Welcome to France Elects, an in-depth look at the 2022 French election. Will Emmanuel Macron win a second term as president, or will challenges from the left, right and far right end his five years in office. In this series, the New Statesman ’s Europe correspondent Ido Vock will speak to some of the sharpest observers of French politics, delving deep into the big issues shaping the race to lead the EU’s biggest military power and its second-largest economy. From climate policy to for...
Jan 26, 2022•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast The New Statesman ’s Europe Correspondent Ido Vock interviews the Syrian human rights activist Joumana Seif about the recent conviction in Germany of the former Syrian colonel, Anwar Raslan, of crimes against humanity. They discuss whether the Syrians who suffered under Bashar al-Assad’s regime will see this as justice, and whether other European countries could follow Germany’s lead in prosecuting international crimes. Further reading: Syrians in exile are fighting to...
Jan 24, 2022•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast As the three-week countdown begins for the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Omicron variant has reached the city, prompting restrictions on ticket sales for an event China had hoped would symbolise its successful containment strategy. Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC, and Ido Vock in Berlin are joined by Katie Stallard, senior editor of China and global affairs in Washington, DC, our latest addition to the team. They discuss China’s ability to deliver a “streamlined, safe and splendid” games, a...
Jan 20, 2022•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Emily Tamkin presents Battle for the Soul of America , a three-part series from the World Review podcast that looks at Joe Biden’s first year in office. How have some of his core campaign pledges – on foreign policy, immigration and voting rights – held up? In our final episode, we look at the state of voting rights under Joe Biden. Just over a year ago, on 6 January 2021, supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in Washington, DC.&n...
Jan 19, 2022•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast The New Statesman’s international editor, Jeremy Cliffe, speaks to author Tim Parks about the upcoming Italian presidential election. They discuss whether Italy’s strict Covid regulations are popular, why Mario Draghi wants to become president and whether the disgraced former prime minister Berlusconi could make another political comeback. If you have a You Ask Us question for the international team, email podcasts@newstatesman.co.uk . Further reading: Ahead of th...
Jan 17, 2022•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast While Russia builds troops at the border with Ukraine, Russian officials have been on a tour of Europe, meeting the US in Geneva and Nato in Brussels. Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC and Ido Vock in Berlin discuss why this round of diplomacy has once again failed to defuse tensions. At the same time, Russia has sent troops from the Moscow-based CSTO military alliance to Kazakhstan to prop up President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev after widespread protests. The team discuss the unrest and the political g...
Jan 13, 2022•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Emily Tamkin presents Battle for the Soul of America , a three-part series from the World Review podcast that looks at Joe Biden’s first year in office. How have some of his core campaign pledges – on foreign policy, immigration and voting rights – held up? Our second episode looks at Biden’s record on immigration. Implementing the "fair and humane" immigration system he promised on the campaign trail is proving a huge undertaking. The administration ...
Jan 12, 2022•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast The New Statesman’s s enior editor, US, Emily Tamkin, speaks to author, journalist and TV producer Peter Pomerantsev about the growing tension between Russia and Ukraine. They discuss why Russia finds Ukraine so important, what closing down Memorial, the country's oldest human rights organisation,says about its historical memory, and how Russians might feel about a potential war. If you have a You Ask Us question for the international team, email podcasts@newstatesman....
Jan 10, 2022•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jeremy Cliffe and Ido Vock in Berlin are joined by Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC to discuss some key elections that could shake up political dynamics across the world in 2022. Has leftish, resurgent Lula da Silva shaken Jair Bolsonaro’s grip on Brazil? What will happen when Sweden’s first female prime minister Magdalena Andersson goes to the polls? And will the Donald Trump-endorsed Viktor Orbán cling on to power in Hungary? Then, in You Ask Us, a listener wonders what it is going t...
Jan 06, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Emily Tamkin presents Battle for the Soul of America , a three-part series from the World Review podcast that examines the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency. How have some of his core campaign pledges – on foreign policy, immigration and voting rights – held up? Our first episode focuses on foreign policy. With his decades of experience in international affairs, Biden claimed that “America is back” after four years of a Trump administration that conduct...
Jan 05, 2022•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast The New Statesman’s environment and sustainability editor, Philippa Nuttall, speaks to the leading climate change diplomat Christiana Figueres. They discuss whether Cop26 went far enough, what it will take to turn the pledges into action, and what role the fossil fuel industry should have, if any, in the transition to a carbon-zero world. If you have a You Ask Us question for the international team, email podcasts@newstatesman.co.uk Further reading: &...
Jan 03, 2022•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast The New Statesman international team look back at their most significant moments of 2021, including the 6th January storming of the US capitol, the Belarus border crisis and Cop26. Then Emily Tamkin in Washington DC, Ido Vock in Paris and Jeremy Cliffe in Berlin make their predictions for 2022, looking ahead to elections in Hungary and France as well as what could be a challenging year for China. Further Reading: Emily Tamkin’s seven predictions for the world in 2022. Ido Vock'...
Dec 30, 2021•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this special episode of World Review, Jeremy Cliffe in Berlin and Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC return to their predictions for the stories they thought would dominate in 2021. The trajectory of the pandemic, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, continued tensions between India and China and the rogue regime in Belarus; did we see it coming? Further reading: World Review: what happened in Washington, DC – and 2021 predictions . Emily Tamkin: crystal...
Dec 23, 2021•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Emily Tamkin, the US editor of the New Statesman, interviews Mukulika Banerjee about her new book Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India. They discuss the farmers' protests that eventually led to a government U-turn in India, the history of Indian rural politics and the health of democracy in the subcontinent. If you have a You Ask Us question for the international team, email podcasts@newstatesman.co.uk Further reading: India reveres its de...
Dec 20, 2021•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast A massive build-up of Russian troops and military infrastructure on the Ukrainian border has the US and Nato worried that President Vladimir Putin may be planning an imminent new invasion of the country. Jeremy Cliffe and Ido Vock in Berlin are joined by Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC to discuss the escalating crisis and the future of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Meanwhile, Chile’s presidential election heads to a runoff. The tight race between far-right José Antonio Kast and left-w...
Dec 16, 2021•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast As a new Covid variant causes concern about the effectiveness and global equity of vaccine programmes, is the project to deliver vaccines to the Global South working? New Statesman reporter Harry Clarke-Ezzidio interviews Aurélia Nguyen, the managing director of Covax, an organisation set up to ensure fair access to Covid vaccines. They discuss criticism of the current vaccination programme, whether richer countries are hoarding vaccines, and why the world needs to cooperate to defeat the ...
Dec 13, 2021•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast The US Supreme Court is to decide on a case that directly challenges Roe vs Wade, the 1973 ruling that guarantees the right to an abortion. Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC and Megan Gibson in London discuss the fight for reproductive rights, not just in the US but across the world. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a video call of "strong measures" that could be applied to Moscow, amid fears that Russian troops amassing on th...
Dec 09, 2021•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jeremy Cliffe in Berlin presents a special series from the New Statesman's World Review podcast on the German election and its aftermath. In this final episode, he reviews Germany's new centre-left coalition government and the incoming chancellor Olaf Scholz. What is the government's politics? What are its policy priorities at home and abroad? Who are its most important personalities? And where could the difficulties lie? To discuss all this he is joined by Jana Puglierin, head of the Berlin off...
Dec 08, 2021•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Megan Gibson, our Senior Editor, International, speaks to the Turkish journalist and author Ece Temelkuran. They discuss Turkey’s slide into authoritarianism – and the lessons the political situation holds for other democracies – as well as the country’s spiralling economic crisis and what chance a united opposition might have to defeat the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. If you have a You Ask Us question for the international team, email podcasts@new...
Dec 06, 2021•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast On 26 November Omicron was declared a Covid-19 variant of concern by the World Health Organisation. With Omicron now detected in more than 20 countries, governments across the world are acting to limit its spread. Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC, Alix Kroeger in London and Ido Vock in Berlin discuss the politics of travel bans and vaccine inequity. On 24 November, at least 27 people died trying to reach the UK by boat, in the biggest recorded single loss of migrants' lives in the Engl...
Dec 02, 2021•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alix Kroeger in London speaks to the BBC’s world affairs editor John Simpson after his recent visit to Afghanistan. They talk about how life under the Taliban compares with the last time the regime was in power, where the country is getting aid from, and how the rest of the world should engage with Afghanistan. If you have a You Ask Us question for the New Statesman international team, email podcasts@newstatesman.co.uk Further reading: As sanctions bite, Afghanistan edges towar...
Nov 29, 2021•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kyle Rittenhouse has been acquitted after fatally shooting two men and wounding another during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year. Megan Gibson in London and Ido Vock in Berlin are joined by Sarah Manavis in London to discuss what the case means for questions of racial justice and for firearms rights. Meanwhile, new restrictions to curb surging Covid-19 cases across Europe have led to violent protests. With Austria making vaccinations mandatory and other EU ...
Nov 25, 2021•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Europe Correspondent Ido Vock speaks to Belarus opposition leader and democracy activist Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in an exclusive interview for World Review. They discuss the migrant crisis on EU’s border, why the EU needs to impose tougher sanctions on Lukashenko and how she manages to keep in touch with Belarusians from exile in Lithuania. If you have a You Ask Us question for the international team, email podcasts@newstatesman.co.uk Further reading: Dispatch: Migrants freeze as Be...
Nov 22, 2021•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Six years after terror attacks killed 130 people and injured more than 400 across Paris, the biggest criminal trial in French history is under way. The nine-month trial is being welcomed as a truth commission: a forum to address personal and national trauma, as well as the socio-political context of the attacks. Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC, Megan Gibson in London, and Philippa Nuttall in Brussels ask how the trial is shaping the French national psyche. Meanwhile, a “disappointing” deal...
Nov 18, 2021•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC interviews Samir Saran, the president of the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think tank based in New Delhi. They discuss India-US relations, how Washington wants closer ties with New Delhi and whether that enthusiasm is matched on the Indian side. If you have a You Ask Us question for the international team, email podcasts@newstatesman.co.uk Further reading: Samir Saran on India-US relations Narendra Modi will talk up...
Nov 15, 2021•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bosnia and Herzegovina is facing a political crisis that some fear could lead to conflict. The Bosnian-Serb member of the country’s tripartite presidency Milorad Dodik has announced that Republika Srpska will withdraw from the military and other shared state institutions, which many see as a prelude to secession and a merger with Serbia. Jeremy Cliffe and Ido Vock in Berlin are joined by Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC to discuss whether this concerning situation is symptomatic of the West...
Nov 11, 2021•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Megan Gibson interviews Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law. They discuss his new book, Freedom: How We Lose It and How We Fight Back. They talk about the speed of the impact of Hong Kong’s National Security Law, how safe and stable western democracies really are and whether he could ever return to Hong Kong. If you have a You Ask Us question for the international team, email podcasts@newstatesman.co.uk Further Reading: Nathan Law: From Poland to the UK, “ freedom is under threat ” One year ...
Nov 08, 2021•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast World leaders from over 100 countries have descended on Glasgow for the climate summit. Cop26 is billed by host Boris Johnson as the ‘last chance’ to limit global warming to 1.5C. Are headline-grabbing pledges to reduce methane emissions and end deforestation realistic? Emily Tamkin in Washington and Ido Vock in Berlin are joined by New Statesman environment and sustainability editor Philippa Nuttall and executive politics editor Tim Ross directly from Cop26. Meanwhile, Belarus’s d...
Nov 04, 2021•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the first of our new Monday interview episodes, International Editor Jeremy Cliffe interviews author, and geopolitical researcher Parag Khanna , the author of the new book Move: How Mass Migration Will Reshape the World. They talk about the countries that are embracing migration, those that are having a harder time and how pressures such as climate change and ageing populations might transform where people live, and the tensions that could cause. If you have a question on any topic of world n...
Nov 01, 2021•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast This Sunday the UN climate summit Cop26 begins. World leaders will meet in Glasgow to try to agree new ways to solve the climate crisis. They must arrive ready to turn ambitious slogans into action, but who will deliver and who will pay the costs if they don’t? Emily Tamkin in Washington and Alix Kroeger in London are joined by Philippa Nuttall in Brussels to discuss whether Cop26 will achieve the outcomes that the world needs. Against the backdrop of surging Covid cases in southea...
Oct 28, 2021•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
