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Earlier this month, a meningitis outbreak in Canterbury, Kent, led to the tragic death of two young people. So far there have been 29 confirmed or suspected cases in total. It's thought that a "super-spreader" event at a nightclub is the source of the outbreak. Since then, there has been a mass rollout of vaccines for Meningitis B and preventative antibiotics. Thousands of students and contacts ha...

Anoosh and Will are back with this week's round up of the politics stories you might have missed. This week: Housing Secretary Steve Reed has the perfect opportunity to "build, baby, build" Misinformation powerhouse InfoWars is officially over - just like the Metaverse Pete Hegseth seems to encourage the US army to commit war crimes Rachel Reeves takes a gamble on building "an army of Burnhams" RE...

In 2025, Elon Musk took on an extraordinary role inside Washington, leading something called the Department of Government Efficiency - or Doge.   What followed was a radical experiment: an attempt to remake the machinery of the state using the logic of Silicon Valley and the language of memes.   To understand that moment, it helps to understand Musk himself. This is a figure shaped by his upbringi...

Angela Rayner has called Shabana Mahmood's immigration plans un-British. Is this the beginning of the dilution of these reforms and even of a leadership campaign?   Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Ailbhe Rea to discuss.

At the beginning of this year, Keir Starmer vowed to bring down the cost of living.  But as other PMs learned before him, this is often out of the government's control. The Iran war is threatening to ruin his strategy and Starmer now finds himself in a bind. Anoosh Chakelian is joined by political editor, Ailbhe Rea. READ: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2026/03/keir-starmer-is-s...

When Amia Srinivasan published The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century in 2021, it sparked widespread debate about the politics of desire, consent, and sexual justice.   In this episode of The Exchange, the Oxford academic joins Tanjil Rashid to discuss how philosophy can illuminate some of the most contentious questions in contemporary culture: from incels and pornography to whethe...

The Treasury Select Committee has announced an inquiry into Student Loans. It comes after Rachel Reeves announced a freeze on repayment thresholds meaning more graduates will start repaying once they earn just over the living wage. It's an issue that doesn't just affect today's students and graduates but is increasingly becoming a political issue the government cannot ignore. Tom McTague is joined...

Yesterday, Keir Starmer met Volodymyr Zelensky to sign a new defense partnership. The Ukrainian President said he faced a missile shortage due to the war in Iran and Keir Starmer resolved to remain focused on the fight against Russia.  But is the war in Eastern Europe only the first act of a much wider conflict? Oli Dugmore is joined by Will Lloyd, who visited Ukraine last month.  Read: https://ww...

Oil prices have spiked following the outbreak of war in Iran, with crude oil jumping to over £75 a barrel. This is having a huge impact around the world, and is set to get worse. Megan Gibson is joined by Rory Johnston, oil market researcher and author of the Commodity Context newsletter, who argues that this scenario could lead to a global depression.  

Hereditary peers scrapped, tech overlord villainy, Tory hypocrisy and camel pageant botox cheating.   It's another weekly round up from Anoosh Chakelian and Will Dunn.

Despite KPop Demon Hunters becoming Netflix's most-watched film in history and dominating music charts for months, it's also the kind of cultural phenomenon many people might never have encountered.   The animated musical feature has been cleaning up at awards season and this weekend it could pick up two Oscars.   In this episode of the New Society, we discuss how the film became a global hit and...

Keir Starmer apologised for appointing Peter Mandelson as US ambassador. Is it enough? After a vote by MPs forced its hand, the government has released the first batch of files relating to Mandelson's appointment. They revealed that the Prime Minister was told the Labour peer posed a "reputational risk" because of his relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and that his natio...

Is the UK going through the "fourth great disruption" to its geopolitical position? In this unprecedented moment, we take a look at how history can shed light on the current conflict, and which politician is best placed to handle the crisis.  Editor-in-chief Tom McTague is joined by John Bew, professor of history at King's College London and former foreign policy adviser to four different British...

Were the strikes on Iran illegal? What's next for the controversial courts bill? Are Labour leaders aware of the existential crisis within their party?   On this week's episode of The Exchange, we speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Justice, David Lammy.   To listen more episodes of The Exchange find us on Spotify , Apple , and YouTube .

Trump is bombing Iran. Oil prices are volatile. Is the world heading for recession? Oil prices peaked after the US and Israel started their war on Iran. Around a fifth of the world's oil supply relies on one tiny shipping lane in the Middle East called the Strait of Hormuz, and shipping firms are refusing to use it for fear of attack. Meanwhile, Britain remains in the grip of inflated prices and s...

Angry about the lack of support for his war in Iran, Donald Trump stated that he didn't need any help from the UK, despite using British airbases for strikes. In an angry social media rant, he also called Keir Starmer a "loser" and "no Winston Churchill".   Just a day later, the two leaders had a call to discuss military cooperation. Can relations be repaired? And is Westminster telling us the who...

Despite Dubai's proximity to Iran, is it safer than Sadiq Khan's London? Do young people have a different perspective on class? And could the corgi be banned?   Will and Anoosh round up their picks of news stories from the week.

If you've ever taken a random walk around the block to push your step count to 10,000… rushed through a lesson on Duolingo to keep your streak alive… or checked a post one more time to see if the likes have ticked up - you'll know the quiet power of the score.   Philosopher C. Thi Nguyen thinks modern life is increasingly organised around scores, rankings, targets, dashboards, and that these numbe...

On Tuesday 10 March, MPs will debate the Courts and Tribunals Bill, in what could be the biggest shakeup of the justice system since the 1970s.   To tackle the Crown Court backlog of over 80,000 cases, the government has put forward proposals to radically reform which cases are heard where, including restricting the right to a trial by jury in all but the most serious cases.   Sarah Sackman, Minis...

Labour is losing the voters it used to count on, a new study reveals. In the aftermath of the Green Party's triumph in the Gorton and Denton by-election, and with local elections in London councils and other major cities coming up, Labour is losing the left progressive voters it could once rely on having "nowhere else to go". Now, the biggest study ever of these voters – shared exclusively with th...

Yesterday, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her spring statement - an economic update - to the commons.   With the news completely dominated by conflict in the Middle East, you would be forgiven for not noticing. In fact, many have deduced that this was exactly what the government were hoping for.   Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Will Dunn to discuss.

Pussy Riot's 2012 "Punk Prayer" was a global flashpoint - a defining test of free expression in Putin's Russia.   When co-founding member Masha Alyokhina was arrested, she told her son she would be back the next day. She was gone for two years.   In 2022, she fled the motherland, but continues to fight Putin from afar.

Yesterday afternoon in the Commons, Keir Starmer took a stance against Trump's attacks on Iran. The US President has expressed his dissatisfaction with the Prime Minister.   Is a rift developing? Should the UK be pivoting away from the US and towards Europe? And should talk of the "special relationship" be banned from the government's parlance?   Oli Dugmore is joined by journalist, author, and ex...

While the US bombs Iran, the Kremlin will see immediate advantages for Russia. Vladimir Putin expressed "deep condolences" to the people of Iran over the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by US and Israeli forces. The Russian president – currently leading his own brutal and illegal war in Ukraine – condemned what he called Khamenei's "assassination" as a "cynical violation of all no...