The French president Emmanuel Macron’s government narrowly survived a confidence vote after it invoked a contentious article of the constitution to override parliament and pass an unpopular reform to the pensions system. The move enraged the opposition and unions, which have vowed to escalate direct action in protest. For a special episode, Ido Vock in Berlin is joined by Georgina Wright, director of the Institut Montaigne’s Europe Programme, in Paris, to discuss why the government thought ...
Mar 22, 2023•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast As protests against the Iranian regime continue, Megan Gibson speaks to the award-winning writer Dina Nayeri, whose latest book is Who Gets Believed When the Truth Isn’t Enough? They discuss the uprising in Iran since Mahsa Amini died after being arrested by the oppressive morality police, where the protests are going, Nayeri’s own experiences with the morality police, and why refugees and asylum seekers are demonised by public discourse and political policies. Read more: Iran’s regime &nb...
Mar 20, 2023•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over the weekend, Silicon Valley Bank, a lender to some of the biggest names in the technology world, became the largest bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis. Regulators scrambled to contain the fallout from the collapse as share prices plummeted, with HSBC stepping in to buy the bank for £1 in a rescue deal. Ido Vock is joined by the New Statesman ’s associate business editor Emma Haslett and Spotlight editor Alona Ferber to discuss the roots of the crisis, the hy...
Mar 16, 2023•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast One year into Russia's war against Ukraine, Katie Stallard speaks to Jade McGlynn, an expert on Russian propaganda and memory politics, about how the Kremlin has framed the conflict at home. McGlynn is an academic researcher at King's College London and the author of two forthcoming books, Russia's War and Memory Makers: The Politics of the Past in Putin's Russia. They discuss the spectrum of public attitudes towards the war in Russia, whether European visa...
Mar 13, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast On Tuesday (7 March), hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest Emmanuel Macron’s attempts to raise the retirement age. Workers in a variety of sectors – including education, transport, energy and waste – downed tools on the largest day of strikes since Macron's presidency began. Megan Gibson in London, Ido Vock in Berlin and Katie Stallard in Washington DC discuss Macron’s proposals and his refusal to back down, raising the prospect of an escalating struggle. P...
Mar 08, 2023•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Following a flurry of Chinese diplomatic efforts in Europe, culminating in a visit to the Munich Security Conference on 18 February by Wang Yi, the country's top diplomat,, Katie Stallard speaks to Andrew Small, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund's Asia programme, about the future of European relations with Beijing. His latest book, No Limits: The Inside Story of China's War with the West , charts the revolution in Europe's China policy over the past five yea...
Mar 06, 2023•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast The president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko met with China’s leader Xi Jinping in Beijing this week. A staunch ally of Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko would have been eager to demonstrate his close relationship with another major world leader. For Beijing, however, the visit is a little more complicated. Megan Gibson in London, Katie Stallard in Washington DC and Ido Vock in Berlin discuss the significance of the visit's timing, which follows China’s attempted charm offensive in Eu...
Mar 02, 2023•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Megan Gibson speaks to the economist and author Mariana Mazzucato, professor at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. The Big Con is her latest book, co-written with Rosie Collington, which exposes the consequences of governments’ dependency on consultancies such as McKinsey and Deloitte. “The more governments and businesses outsource,” they write, “the less they know how to do.” They discuss the rise of the consultancy industry and how these companies have, over the c...
Feb 27, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Monday (20 February) to demonstrate what he called America’s “unwavering support” for Ukraine’s war effort. It was the first time a US president had visited the country since Russia first attacked Ukraine, in 2014. Megan Gibson in London, Katie Stallard in Wasington DC, and Ido Vock in Berlin discuss the significance of this visit and Vladimir Putin’s latest warning to the West in his state of the nation speech. They also cover support for Ukrain...
Feb 23, 2023•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast As Ukraine marks one year since Russia’s invasion, Ido Vock is joined by Ukrainian journalist and broadcaster Maria Romanenko, military expert Mark Galeotti and the New Statesman ’s writer at large Jeremy Cliffe. They discuss how Ukrainians felt at the outbreak of war, whether Western support to Kyiv will hold and how the war could eventually end. Read more: Oleksiy Danilov : “Weak people always come up with excuses not to act” No, Russia isn’t about to break apart Is Uk...
Feb 20, 2023•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over the past two weeks, a number of mysterious objects have been shot down from the skies over the US and Canada. It all began with a suspected Chinese spy balloon, which was brought down off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February. US officials have struggled to explain the three subsequent aerial encounters, leading to conspiracy theories and White House denials that aliens are involved. Meanwhile, the diplomatic rift between China and the US is widening. Megan Gibson in London, Ido ...
Feb 16, 2023•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Following the Japanese prime minister Kishida Fumio's recent warning that his country's demographic crisis was approaching a tipping point, Katie Stallard speaks to Vegard Skirbekk, a population economist at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and author of Decline and Prosper: Changing Global Birth Rates and the Advantages of Fewer Children . They discuss why birth rates in many countries are falling, how the global population is ageing, and why this doesn't have to end in disas...
Feb 13, 2023•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky visited London this week, meeting with the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. It is only his second trip abroad since the war with Russia began, after heading to America in December. Megan Gibson in London and Ido Vock in Berlin are joined by the New Statesman ’s Britain editor and podcast host Anoosh Chakelian to discuss Zelensky’s speech to UK parliament, and his crackdown on alleged corruption in his government. Then the team talk about the renewed Ar...
Feb 09, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast As the United States grapples with the killing of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old black man who died after being beaten by five police officers in Memphis in January, Katie Stallard speaks to Neil Gross, a former police officer and professor of sociology at Colby College. They discuss what can be done to reform police forces in the US, what he learned from researching his forthcoming book Walk the Walk: How Three Police Chiefs Defied the Odds and Changed Cop Culture, and why there m...
Feb 06, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last week a deadly raid by the Israeli army in the West Bank city of Jenin and a shooting in East Jerusalem capped one of the bloodiest months in Israel and the occupied territories, outside of open war, in years.Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, flew to Israel this week to call for calm. Megan Gibson and Alona Ferber in London are joined by Katie Stallard in Washington to discuss whether Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government – the furthest to the right and the most religious Israel ...
Feb 02, 2023•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast With China’s military and economic power continuing to grow, Katie Stallard speaks to Joshua Kurlantzick, a journalist and fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, about Beijing’s ambition to become an information superpower. They discuss his new book, Beijing’s Global Media Offensive: China’s Uneven Campaign to Influence Asia and the World , and the reach – and limits – of that campaign, as well as why he predicts TikTok’s days in the US are numbered. Read more: Chi...
Jan 30, 2023•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week Olaf Scholz confirmed that Germany will send 14 Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine and gave partner countries permission to send their tanks too. The decision, which could have a significant effect on the war, came after months of stalling. Megan Gibson in London, Katie Stallard in Washington DC and Jeremy Cliffe in Berlin discuss what led to Germany’s shift, what toll the delay has taken and how Russia will respond. Next, they turn to the alarming rise in mass shootings in the US this ...
Jan 26, 2023•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Why Putin must lose to save Russia, with Andrius Kubilius As Western leaders debate what further military support they can offer Ukraine, Ido Vock speaks to the former Lithuanian prime minister Andrius Kubilius. They discuss his experience growing up in the Soviet Union, how to plan for a Russia after Vladimir Putin, and how the war in Ukraine could weaken the Russian regime. Read more: The Putin backlash Letter from Ukraine: new year, same war Jens S...
Jan 23, 2023•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast A helicopter carrying senior Ukrainian officials crashed on Wednesday (18 January) near a nursery in a suburb of Kyiv. According to reports, children were among those killed, as well as three government officials including the interior minister Denys Monastyrsky – the highest-ranking official to die since the start of the Russian invasion. Ido Vock in Berlin and Katie Stallard in Washington DC discuss what we know about the tragedy so far and why so many officials were travelling on a sin...
Jan 19, 2023•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ido Vock speaks to the former Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski about the opposition’s plans to oust the hard-right Law and Justice party in this year’s parliamentary elections. They also discuss Warsaw’s support for Ukraine and its refugees, why eastern members of the EU distrust Germany, and the damage the Law and Justice party is doing to democratic institutions in Poland. Read more: Dispatch: How long can Poland bear the Ukrainian refugee burden? How November’s missile...
Jan 16, 2023•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast On Sunday (8 January), hundreds of Jair Bolsonaro supporters stormed Oscar Niemeyer’s modernist government buildings in the Brazilian capital Brasilia in an apparent attempt to overthrow the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Ido Vock and Jeremy Cliffe in Berlin are joined by Alona Ferber in London to discuss who was behind the failed coup and what it means for the country, as well as the disturbing parallels between this insurrection and the one at the US Capitol two years ago...
Jan 12, 2023•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ahead of the publication of her new book, And Then What? , the first-ever EU high representative for foreign affairs and security, Catherine Ashton, talks to Jeremy Cliffe about the role the EU can play in international crisis, drawing on her experience in overseeing the union’s relations with Ukraine, Iran and the western Balkans. She also discusses the future of its ties to Britain and the US. Read more: The Ukraine war has made predictions futile Iran’s regime won’t be easily toppled Te...
Jan 09, 2023•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Coronavirus cases have been rising rapidly in China since its government ended its restrictive “zero-Covid” policy last month. Hospitals are expected to be inundated with newly-infected patients. Megan Gibson in London, Katie Stallard in Washington DC and Ido Vock in Berlin discuss why the country was so ill-prepared to lift its lockdowns and restrictions, where the responsibility lies, and the economic imperatives behind this decision, made in the depths of winter and before the Lunar New Year....
Jan 05, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nearly a year since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the historian Olesya Khromeychuk speaks to Megan Gibson about how Ukraine has been perceived by the outside world, and why the country’s courageous resistance should not have come as a surprise. They discuss the history of civil society movements in Ukraine, why Volodymyr Zelensky is a successful leader, and what support Ukraine needs now. Read more: Why the West underestimated Ukraine Hosted on Acast. See...
Jan 02, 2023•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast In her final episode on the World Review podcast, Emily Tamkin in Washington DC is joined by Jeremy Cliffe and Ido Vock in Berlin to look ahead to the stories that might dominate 2023 – from chaos in the US Republican Party to Russia's war in Ukraine, to a potential moral panic over the role of artifical intelligence – and the global impact they could have. Podcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. ...
Dec 29, 2022•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast The New Statesman international team examine some of the most significant moments of 2022, from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to elections, including Viktor Orbán’s victory in Hungary, Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat in Brazil and the US midterms. Emily Tamkin in Washington DC, and Jeremy Cliffe and Ido Vock in Berlin review their predictions for the past year – with Katie Stallard and Megan Gibson dialling in – and look at what they got wrong and right. If you have a question for You ...
Dec 22, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast As the contemporary rivalry between the US and China heats up, Katie Stallard speaks to the Cold War historian John Delury about the history of subversion and mutual suspicion between the two powers. They discuss Delury’s new book Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T Downey and the CIA’s Covert War in China , the extent of US intelligence operations in China during the early Cold War, and the lessons for the future of US-China relations. If you have a question for You Ask Us go to news...
Dec 19, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Belgian prosecutors who were investigating allegations that Qatar tried to influence EU policy by bribing European parliament officials, have charged four people with money laundering, corruption and participating in a criminal organisation. Emily Tamkin in Washington DC, and Ido Vock in Berlin are joined by the New Statesman 's business editor Will Dunn to discuss the investigation which comes as the Gulf country hosts the World Cup, and how "sportswashing" benefits Qatar and the W...
Dec 15, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast As the International Rescue Committee releases its annual report of the countries most at risk from humanitarian crises next year, the NGO’s president, David Miliband, discusses the ways in which the international community is failing on international aid. Miliband, the former foreign secretary, discusses the British government’s lack of a coherent foreign policy; why the world misses having the UK take its place on the world stage; the impact the invasion of Ukraine is having on other cr...
Dec 14, 2022•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast As NDTV is taken over by Gautam Adani, billionaire and ally of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Emily Tamkin speaks to Raksha Kumar, a journalist who covers media freedom in India. They discuss the importance of NDTV and how it came to be under Adani's control. They also examine the role of television journalism in Indian politics, the vestiges of independent media in India, and why economic viability and journalistic integrity two are parts of the same conversation. They also consider ...
Dec 12, 2022•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
