World Review from the New Statesman

The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has now passed the 100 day mark. On the 14 January Alona Ferber attended the Jewish Labour Movement conference, which happened to take place on the 100th day of the war. In this podcast she speaks with Susan Neiman, the American moral philosopher, about the splits this war has caused on the left and tensions she sees between tribalist currents on the left and universalist principles, which Neiman believes are the values of a true left. Read Susan Neiman's essay: The universalist tradition has been forgotten, the Enlightenment betrayedSwitch on with 50% offRefresh your perspective in 2024 with free-thinking journalism and 50% off our annual subscriptions. Simple use the code JAN50 at the checkout.*Offer ends 31st January and applies to the first year only.www.newstatesman/subscribe  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2024 countries with more than 4 billion people will be sending their citizens to the polls. The US, Russia, and India to name a few; this is set to be the biggest election year in history. In this episode of the podcast Anoosh Chakelian is joined by the New Stateman's foreign correspondent Bruno Maçães and senior data journalist Ben Walker to review some of the major political forces at play around the globe in 2024. Download the app:iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/new-statesman-magazine/id610498525Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.progressivemediagroup.newstatesman&hl=en_GB&gl=US Subscribe to the New Statesman WhatsApp channel:https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va9latS0wajogms2z02c Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Earlier this month we published a magazine with the cover ‘Being Jewish Now’. At this time of crisis in the Middle East, with divisions over the Gaza war and rising anti-Semitism, we asked a group of writers, thinkers, and activists to reflect on the question of what it means to be Jewish and on the left today.     In this episode of the podcast senior editor Alona Ferber speaks to five of the writers who contributed to this essay collection, delving deeper into the themes explored in the magazine.Fania Oz-Salzberger: This generation will never see Gazans and Israelis become fellow citizensSam Adler-Bell: Jews in the diaspora must resist the inhumanity being done by Israel in our nameOmer Bartov: Both Netanyahu’s cabinet and Hamas see this crisis as an opportunityChanda Prescod-Weinstein: Lessons of growing up black and JewishHoward Jacobson: The founding of Israel wasn’t a colonial act – a refugee isn’t a colonistBeing Jewish Now: https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2023/11/what-it-means-to-be-jewish-nowDownload the app:iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/new-statesman-magazine/id610498525Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.progressivemediagroup.newstatesman&hl=en_GB&gl=US Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah – all of whom operate out of Beirut’s southern suburbs – have coordinated their positions in various ways for years in pursuit of what they see as the greater good.John Jenkins, former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iraq, Syria and Burma, speaks to senior editor Katie Stallard about Iran's interest in the Israel-Hamas conflict and how this will play out across the region.Subscribers get ad-free access to all our podcasts via the New Statesman app. Download it in the iOS app store or the Google Play store.Download the app:iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/new-statesman-magazine/id610498525Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.progressivemediagroup.newstatesman&hl=en_GB&gl=USSubscribe to the New Statesman from £1 per week:https://newstatesman.com/podcastofferSign up to our daily politics email: https://morningcall.substack.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

**NEW EPISODE**As Israel prepares a ground attack on Gaza, Katie Stallard is joined by Alona Ferber and Professor Lina Khatib to explore the wider geo-political situation in the Middle East - including mounting violence on Israel's west bank and the looming shadow of Hezbollah in Iran.This episode was originally published in the New Statesman podcast feed. We now regularly publish Ideas and Global Affairs content on Mondays on the New Statesman podcast. Follow or subscribe here: https://podfollow.com/new-statesmanFollow the New Statesman's reporting and analysis of the crisis in Israel and Gaza at www.NewStatesman.com.Subscribers get ad-free access to all our podcasts via the New Statesman app. Download it in the iOS app store or the Google Play store.Download the app:iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/new-statesman-magazine/id610498525Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.progressivemediagroup.newstatesman&hl=en_GB&gl=USSubscribe to the New Statesman from £1 per week:https://newstatesman.com/podcastofferSign up to our daily politics email: https://morningcall.substack.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen to Katie Stallard and Megan Gibson's discussion on Russia's war on the future here: https://shows.acast.com/newstatesman/episodes/russias-war-on-the-future-conversation Download the app:iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/new-statesman-magazine/id610498525Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.progressivemediagroup.newstatesman&hl=en_GB&gl=USSubscribe to the New Statesman from £1 per week:https://newstatesman.com/podcastofferSign up to our daily politics email: https://morningcall.substack.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We won't be releasing regular World Review episodes any more. Interviews about the biggest foreign affairs stories will now be included as part of a rotation of interviews on the New Statesman podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the European Union weighs new sanctions on Chinese companies, which could be announced later this week, Katie Stallard speaks to Bruno Maçães, a former Portuguese Europe minister andthe New Statesman's foreign affairs correspondent,about his recent interview with Fu Cong, China's ambassador to the EU.They also discuss Beijing's likely response to the new measures, what the fall-out would be for EU-China relations, and about the difficult balancing act Chinese diplomats have sought to strike since the start of Russia's war against Ukraine. Plus, how the prospect of another Donald Trump presidency in the US is provoking unease in the corridors of Brussels. Read more: Ambassador Fu Cong: “Europe will not become a vassal to China” The world according to Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin China’s hollow peace plan for Ukraine Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Tuesday (30 May), several drones damaged buildings in Moscow in by far the largest attack on the Russian capital since the war in Ukraine began. Kyiv denies carrying out the strikes – at least one of which affected Rublyovka, a wealthy suburb home to many of Russia's elite, and close to where Putin has an official residence. Megan Gibson and Katie Stallard discuss the strategy behind the attacks, how they might be viewed by Ukraine’s allies, and whether further strikes on Russian territory are likely. The discussion then moves to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s re-election as Turkish president and what it could mean for Sweden’s bid to join Nato.Read more:Katie examines the domestic pressure on Putin. Jeremy Cliffe on the limits of ErdoğanismKatie on Ukraine's coming counter-offensive. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week our guest is the historian Serhii Plokhy, a professor and the director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard and the author of a number of books, including his latest, The Russo-Ukrainian War. He speaks to Megan Gibson about Putin’s war on Ukraine, the end of the Russian empire and what the new world order could look like. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week British adherents – including several prominent ministers – of a traditionalist political movement with origins in post-Trump US politics attended the National Conservatism conference in London. It is a major influence in America but remains on the fringes of British political thought.Will Lloyd joins Megan Gibson in London, and Ido Vock in Berlin, to discuss whether National Conservatism could ever catch on in the UK. Then, they discuss attacks by anti-Kremlin militias in the Belgorod region of western Russia, which neighbours Ukraine. They ask: what effect might this raid have on the next phase of the war?Read more: Will Lloyd on “dark new factions” in the Conservative Party:Katie Stallard asks: who was behind the drone attack on the Kremlin? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With international arrest warrants now active against Vladimir Putin, Ido Vock speaks to Philippe Sands, professor at UCL, about his attempts to force a prosecution of the Russian president. They discuss the crime of aggression, whether international tribunals could hear the case against him, and what efforts are being made to encourage more countries to help bring Putin to justice.  Read more:Putin on trial Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Ukrainian army this week announced gains around Bakhmut, its first substantive advances in about six months. That progress has prompted analysts to ask: has Ukraine’s much-vaunted counter-offensive already begun? Not yet, perhaps. But it is coming.   Katie Stallard in Washington DC and Ido Vock in Berlin discuss what the next phase of the war could look like. Will Ukraine’s army make rapid progress – as it did in the Kharkiv region last September – or get bogged down in attritional battles, as has been the case at Bakhmut? Katie and Ido also discuss Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin’s increasingly voluble complaints about the Russian ministry of defence, and whether the cracks in Vladimir Putin’s system are starting to show. Read more:  Katie Stallard on what to expect from Ukraine’s coming counter-offensive  Ido Vock asks: has Prigozhin turned on Putin?  Ido again, on the Wagner Group’s brutal tactics Lawrence Freedman on Russia and Ukraine's attempts to control the narrative of the war    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fourteen months into Russia’s war against Ukraine, Katie Stallard speaks to Raffaello Pantucci, senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and the co-author of Sinostan: China’s Inadvertent Empire, about how the geopolitical landscape of Central Asia has changed. They discuss China’s growing influence, Vladimir Putin’s efforts to court regional leaders, and how the West could play a more significant role. Read more:  The world according to Xi Jinping and Vladimir PutinWhat would it take to make Vladimir Putin feel secure?Xinjiang: a region of suspicion and subjugation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, oversaw a muted parade in Moscow for Victory Day on 9 May, which celebrates the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazi Germany. Where in previous years there have been grand shows of military might, this year there was a single, Second World War-era, tank. Rather than a show of force, the parade showed how a year of war in Ukraine has degraded Russia’s military. Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, meanwhile, reinforced his country’s turn towards the West.Katie Stallard in Washington DC, and Jeremy Cliffe and Ido Vock in Berlin, analyse what the pared-back celebrations in Moscow say about the Kremlin’s relationship with its citizens. Next, they turn to Turkey, where Recep Tayyip Erdoğan faces the sternest electoral challenge of his presidency.Read more:Katie Stallard on Putin under pressureJeremy Cliffe asks: has authoritarianism peaked?Ido Vock on Yevgeny Prigozhin’s relationship with Vladimir Putin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With a new era of great-power competition taking shape on Earth, Katie Stallard speaks to the journalist and author Tim Marshall about his new book The Future of Geography and the next geopolitical battleground: space. They discuss how the Cold War propelled the space race between the US and the Soviet Union in the last century, and why the US, China and Russia are now engaged in a new contest to reach the moon and exploit its natural resources. Plus: why the existing laws concerning space are inadequate, and whether the satellites of the future will be armed.  Read more: China’s plan for an anti-satellite cyber-weapon found in leaked CIA documents. Russia and the new language of war. The world according to Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Republicans in the US House of Representatives passed legislation last week that would increase the US debt ceiling only in exchange for significant spending cuts, and the repeal of some of Joe Biden’s key legislative achievements. The president has said he will not negotiate on raising the US’s borrowing limit, but there could be severe consequences if the two parties fail to reach a deal.Megan Gibson in London, Katie Stallard in Washington DC and Ido Vock in Berlin discuss the global impact a prolonged stalemate could have, and the motivations of both sides. Next, they talk about video footage released by Russia that purports to show a drone attack on the Kremlin, analysing who might be behind such an attack and what their motivations might be.Read more: Ido Vock on Putin’s “forever War”Lawrence Freedman asks what leaked Pentagon documents reveal about where the war in Ukraine is headedAdam Tooze on where Biden has gone wrong Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ido Vock speaks to the American linguist Noam Chomsky, one of the world’s most prominent commentators on international politics since the Vietnam War. A trenchant critic of American foreign policy, Chomsky explains what he thinks the US is getting wrong in Ukraine, the prospects of a conflict over Taiwan, and why Finland and Sweden sought to join Nato. Read more: Ukraine is not a proxy warAfter Iraq: the great unravellingThe dual atrocity of rape in the war on UkraineLetter from Kinmen: Taiwan is already under attack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A three-day ceasefire has allowed some countries to evacuate their citizens from Sudan, where rival military factions have been fighting since 15 April. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s de facto leader, has long been in a bitter power struggle with Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, his former deputy. Now, that struggle has become an open conflict.Megan Gibson in London, Katie Stallard in Washington DC and Ido Vock in Berlin discuss Sudan’s recent history, the evacuation effort and where local and regional powers stand.Next they turn to the US, where Ron DeSantis’s presumed bid for the presidency in 2024 appears to be falling apart. The team discuss DeSantis’s fading hopes of beating Donald Trump to the Republican presidential nomination, his stance on abortion rights and why Trump still looms large in American politics.Read more: Megan Gibson asks whether the UK should have seen the Sudan crisis comingKatie Stallard on why Ron DeSantis’s campaign is already in troubleKatie on the coming Republican civil war Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Six months after Giorgia Meloni, leader of the post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia party, became prime minister, Megan Gibson speaks to the historian and author David Broder about how Meloni has governed. They discuss whether she has confounded expectations, her relationship with other conservative movements around the world, and Silvio Berlusconi's legacy. Read more The making and meaning of Giorgia MeloniThe struggle for ItalyEurope’s far-right parties are learning from one anotherLetter from Italy: attending a gathering of ultra-conservatives in Rome Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.