World Review from the New Statesman

Welcome to  France Elects , an in-depth look at the 2022 French presidential election. Will Emmanuel Macron win a second term as president, or will challenges from the left, right and far right end his five years in office?   In this series, the  New Statesman ’s Europe correspondent, Ido Vock, will speak to some of the sharpest observers of French politics, delving deeply into...

The  New Statesman ’s   executive foreign editor, Megan Gibson, interviews the prime minister of Iceland,  Katrín Jakobsdóttir. They discuss her opposition to Iceland’s Nato membership, why the left is back on the rise in all five Nordic nations, and how to win trust in a country that doesn’t trust its politicians. If you have a You Ask Us question for the International te...

Thousands have joined the so-called “Freedom Convoy” in Canada, which has spiralled from truckers’ frustrations over Covid-19 vaccine mandates into calls to overthrow the government. Jeremy Cliffe in Berlin, Megan Gibson in London and Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC, discuss the protests and parallels with the US Capitol Riots of 6 January. Then the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, has le...

Emily Tamkin, the New Statesman’s senior editor, US, interviews the California Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, the author of the new book Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us.  They discuss the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency and whether any significant changes to voting rights or the Build Back Better plan could actually get into law; why it’s important Biden gets...

As Russian troops continue to mass on the Ukrainian border, Jeremy Cliffe discusses his dispatch from Kyiv with Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC and Ido Vock in Berlin. What do Ukrainians think Russia is up to if not an imminent full-scale invasion as suggested by the US and UK? Then in You Ask Us, a listener asks if Germany's phasing-out of nuclear energy has hobbled their foreign policy towards Ru...

Welcome to France Elects, an in-depth look at the 2022 French election. Will Emmanuel Macron win a second term as president, or will challenges from the left, right and far right end his five years in office. In this series, the  New Statesman ’s Europe correspondent Ido Vock will speak to some of the sharpest observers of French politics, delving deep into the big issues shaping the rac...

The  New Statesman ’s Europe Correspondent Ido Vock interviews the Syrian human rights activist Joumana Seif about the recent conviction in Germany of the former Syrian colonel, Anwar Raslan, of crimes against humanity.   They discuss whether the Syrians who suffered under Bashar al-Assad’s regime will see this as justice, and whether other European countries could follow Germany’s lead...

As the three-week countdown begins for the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Omicron variant has reached the city, prompting restrictions on ticket sales for an event China had hoped would symbolise its successful containment strategy.   Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC, and Ido Vock in Berlin are joined by Katie Stallard, senior editor of China and global affairs in Washington, DC, our latest addit...

Emily Tamkin presents  Battle for the Soul of America , a three-part series from the  World Review  podcast that looks at Joe Biden’s first year in office. How have some of his core campaign pledges – on foreign policy, immigration and voting rights – held up?     In our final episode, we look at the state of voting rights under Joe Biden. Just over a y...

The  New Statesman’s  international editor, Jeremy Cliffe, speaks to author Tim Parks about the upcoming Italian presidential election.   They discuss whether Italy’s strict Covid regulations are popular, why Mario Draghi wants to become president and whether the disgraced former prime minister Berlusconi could make another political comeback.   If you have a You Ask Us questio...

While Russia builds troops at the border with Ukraine, Russian officials have been on a tour of Europe, meeting the US in Geneva and Nato in Brussels. Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC and Ido Vock in Berlin discuss why this round of diplomacy has once again failed to defuse tensions. At the same time, Russia has sent troops from the Moscow-based CSTO military alliance to Kazakhstan to prop up Presid...

Emily Tamkin presents  Battle for the Soul of America , a three-part series from the  World Review  podcast that looks at Joe Biden’s first year in office. How have some of his core campaign pledges – on foreign policy, immigration and voting rights – held up?   Our second episode looks at Biden’s record on immigration. Implementing the "fair and humane" imm...

The  New Statesman’s s enior editor, US, Emily Tamkin, speaks to author, journalist and TV producer Peter Pomerantsev about the growing tension between Russia and Ukraine. They discuss why Russia finds Ukraine so important, what closing down Memorial, the country's oldest human rights organisation,says about its historical memory, and how Russians might feel about a potential w...

Jeremy Cliffe and Ido Vock in Berlin are joined by Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC to discuss some key elections that could shake up political dynamics across the world in 2022. Has leftish, resurgent Lula da Silva shaken Jair Bolsonaro’s grip on Brazil? What will happen when Sweden’s first female prime minister  Magdalena Andersson  goes to the polls? And will the Donald Trump-endorsed V...

Emily Tamkin presents  Battle for the Soul of America , a three-part series from the  World Review  podcast that examines the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency. How have some of his core campaign pledges – on foreign policy, immigration and voting rights – held up?   Our first episode focuses on foreign policy. With his decades of experience in international a...

The  New Statesman’s  environment and sustainability editor, Philippa Nuttall, speaks to the leading climate change diplomat Christiana Figueres.   They discuss whether Cop26 went far enough, what it will take to turn the pledges into action, and what role the fossil fuel industry should have, if any, in the transition to a carbon-zero world.   If you have a You Ask Us question...

The New Statesman international team look back at their most significant moments of 2021, including the 6th January storming of the US capitol, the Belarus border crisis and Cop26.  Then Emily Tamkin in Washington DC, Ido Vock in Paris and Jeremy Cliffe in Berlin make their predictions for 2022, looking ahead to elections in Hungary and France as well as what could be a challenging year for C...

In this special episode of World Review, Jeremy Cliffe in Berlin and Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC return to their predictions for the stories they thought would dominate in 2021.   The trajectory of the pandemic, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, continued tensions between India and China and the rogue regime in Belarus; did we see it coming?   Further reading:   World Review: w...

Emily Tamkin, the US editor of the New Statesman, interviews Mukulika Banerjee about her new book Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India.   They discuss the farmers' protests that eventually led to a government U-turn in India, the history of Indian rural politics and the health of democracy in the subcontinent.   If you have a You Ask Us question for the inter...

A massive build-up of Russian troops and military infrastructure on the Ukrainian border has the US and Nato worried that President Vladimir Putin may be planning an imminent new invasion of the country.   Jeremy Cliffe and Ido Vock in Berlin are joined by Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC to discuss the escalating crisis and the future of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.   Meanwhile, Chile’s pr...

As a new Covid variant causes concern about the effectiveness and global equity of vaccine programmes, is the project to deliver vaccines to the Global South working? New Statesman reporter Harry Clarke-Ezzidio interviews Aurélia Nguyen, the managing director of Covax, an organisation set up to ensure fair access to Covid vaccines.  They discuss criticism of the current vaccination programme,...

The US Supreme Court is to decide on a case that directly challenges Roe vs Wade, the 1973 ruling that guarantees the right to an abortion. Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC and Megan Gibson in London discuss the fight for reproductive rights, not just in the US but across the world.   Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a video call of "...

Jeremy Cliffe in Berlin presents a special series from the New Statesman's World Review podcast on the German election and its aftermath. In this final episode, he reviews Germany's new centre-left coalition government and the incoming chancellor Olaf Scholz. What is the government's politics? What are its policy priorities at home and abroad? Who are its most important personalities? And where co...

Megan Gibson, our Senior Editor, International, speaks to the Turkish journalist and author Ece Temelkuran. They discuss Turkey’s slide into authoritarianism – and the lessons the political situation holds for other democracies – as well as the country’s spiralling economic crisis and what chance a united opposition might have to defeat the Turkish president, Recep Ta...

On 26 November Omicron was declared a Covid-19 variant of concern by the World Health Organisation. With Omicron now detected in more than 20 countries, governments across the world are acting to limit its spread. Emily Tamkin in Washington, DC, Alix Kroeger in London and Ido Vock in Berlin discuss the politics of travel bans and vaccine inequity.   On 24 November, at least 27 people die...