Americast

Should voters be required to prove they are US citizens and show photo ID before being allowed to cast their ballots? Donald Trump is pushing for these changes and more in the SAVE (Save America Act) telling Republican lawmakers he’s “not going to sign anything until this is approved." In this episode, Justin and Anthony look at the politics of the SAVE act. Would it make voting harder and who wou...

Donald Trump has told reporters there have been talks between the US and Iran in which the two sides had “major points of agreement” and both wanted “to make a deal”. The US president says his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner talked to Iran on Sunday and that discussions would continue on Monday. However, the Fars news agency, which is linked to the Islamic Revolutionar...

Away from the war in Iran, the Pentagon is engaged in another battle, with Anthropic and its AI chatbot Claude. After awarding the company a contract potentially worth $200 million last year to integrate their artificial intelligence into the Department of Defence’s classified systems, that relationship has ended with a lawsuit and a threat which puts the future of Anthropic in jeopardy. Anthropic...

Donald Trump’s fight with US media has entered a new chapter since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran. The president has taken issue with Wall Street Journal reporting on an Iranian attack against US tankers in Saudi Arabia, while going as far to accuse the “Fake News Media” of working with Iran to circulate AI-generated videos of the USS Abraham Lincoln in flames. Until now the president ha...

How serious is the growing split within Trump’s MAGA base, as prominent Republican commentators and influencers criticise why the US started a war with Iran, and how long it might go on for. Also, might Trump voters turn on the president who told them ‘no more wars’ and ‘America First’? Justin, Sarah and Marianna join Matt Chorley on 5 Live to answer your questions. They also look at pressure from...

President Trump has renewed his threat of a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, saying the island is in deep trouble and that the Cuban government is desperate to make a deal. In this episode, Justin and Anthony look at how seriously we should we be taking these threats, and look into the talks taking place between the US and Cuba. Pressure on Cuba has been building since the capture of Venezuela’s Nicol...

Does Donald Trump actually have a plan for the war in Iran? Eleven days on from the start of the conflict - with rising oil prices, and worries over oil supplies - the president’s narrative has shifted, branding the war “very complete”, while also signalling that ”we're going to go further.” Can he persuade Americans to back him? However, the decision to withdraw from Iran is not as straightforwar...

The US-Israel war with Iran has continued into a second week, with America’s allies still scrambling to respond. Oil prices are dominating the headlines with the cost of a barrel exceeding $100 for the first time since 2022. In this episode, Justin, Marianna and Anthony join Matt Chorley on 5 Live to answer your questions about the war, including whether Europe still needs to cooperate with the Wh...

Saturday marks one week of the US-Israel war on Iran. In that time, we have heard shifting stories and opposing justifications from the Trump administration on why military action was taken. BBC North America editor Sarah Smith and BBC North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher discuss the changing narratives, and look at the many questions that remain unanswered. This includes, examining what do...

In this episode, Justin and Anthony look at other news stories happening in the United States, away from the US-Israel war with Iran. Anthony is in Dallas, Texas, for the first big primary elections of this year’s midterms, where Democrats have now chosen rising star James Talarico to be their candidate. It’s been over thirty years since a Democrat in Texas has won a US senate seat, so what does T...

Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Defence Secretary has defended the US/Israeli war with Iran, refuting concerns from the “fake news” media that the conflict would lead to an “endless war” and making clear there would be “no stupid rules of engagement” or “politically-correct wars”. Meanwhile, Donald Trump, making his first public comments from the White House, told his audience the US has the “capability to...

In the biggest political gamble of his presidency so far, Donald Trump has defended his decision for the United States to bomb Iran - alongside Israel - as a “noble” mission to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and says military operations are “ahead of schedule”. The US president announced the start of the war on Saturday via an 8 minute video on his social media platform, Truth Social,...

The midterm elections are underway in the Republican stronghold of Texas. Early voting has begun in the primaries and Democrats are hopeful they could win a Texas senate seat for the first time in over 30 years. The election will have national consequences - Texas is one of America’s political power centres and Republicans from here have dominated the national agenda from immigration, to the court...

The Americast team assembles for a late evening/early morning special as President Trump delivers the longest State of the Union address ever. On the agenda was a full-throated defence of the administration’s record, hailing a "turnaround for the ages,” whilst playing down the Supreme Court's ruling against his signature tariff policy (with the judges themselves in the crowd). Despite the speech l...

Fresh questions are emerging about the Jeffrey Epstein case, after the release of new material and renewed scrutiny over why more Americans have not faced charges linked to him. Sarah, Marianna and Anthony join Matt Chorley on 5 Live to answer your questions including who, if anyone, could still be held accountable in the US. And with tensions rising between Iran and the US, Trump says he is consi...

Donald Trump has called the Supreme Court’s ruling blocking many of his sweeping tariffs ‘deeply disappointing’ and has announced a new 10 per cent tariff on global imports. Justin, Sarah and Anthony jumped into action following the President’s press conference to unpack the day’s drama: starting with the US Supreme Court decision to block global tariffs and ending with the President’s withering a...

Who are the people shaping MAGA ideology in the US? Tucker Carlson’s story tells a larger one about just how much conservative media has changed in the United States, and the direction of conservatism itself. Jason Zengerle, New Yorker staff writer and author of ‘Hated by All the Right People’, joins us to map Tucker Carlson’s trajectory from centre-right talk show host to one of the most prominen...

President Trump described his Board of Peace as “the most consequential international organisation ever.” The Board, which Donald Trump heads in perpetuity, is having its inaugural meeting in Washington, DC, on Thursday February 19. Sarah and Anthony convene to tell you everything you know ahead of the meeting: lay out exactly what the Board is, what it does, who its members are, and crucially: wh...

In fiery congressional hearings last week, US Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the justice department's handling of the Epstein files. Several of Epstein's victims watched heated exchanges as Bondi faced a range of questions, including whether the files were sufficiently redacted, Trump’s role, Ghislaine Maxwell’s prison treatment and whether the Attorney General had met with victims. Justin, M...

Will Donald Trump be legally allowed to proceed with key elements of his second term agenda - such as imposing global trade tariffs, ending birthright citizenship and the right to sack heads of independent agencies? As the Supreme Court prepares to rule on the legality of major policies from the Trump administration, we look at whether the court will stand up to Donald Trump, or further expand the...

The paper that contributed to the resignation of President Nixon over Watergate and the Vietnam war is now having to rethink its future. The Washington Post’s owner - Amazon boss Jeff Bezos - has announced mass layoffs at the newspaper, which will fundamentally change how it covers the news. When Bezos bought the paper in 2013, he reassured staff about a “new golden era for the Washington Post”, a...

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance was a love letter to Latin culture, paying homage to his birthplace Puerto Rico and making history as the first Super Bowl performance performed entirely in Spanish. He was joined onstage by Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin for what is regularly the most-watched event on US TV. But Donald Trump wasn’t a fan. In a Truth Social post after the show he called it "absolutel...

This week Donald Trump has doubled down on why he thinks power should be taken away from individual states when it comes to running elections. Instead, he says federal government should be running elections - contrary to the U.S. constitution - claiming there is too much corruption from “crooked” blue Democrat states. In this episode, Justin and Anthony unpack what the president is proposing, and...

In one of the biggest US headlines to emerge from the latest Epstein files, former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State, have agreed to testify in the congressional investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Sarah, Anthony, and Marianna explain why they are testifying, having previously dismissed legal summons issued to them, saying they had already submitted...

The Department of Justice has said that their review process into files related to Jeffrey Epstein is over, after a new tranche was released on Friday. Donald Trump says the lack of evidence in this batch absolves him of any guilt, while survivors and Democrats say there are still unanswered questions and unseen documents. Justin, Sarah, Marianna and Anthony discuss where this leaves the president...