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With the Israel Gaza war reportedly on the brink of a ceasefire and Iran reeling after the devastation of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the Middle East is on the cusp of a complete realignment in 2025.
Will Syria buck the trend of so many nations after the Arab Spring that have descended into chaos after the fall of a tyrant? The country’s new de facto leader Mohammed al-Jolani, who is now using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, says he will be moderate and will stay out of his neighbours affairs. But will neighbouring powers stay out of Syria?
What will Iran do now that so many of its proxies have been devastated since October the 7th?
And if there’s a ceasefire in Gaza, what next for the Palestinians?
To discuss all this and more in this week’s episode of the Fourcast, Matt Frei was joined by Channel 4 News’ Foreign Affairs Correspondent Secunder Kermani and Jonathan Rugman - who covered the Middle East for years at Channel 4 News and is a now a Senior Associate Fellow at the defence and security think tank Rusi.
Produced by Calum Fraser, Rob Thomson, Silvia Maresca, Ka Yee Mak
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It’s a matter of days since Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in Syria was toppled by a lightning-quick offensive led by the rebel group Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) - and Syrians are still in a state of euphoria at their newfound freedoms, but also horror as evidence of Assad’s torture chambres are revealed.
Channel 4 News’ Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Lindsey Hilsum have been on the ground in Damascus and in this week’s episode of The Political Fourcast they discuss what is really happening there and whether Syria can be rebuilt with Fuad Sayed Issa, founder of the charity Violet Organisation.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Ka Yee Mak, Calum Fraser.
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Bashar al-Assad has fled Damascus to Russia where Vladimir Putin is reportedly sheltering the former Syrian dictator - for those Syrians who have defied Assad’s brutal regime for years this is a moment of celebration and hope, but also fear.
Will Syria manage to move on from more than a decade of war to become a democratic state, or will it descend into further chaos and violence like Libya and Iraq did after liberation from their dictators?
On this week’s episode of the Political Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined by Syrian filmmaker and journalist Waad Al-Kateab, whose documentary For Sama won numerous awards and was nominated for an Oscar, and Mazen Gharibah who is director of the Syrian British Consortium.
Produced by Calum Fraser, Ka Yee Mak, Silvia Maresca
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Syrian rebels launched the biggest attack in years against President Bashar al-Assad’s government forces, reigniting a bloody civil war - but with Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israel Gaza conflict just next door, the world appears to be on the brink.
So, what’s going to happen next, why did the rebels launch their attack now and how will the rest of the world react?
On this week’s episode of the Political Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined by Dr Lina Khatib, Associate Fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, and our International Editor, Lindsey Hilsum, who is in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Ka Yee Mak, Calum Fraser.
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President Putin fired an experimental hypersonic missile at Dnipro - one of Ukraine’s biggest cities - and has talked about the nuclear option again. On the frontline, Ukraine appears to be losing ground by the day - in this episode of The Political Fourcast, we talk about how the Ukraine-Russia war is escalating.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined by Dr Hanna Shelest, Director of Security Programmes at the Ukrainian think tank Ukrainian Prism, and Channel 4 News international editor, Lindsey Hilsum, who is currently in Dnipro in eastern Ukraine.
Produced by Silvia Maresca and Girish Juneja.
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A close ally of Boris Johnson and open critic of Rishi Sunak and Kemi Badenoch, Nadine Dorries examines the current state of the Conservative Party in this week’s episode of the Political Fourcast - and she also criticises the Church of England in the wake of the John Smyth scandal.
Warning: This episode contains content that some viewers might find upsetting.
Mrs Dorries says she was abused as a child by a vicar.
A Church of England spokesperson said: “We are truly sorry for the childhood abuse suffered by Nadine Dorries.
“We can confirm that the National Safeguarding Team has been in ongoing contact with her following her brave disclosure of this abuse by an Anglican vicar, now deceased.
“We have offered support and have left open the offer to speak further if she wants to do so. We are sorry that when the matter first came to the Church’s attention in 2015 that she did not experience the response she should have received.”
The Conservative Party was approached for comment.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Calum Fraser, Ka Yee Mak, Rob Thomson.
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From Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the shape of Donald Trump’s administration is becoming clearer - and it’s like nothing America has ever seen before.
Firebrands, mavericks and disruptors make up the bulk of the government. The unifying factor? Their unwavering loyalty to the President-elect. So can they shake up the establishment to the benefit of ordinary Americans? Or will we just see over-reach, outrage and implosion?
In this episode of the American Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by Jennifer Ewing from Republicans Overseas UK, Thomas Gift, Director of the UCL Centre on US Politics, and Channel 4 News Correspondent Kiran Moodley.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Calum Fraser and Rob Thomson.
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It’s been a week since America voted to return Donald Trump to the White House, and there are already reports of new appointments - including Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz and Elise Stefanik. How will these people shape the way Trump deals with the world - what’s going to happen in Ukraine and the Middle East? And what will China do?
To talk about this in this episode of The American Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by Michael Martins, who worked in Trump’s first administration as a foreign policy advisor in the US embassy in London and now runs the Overton Advisory consultancy, and Channel 4 News’ International Editor Lindsey Hilsum.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Calum Fraser and Ka Yee Mak.
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Donald Trump has won the election, beating Kamala Harris and the Democrats, and will be the next president of the United States - but what kind of leader will he be?
During the campaign we heard from generals that worked with him that he has fascist tendencies - was this all over the top, or are we actually about to see the American republic on the brink? And what next for the Democrat Party? What went wrong, again? Will there be a reckoning?
On this episode of the American Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by the Wall Street Journal’s senior political correspondent Molly Ball and The Atlantic’s staff writer Christine Emba.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Calum Fraser, Rob Thomson, Ka Yee Mak, Ed Gove.
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Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are making their final pitch to voters, as an American election race that has seen assassination attempts and President Joe Biden stepping aside as a candidate enters its final day.
This is the tightest race in modern American history - so what comes next? Four years ago the world witnessed the horrors of rioters attacking Capitol Hill on January 6th - could it be worse this time? What will Donald Trump or Kamala Harris actually do if they win?
On this episode of The American Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by Channel 4 News’ Washington Correspondent Siobhan Kennedy and News Correspondent Kiran Moodley, who has been following the Trump campaign.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Calum Fraser, Ed Gove, Rob Thomson, Ka Yee Mac.
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Kemi Badenoch is the new leader of the Conservative Party after beating Robert Jenrick in what is an historic moment - the first black female leader of one of the UK’s main political parties. But does she have any chance of winning the next election? Will she even hang on that long with the Tories’ history of ditching leaders who don't deliver? Are the Labour Party the real winners here?
On this episode of the Political Fourcast, Cathy Newman is joined by former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, former Conservative MP Laura Farris, who lost her seat to the Liberal Democrats in July, and Luke Tryll, Executive Director of the polling firm More in Common.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Calum Fraser, Ka Yee Mak, Rob Thomson.
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Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are out trying to salvage their US election campaigns after a series of gaffes started by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe calling Puerto Rico an ‘island of garbage’, followed by President Joe Biden appearing to say Trump’s supporters are garbage.
Will any of these missteps change the course of the race?
In this episode of the American Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by Democrat state representative Dr Jasmine Clark and Republican strategist Eric Tanenblatt.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Calum Fraser, Rob Thomson, Ed Gove, Ka Yee Mak, Dani Isdale.
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After months of speculation, leaks, and endless criticism, Rachel Reeves has finally delivered Labour’s first budget in 14 years and it had £70 billion more in spending, £40 billion more in tax along with a lot more borrowing and a lot more debt. So, will it define this government? Will it deliver growth and fix public services? Is it what people voted for?
In this week’s episode of the Political Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined by KPMG's chief economist Yael Selfin, Jonathan Ashworth, chief executive of Keir Starmer's favoured think tank, Labour Together, and Matthew Lesh of the Institute of Economic Affairs, the think tank most closely associated with the last prime minister to go for growth - Liz Truss.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Calum Fraser, Rob Thomson, Ka Yee Mak.
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As the US election heats up Kamala Harris and Donald Trump remain neck and neck in the polls, but even as the Democrats have the likes of Beyoncé and Taylor Swift backing them, the mood music is not sounding so good in this crucial presidential election.
So how did we get here, what are the key issues motivating voters and can Kamala Harris or Donald Trump finally pull ahead in the final week?
In this week’s episode of the American Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by Democrat state representative Andre Carroll and Dennis Powell, a Republican strategist and author.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Calum Fraser, Rob Thomson, Ed Gove, Dani Isdale.
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Assisted dying could very soon be legalised in the UK, with MPs being given a free vote by Prime Minister Keir Starmer on a bill that’s just been introduced by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater.
It’s a controversial issue with passionate feelings on both sides that has been debated - and rejected -by parliament before, but campaigners think this time they could get it over the line. So, is this bill a humane and logical step to relieve those in unbearable agony, or is it a slippery slope that distorts the value of life in the UK?
In this week’s episode of the Political Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined by Conservative MP Danny Kruger, who fronted a documentary on the subject with his mother Prue Leith, Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine, a long-time campaigner for assisted dying, and Channel 4 News’ Health and Social Care editor Victoria MacDonald.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Calum Fraser, Rob Thomson.
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The Morgan McSweeney-Sue Gray saga, endless stories about freebies and gloomy economic forecasts ahead of Rachel Reeve’s first budget - so, how badly have Keir Starmer’s first 100 days gone and could the next 100 actually be worse?
On this week’s episode of the Political Fourcast, Cathy Newman is joined by Thangam Debbonaire, who was set to be a leading cabinet minister in Starmer’s government before she lost her seat in a shock result at the election, Faiza Shaheen, who was a rising star in the Labour Party before a public spat led to her running as an independent in July, and Channel 4 News’ senior political correspondent Paul McNamara.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Calum Fraser, Rob Thomson.
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Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, Britain's first Muslim cabinet minister, has long been an outspoken critic of her own party over its attitudes towards Islam.
Last week, after an investigation was launched against her over a post on social media, she resigned the whip saying it is a reflection of ‘how far right’ the Conservative Party has moved since her time in office.
Warsi has just released a book, “Muslims Don’t Matter”, which is an impassioned polemic setting out her views on the hypocrisy and double standards applied to British Muslims.
In this episode of The Political Fourcast, she speaks to Cathy Newman about the Israel-Gaza war, Islamophobia in the UK and the Conservative Party's "disturbing" shift to the extremist right.
Produced by Silvia Maresca and Calum Fraser.
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Conservative Party leadership favourites Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick have found themselves embroiled in controversy over comments they’ve made during the Tory Party conference, while rivals Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly haven’t missed a beat to capitalise.
Meanwhile, the latest polling show’s Badenoch’s lead over Jenrick amongst party members has narrowed. And so the future of the UK’s most successful political party remains up in the air.
In this special episode of the Political Fourcast from Birmingham, Cathy Newman is joined by former Deputy Prime Minister and Liz Truss ally Thérèse Coffey, former Education Secretary Gillian Keegan and Channel 4 News’ political editor Gary Gibbon.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Calum Fraser, Rob Thomson
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Despite warnings to keep it clean, Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly have been quietly tearing chunks out of each other as they vie to be the next Tory leader at this year’s Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.
But, what is the future of the Conservative Party? Pivot harder to the right to win back Reform voters or tact to the centre? Can any of the leadership candidates haul the party back from the brink? Or is the past the future? Boris Johnson’s autobiography is helpfully being serialised in the Daily Mail just in time to overshadow events here.
So, to dig into all this and more for this special edition of the Political Fourcast, Cathy Newman spoke to two party giants. Sir Graham Brady was the chairman of the influential 1922 Committee of back benchers for almost 15 years and he’s just released a book called Kingmaker giving an insiders account of the Tory leadership campaigns he presided over.
She also caught up with Grant Shapps, who’s held several cabinet positions over the years and could have been a candidate for the next Tory leader if he hadn’t lost his seat along with a huge swathe of his colleagues in the election.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Calum Fraser, Rob Thomson.
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Sir Keir Starmer has made his speech on the penultimate day of the Labour Party Conference, and his first as prime minister. He’s pledged “national renewal”, homes for all veterans who need them, and defended the unpopular cut to winter fuel payments.
At the centre of his speech was “change” that Labour will bring, but are we any clearer on what that vision is? What was the speech really about? Will it change the course of the government and how people think about the Labour Party? And did it touch on what people were really looking for from the first Labour prime minister in 14 years?
Joining Cathy Newman from the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool is Leader of the House of Lords, Angela Smith, General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, Nicola Ranger, and, Chief UK Political Commentator for the Financial Times, Robert Shrimsley.
Produced by Silvia Maresca, Calum Fraser, Shaheen Sattar, Sarah Beale, Rob Thomson.
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