World Review from the New Statesman

After a year under the Taliban, Afghanistan is now in “survival mode”, the UN has warned. Its economy has crumbled and rights – especially for women and girls – have been sharply curtailed. The fall of Kabul, on 15 August 2021, came after the US announced its intention to withdraw troops by the following month. There were chaotic scenes at Kabul airport as thousands of desperate Afghans sought to...

  Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Russia to withdraw from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, and warned of the disastrous consequences for Europe of any radiation incident at the plant. But why was Russia so keen to take the plant in the first place? Alix Kroeger in London joins Emily Tamkin and Katie Stallard in Washington DC to discuss.   Plus, as an...

On Monday 8 August the FBI launched an unprecedented search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. Agents were reportedly searching for classified documents, including those related to nuclear weapons. The raid has prompted Republican officials to condemn the Department of Justice and fuelled speculation that Trump will pursue a presidential run in 2024.   Emily Tamkin speaks to Nick Bryant,...

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has called on Western governments to bar Russians from entering their countries. In an interview with the  Washington Post  he said that they ought to “live in their own world until they change their philosophy”. Finland, Estonia and Latvia have also backed restrictions on Russian travel.    Emily Tamkin in Washington DC, Ido Vock in...

The US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan on 2-3 August, and China responded with large military exercises and missile launches. To analyse this, Katie Stallard speaks to Bonnie Glaser, the director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. They talk about the signals Beijing is trying to send with its live-fire drills, and what the risks are of a serious escalat...

Leonid Volkov, chief of staff for the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, speaks to Europe correspondent Ido Vock about how the war in Ukraine could end Vladimir Putin's regime.   They discuss Navalny’s treatment in Russian prison, the miscalculations that Putin made in starting the invasion, and why giving into Russian energy blackmail would make a Ukrainian victory more difficu...

Nancy Pelosi, the US House Speaker, arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday 2 August to meet President Tsai Ing-wen. Chinese officials had repeatedly warned against her visit to the self-governing island, which Beijing claims as its own territory.   Alix Kroeger in London, and Emily Tamkin and Katie Stallard in Washington DC, discuss why Pelosi went ahead with the visit now and how Beijing is likely to...

In Bosnia and Herzegovina a dispute over a proposed new elections law has led to protests and concerns about the stability of the country. For more than 25 years since the Bosnian War ended in 1995 the country has been governed through a complex federal system intended to strike a balance between the three main ethnic groups: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. Many Bosnian Croats, however, now want chang...

The Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, has resigned after roughly a year and a half in charge of a caretaker government, meaning there will be early elections.   Emily Tamkin and Katie Stallard in Washington DC are joined by Jeremy Cliffe in Berlin to discuss why Draghi quit, the far-right coalition hoping to take power, and what a government led by Giorgia Maloni would mean for Italy and...

As the war in Ukraine enters its sixth month, Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko speaks to Megan Gibson about what support Ukraine needs to win against Russia. She explains how parliament keeps functioning in a war, the way the country is uniting behind President Volodymyr Zelensky and why the West needs to keep up the supply of weapons to help Ukraine beat back the Russian forces. Further reading: Russ...

Hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled their country since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February. With open dissent to the president’s regime almost impossible, many opposition activists have fled to neighbouring Georgia. Katie Stallard in Washington DC and Alix Kroeger in London speak to Ido Vock, who has been reporting from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, about its status as a growing h...

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the German chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke of a watershed moment for Europe and announced a shift in Germany’s approach to foreign policy. In this special episode, in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES),  World Review  looks at the context of this shift and whether it will make a difference to how Germany interacts with the wor...

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan president, has been forced to resign amid mass protests over his mismanagement of the economy. The country is suffering runaway inflation and shortages of food, fuel and basic supplies.   Ido Vock speaks to Ganeshan Wignaraja, senior research associate at the Overseas Development Institute, a British think tank, and a former senior official at the Asian...

The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, resigned as Conservative Party leader last week, bowing to pressure after more than 50 government resignations. Emily Tamkin in Israel and Katie Stallard in Washington DC are joined by the host of the  New Statesman  podcast and the  NS ’s Britain editor, Anoosh Chakelian, to discuss the race to replace him, the candidates’ foreign policy a...

Just hours after Israel’s parliament dissolved itself on 30 June 2022, Yair Lapid became Israel’s 14th prime minister. He will act as interim leader until the upcoming elections in November this year. Amir Tibon, senior editor at the Israeli newspaper  Haaretz , joins Emily Tamkin to discuss whether Lapid will prove himself in office over the next four months, or whether the elections wi...

After another mass shooting in the US, politicians seem resigned to these incidents happening again and again. Emily Tamkin and Katie Stallard in Washington DC are joined by Megan Gibson in London to discuss why they appear unable to do anything to stop them.     Plus, more than four months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the team look at how Russia’s war plan has changed and wh...

The former US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, talks to Emily Tamkin about how Russia and the world underestimated Ukraine’s resolve ahead of former’s February invasion, and how the West needs to hold its nerve and stay united to support Ukraine. Yovanovitch, who was pushed out by President Donald Trump in 2019 following a smear campaign during his first impeachment, talks about the 6 Jan...

On Friday 24 June, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, a 1973 decision that guaranteed the right to an abortion. Emily Tamkin and Katie Stallard in Washington DC are joined by Jeremy Cliffe in Madrid to discuss the fear and frustration felt on the ground in America, the Democrats’ lukewarm response amid rising polarisation in the country, and the global implications of the decision. Meanw...

It is twenty-five years since the handover of Hong Kong from British to Chinese rule in 1997, when Beijing promised that Hong Kongers’ freedoms would be protected for 50 years. Katie Stallard speaks to Lord Patten, the last British governor of the territory from 1992-1997, about his new book,  The Hong Kong Diaries . They discuss his dealings with the Chinese Communist Party, the failure to f...

In 1972 the Club of Rome published the Limits to Growth report: a pioneering document on the extent to which the Earth's natural resources can support rates of industrialisation and population growth.   Now, 50 years on, we consider the impact of that report and what is happening to create a new social and economic paradigm that will help the global population live in tune with the environmen...

Strikes across Europe have thrown the continent into chaos just as summer travel takes off. Emily Tamkin, Alona Ferber and Alix Kroeger discuss what is driving workers across the public sector to take to the picket line, and they speculate where the “summer of discontent” is headed. In Israel, the coalition government has dissolved, prompting the fifth election in almost four years, and giving Isr...

In the final episode of this series of France Elects Ido Vock, Europe correspondent, is joined by the New Statesman’s writer-at-large Jeremy Cliffe to digest France’s legislative election, at which Emmanuel Macron’s party failed to win a majority and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally had its best ever result. Macron will now be the first president in 20 years to govern without a parliamenta...

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine heading towards its fifth month, Europe correspondent Ido Vock speaks to the former Nato general secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen. They discuss what else can be done to support Ukraine, what form security guarantees for a neutral Ukraine might look like, and why democracies need to stand up to autocrats. Further reading: Europeans were united in support of Ukraine,...

On 7 June, the former German chancellor Angela Merkel appeared at a speaking event at a Berlin theatre, to discuss how she has spent the past six months since leaving office and reflect on present politics. Jeremy Cliffe in Berlin joins Emily Tamkin and Katie Stallard in Washington DC to assess Merkel’s defiant stance on her policies towards Moscow and ask whether we should reappraise her internat...

In the first of a two-part special of  France Elects , as the united left comes ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s party in the first round of the French legislative elections, we look at what this might mean for the French president and what’s to play for in Sunday’s second round.   Europe Correspondent Ido Vock discusses the result with Alix Kroeger. They talk about how the left managed to uni...