subject - and its pronatalist rhetoric - so often become the domaine of the authoritarian right? We'll hear from Elon, Jordan and Jacob - about w...
Mar 27, 2024•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Once you have revealed that China is hacking British citizens on a major and global scale, the next question is - well, what are you going to do about it? Well this is the one the prime minister is currently pondering. He's talking about putting China on an 'enhanced' list - which basically sounds like a glorified registration. But is he prepared to risk trading links? Or shut down Confucious institutes in the UK - China's soft power - or even say no to tiktok? Also - the Tavistock child gender ...
Mar 26, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast The bombing of a Moscow concert hall left at least 137 dead and even more wounded. The regrouped ISIS - now ISIS K- have claimed responsibility even though Putin is insisting on blaming Ukraine. Why has ISIS come for Putin? What does it tell us about the strategic alignments now dominating the Middle East, and does this act of terror bring the threat of more closer to home? Also - another by-election looms in the marginal seat of Blackpool South as Tory MP Scott Benton resigns. And Donald Trump ...
Mar 25, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Influential left-wing commentator Owen Jones is in News Agents HQ a day after he quit the Labour Party - despite being a member since he was 15 - on account of what he perceived to be Keir Starmer's fundamental 'dishonesty'. We ask him why he thinks that, whether Labour have lost his vote forever, and if he wants to become the left-wing's Nigel Farage. Editor: Tom Hughes Senior Producer: Gabriel Radus Producer: Laura FitzPatrick Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell Video Production: Shane Fennel...
Mar 24, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, The Sports Agents took a closer look at the state of Rugby Union, reflected on Nottingham Forest becoming the latest Premier League club to suffer a points deduction, as well as, the infamous story of one, Ali Dia... On Tuesday, Andy Burnham - Greater Manchester Mayor and furious Everton fan - certainly didn't hold back when discussing why the Premier League needs an independent regulator. Top comedians Dara O'Briain and Josh Widdicombe were then on hand to talk about their six-part p...
Mar 23, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast At 6pm on Friday the Princess of Wales released a video statement. In it, she discusses her cancer diagnosis for the first time. She acknowledges the difficulties facing their family in maintaining their privacy throughout her diagnosis and treatment. Will she now be left alone? And will the conspiracy theories stop? Editor: Tom Hughes Senior Producer: Gabriel Radus Producer: Laura FitzPatrick Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell Video Production: Shane Fennelly and Arvind Badewal You can listen...
Mar 22, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast There's only one poll that counts and that's the actual election and that's not today. We know that, we get it, but the latest numbers from YouGov are worth looking at to see a direction of travel that might be staring us in the face. Tonight's poll for The Times puts the Conservatives on 19 percent and Reform Party just behind them on 15. Is it conceivable that they overtake today's party of government at the general election? And what is the demographic that is propping up the newcomer Reformi...
Mar 21, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Margaret Thatcher has been out of power for thirty years but this week it's started to feel like she's back in the room. Rachel Reeves, shadow chancellor, gave the agenda-setting Mais lecture to the City of London last night, setting out her vision for Labour's first term in office and invoking the spirit, if not the policies, of Thatcher. David Lammy, her colleague, was quick to endorse both women when asked about it on the Politico podcast. Is the mention of Thatcher a way of winning over the ...
Mar 20, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Even after Kate Middleton appeared IRL at a local Windsor farm shop, the Tiktok conspiracy theories continued. Was it really Kate? Was the photo staged? Why did the video look different to the still image? On and on. The Royals have always generated frenzied gossip. What was once shared over a neighbourly picket fence is now just dispersed online. But does that change how the Royals should respond? Should they hold their nerve or feed the beast? We talk to Royal Correspondent Peter Hunt. Later, ...
Mar 19, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast The weekend has been awash with talk of yet another leadership putsch. Is Penny Mordaunt on manoeuvres? Is Kemi Badenoch scheming? The answer is probably no - for now - but it points to a sense of inexorable crisis in a party which is only now realising the scale of the loss that may be careering down the tracks towards them. Could enough of the parliamentary party be persuaded that more of them could survive if they replaced Rishi? And would Rishi REALLY pull the rip cord - announcing an electi...
Mar 18, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, The Sports Agents were invited to the head offices of 'The Enhanced Games' to interview President Aron D'Souza - who wants to put on an Olympic-style event where all the athletes are permitted (even encouraged) to dope... Don't forget your popcorn for this one! Then on Thursday, Gabby & Mark were joined by boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, to discuss the role the sport is playing in Saudi 'sportswashing'. Plus, why owners of football clubs can't seem to stop at buying just one, and why...
Mar 16, 2024•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast British politics has been dominated by race this week. The big picture is that certain ideas which would once have been unsayable are now commonplace within the Conservative Party. Sayeeda Warsi was at the centre of the Cameron modernisation project, where he sought to bring ethnic minorities into the tent. Now she’s in the wilderness and gives us a perspective of the changes which have taken place in her party. Among other things she calls some Tory ministers “arsonists” who seek to divide and ...
Mar 15, 2024•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Michael Gove has announced today that the government is redefining extremism. But given they've taken up to 15 million pounds worth of donations from a man who said Diane Abbott should be shot, do they really have any credibility doing so this week? Lewis interviews Keir Starmer in an exclusive for LBC and asks whether Diane Abbott has a place back in his Labour Party. Editor: Tom Hughes Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell Producer: Alex Barnett Video Production: Rory Symon and Shane Fennelly Y...
Mar 14, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast The PM has belatedly conceded that the comments in which a Tory donor expressed his urge to 'shoot all black women' WAS actually racist. He's still not giving the money back. No, that would be a step too far. He praised Frank Hester's move to 'apologise' and 'show remorse'. Hester apologised only for his rudeness, we should remember, not his threatening misogynist racist language. How does it feel to be sent out by Sunak to do the rounds - defending this stuff? And why are the men in grey suits ...
Mar 13, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today's Tory 'was it racist?' row centres a donor who's given the Conservatives more than ten million pounds. The Guardian scoop revealed comments he made 5 years ago - centring on the now-suspended Labour MP Dianne Abbott whom he blamed for making him 'want to hate all black women'. Rishi Sunak has called the comments 'clearly unacceptable' but refused to call them racist. Is there any chance he'll chose to return the money? And why is the Tory party struggling with yet another case of the 'Lee...
Mar 12, 2024•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Lee Anderson has defected to the Reform Party, saying he’d done a lot of soul-searching on his political journey, and wants his country back. He had of course already been kicked out of the Conservative Party for those ‘islamist’ slurs against Sadiq Khan, so when we say ‘defected’ we mean from being a party-less whip-less MP. Nevertheless, the move may chill his former colleagues - and the PM himself, who will wonder if the Lee he championed as his former deputy chair DOES in fact ‘speak for mil...
Mar 11, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
