Episodes
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Elon Musk has announced an end to his time as the head of DOGE with a parting shot at his former boss Donald Trump over a bill that’s projected to add trillions to government debt - and now Donald Trump’s flagship tariff policy has suffered a major setback as a federal court ruled them illegal. The White House is of course appealing.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Evan Osnos, staff writer at the New Yorker, and Kenneth P. Vogel, reporter for the New York Times about crypto currencies, unprecedented pardons, and how this all fits into a wider pattern in President Trump’s administration.
Produced by: Freya Pickford and Calum Fraser
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It’s been 600 days since the war between Israel and Gaza began, triggered by the October the 7th attacks carried out by Hamas; a moment that reshaped the landscape of the Israel-Palestine conflict.Now, we’re at a critical moment. Discontent is growing inside Israel - particularly among the families of hostages - who are calling for an end to the conflict, fearing that it’s harming the chances of their loved ones returning home.Meanwhile, international pressure is mounting. Reports suggest a rift between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, as countries like the UK, France, and Canada have spoken out strongly against Israel’s blockade on aid, calling its actions unacceptable. As public opinion shifts and political tensions rise, we take a closer look at where things stand - and where they might be heading.
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The shooting of a couple who worked for the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC has sent shockwaves around the world, while in Gaza the UN says thousands of men, women and children are in danger of severe starvation after an 11-week aid blockade.
For this episode of the Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to The Economist's Israel Correspondent Anshel Pfeffer and Palestinian journalist Nour Odeh.
They discuss the shooting of Israeli embassy staff in DC, growing condemnation of Netanyahu by Western leaders and mounting international calls to recognise a Palestinian state.
Produced by Freya Pickford, Calum Fraser and Alice Wagstaffe
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It was one of the most shocking moments of the 2024 presidential campaign. President Joe Biden, at times appearing incoherent and confused, effectively ended his hopes of reelection as he stumbled through a debate against rival Donald Trump. It marked the beginning of the end of his campaign. He was ultimately replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris - a last-minute switch that failed to deliver the Democratic Party the White House.
To many voters, it was a shocking turn of events. But, as a new book argues, for White House and Biden family insiders, it was the public exposure of a secret they had long been trying to keep. Publicly, Biden’s team have refuted claims that he was unfit for reelection, insisting that “he was a very effective president.” But the question remains: did Team Biden cover up his declining health?
In an interview that was recorded before the announcement of Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis this weekend, Matt Frei speaks to CNN anchor Jake Tapper about his explosive new book, Original Sin, which examines the former president’s apparent cognitive decline and includes testimony from White House insiders who claim there was a deliberate “cover-up” to keep the truth from the American people.
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Aseem Malhotra is a deeply controversial British doctor who has just been appointed as Chief Medical Adviser of the Make America Healthy Again campaign group co-founded by Donald Trump's health secretary Robert F Kennedy Junior.
It makes him one of the US Health Secretary's most influential medical advisers - and that's alarming doctors and academics around the world, because Aseem Malhotra, like RFK JR, goes against mainstream, established opinion on many topics.
Most controversially he opposes the MRNA covid vaccines, claiming they cause more harm than good, and wants to end their use in America, even though people are still dying with Covid around the world.
In the UK hundreds of people are dying with covid every month yet Dr Malhotra claims the virus is no longer deadly. He also supports RFK Junior's decision to reinvestigate discredited claims of a link between vaccines and autism, amid alarming levels of vaccine scepticism in America, and outbreaks of deadly measles.
For the latest episode of The Fourcast Krishnan Guru-Murthy talks to Dr Malhotra, but we also examine his claims and scrutinise them by hearing from Stephen Griffin, Professor of Virology at Leeds University - who is a leading scientist in Britain and believes claims being made by Dr Malhotra and RFK Junior are not just wrong but dangerous. Produced by Calum Fraser, Alice Wagstaffe, Georgina Lee, Rob Thomson.
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Russia is celebrating Victory Day, with 29 foreign leaders including the Chinese President Xi Jinping joining Vladimir Putin in Moscow to commemorate the Soviet Union's part in the defeat of Nazi Germany 80 years ago.
But is President Putin about to enjoy his own victory if the US pulls out of peace negotiations over the war in Ukraine?
For the latest episode of The Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy talks to one man who thinks President Trump is doing everything in his power to make that happen.
The writer, historian and activist Vladimir Kara Murza has been poisoned and imprisoned for his anti-Kremlin campaigns. He was released from a Siberian jail last year as part of a prisoner exchange.
Produced by Calum Fraser, Toby Bakare, Rob Thomson
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Pakistan has described India's missile attacks that killed more than 30 people 'an act of war’, but India says it was retaliation for a terrorist assault in Indian-controlled Kashmir. So is an all-out war inevitable between these two nuclear-armed neighbours. In the past the US has acted as a peace broker, but is the Trump administration willing to involve itself in another foreign conflict?
To discuss this, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined from Delhi by the Emmy-nominated journalist Barkha Dutt who has reported from the frontline in previous conflicts between India and Pakistan. And also by Ayesha Siddiqa from the Department of War Studies at King's College, London. She writes extensively on the Pakistan military after serving as the country's director of naval research.
Produced by Calum Fraser, Holly Snelling, Rob Thomson
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Ukraine has now signed a mineral and natural resources deal with the US perhaps taking President Donald Trump a step closer to fulfilling his promise to secure peace there.
But now his National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz is set to step down. So what do the American public think about the latest twists in the Trump 2.0 drama? And what about the MAGA faithful? One person tapped into the aspirations and some anger, at times, of Trump's most ardent supporters is Natalie Winters.
She is a White House correspondent part of the 'new media' in The White House briefing room, though denied a membership to the professional body representing Washington Correspondents. She also Co-hosts The War Room podcast with right-wing provocateur Steve Bannon. She joins Mat Frei in Washington for The Fourcast to discuss how Trump 2.0 is unfolding.
Produced by Calum Fraser, Rob Thomson and Holly Snelling
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Donald Trump has reached his 100 day milestone but he might not be celebrating quite so loudly after Canadians voted in a new government aggressively opposed to his tariffs and talk of annexation, and new polling showed less-than-glowing approval ratings.
The President called it fake news. But if his policies aren't proving altogether popular they have had a major impact on America's system of government and global economics - though he has missed his deadline for stopping the war in Ukraine. By a mere 99 days.
To discuss all of this, and what the next hundred days might hold on The Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by our International Editor Lindsey Hilsum and our Economics Correspondent Helia Ebrahimi.
Produced by Calum Fraser, Millie Teasdale and Rob Thomson
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Tensions between India and Pakistan have escalated following a deadly attack in a tourist hotspot in Kashmir, with Indian Prime Minister Nerandra Modi saying he will pursue the attackers to the ‘ends of the earth’ after they killed 26 people.
With India blaming Pakistan for the attack, retaliatory actions between the two countries have ramped up. India has cancelled visas, excluded diplomats and suspended a landmark water-sharing treaty - while Pakistan has halted all trade. So, what will Prime Minister Modi do next? Could this attack lead to a bigger conflict between these two nuclear armed nations?
And how would this affect a world already reeling from wars in the Middle East and Europe. To discuss all this on the latest episode of the Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined by Manoj Joshi, who spent decades as a journalist in India and most recently advised the government on reforming the security forces, and our Foreign Affairs Correspondent Secunder Kermani.
Produced by Holly Snelling, Calum Fraser and Rob Thomson
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With the world still reeling from Donald Trump's tariffs, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slashed the UK's growth forecast and says the global economy will see a "significant slowdown" - add to that, wars in Europe and the Middle East, climate change and the promise and peril of AI.
So is it possible to find hope amongst this constant chorus of doom and gloom?
One person who thinks they have an answer is Rutger Bregman, a progressive historian famous for taking on the Davos billionaires.
He joins Matt Frei on the latest episode of The Fourcast.
Produced by Holly Snelling, Calum Fraser, Rob Thomson
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Following President Donald Trump’s tariffs and President Xi Jinping's refusal to back down, the world is in a new era and the UK has a decision to make.
Does it line up behind the US President and freeze diplomatic relationships with Beijing? Or, with an increasingly radical leader in Washington DC, do they switch their allegiance? What does the UK do about China’s human rights record? In a world of strong men hostile to liberal democracies, where does the UK go?
On this episode of the Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined by Victor Gao, vice president of the Center for China and Globalisation, and Baroness Helena Kennedy, a Labour peer who was sanctioned by Beijing for her role as co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.
Produced by Ka Yee Mak, Tom Gordon-Martin, Holly Snelling and Rob Thomson.
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President Donald Trump’s second term is almost at 100 days. Unlike 2016, he is now surrounded by passionate supporters and close allies. One key figure in the second series of Trump is Vice President JD Vance, a pure believer in the MAGA movement.
On this episode of the Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by Dr James Orr, JD Vance’s ‘British sherpa’, self-described ‘national conservative’ and leading intellectual figure of the right. Orr is the UK Chairman of the Edmund Burke Foundation and an Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion at the University of Cambridge.
Produced by Ka Yee Mak, Tom Gordon-Martin, Vik Patel, Holly Snelling and Rob Thomson.
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Economic relations between the US and China are effectively over as the world’s two largest economies trade blows in a tit-for-tat trade war that’s brought the global world order into a new era.
As Xi Jinping calls on the EU to join him in opposing President Donald Trump’s ‘bullying’, where does this leave the rest of the world? Is globalisation over?
On this episode of The Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, former adviser of Bill Clinton and former chief economist of the World Bank.
Produced by Ka Yee Mak, Tom Gordon-Martin, Simon Stanleigh and Michael Saliba
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President Donald Trump has authorised a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs for all countries except for one, China. The president slapped a bespoke 145% tariff on Beijing, effectively ending trade between the world’s two largest economies.
What does this new world order mean for the rest of us? Where will this tit-for-tat trade war end? Will there be any winners? Or could it escalate into something much worse?
On this episode of The Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by Fiona Hill, who was senior director for European and Russian affairs on the US National Security Council during the first Trump presidency and is now a senior fellow in the Centre on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution.
Produced by Calum Fraser, Ka Yee Mak, Tom Gordon-Martin, Rob Thomson
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Donald Trump has announced global tariffs on an unprecedented scale, holding up a chart in the White House Rose Garden outlining what each country will pay and while the UK seems to have got off relatively lightly, almost nowhere has escaped America's determination to bolster its home-grown trade and manufacturing.
Even the penguins that are the only inhabitants of a chain of remote Antarctic islands have been slapped with a 10 percent tariff. Prices in the US are likely to go up. The global economy faces a period of chaos amid plunging markets. But is a trade war inevitable? And could it spiral out of control and escalate into something much worse?
For this episode of the Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined by the American author and commentator Robert Kaplan whose writing examines the nature of US power, and Channel 4 News Economics Correspondent Helia Ebrahimi.
Produced by Calum Fraser, Ka Yee Mak, Silvia Maresca, Rob Thomson
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Benjamin Netanyahu has said his intention is to implement Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, while Israel comes under intense criticism after the bodies of 15 emergency workers were discovered dead in southern Gaza and the UN says they were killed “one be one” by Israeli forces.
Sharon Haskell is from the New Hope party in the Israeli parliament and she is the deputy foreign minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government.
She spoke to Krishnan Guru-Murthy in the latest episode of the Fourcast.
Produced by Ka Yee Mak, Calum Fraser, Girish Juneja, Rob Thomson
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The Fourcast breaks down a huge day for the UK economy and British politics, as Rachel Reeves delivers her Spring Statement with cuts to welfare and a new forecast from the OBR slashing the UK’s prospect for growth.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy was joined by our Economics Correspondent Helia Ebrahimi and our Senior Political Correspondent Paul McNamara to explain what this means for you and explore the political fallout.
Produced by Girish Juneja, Rob Thomson, Ka Yee Mak, Calum Fraser
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Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have spoken on the phone for over 90 minutes thrashing out a deal to halt the bloodshed in Ukraine, and Russia has now agreed to a 30 day energy and infrastructure ceasefire as well as negotiations on the implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea.
In this episode of the Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Russia’s Ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, about the talks between Russia and the USA over Ukraine, Europe's attempts to provide security guarantees and what there is to stop Russia wanting more territory if it gets everything it wants in this negotiation.
Produced by Mariaelena Agostini, Helene Cacace, Calum Fraser and Ka Yee Mak.
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The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel has been broken, as Israel launched overnight air strikes on Gaza that Hamas says has killed more than 400 people - sparking fears the region could be plunged into all out war once again.
Francesca Albanese is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and her opinions have sparked controversy in the past.
Israel officially banned her from entering the country in February 2024 after she wrote in a tweet “the victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression”. Israeli officials condemned these words as “anti-semitic” and called on the UN to “public disavow” Ms Albanese.
In this episode of The Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Ms Albanese about how she came to her conclusion that Israel is committing genocide, whether Hamas’ attack on October 7th was an act of genocide and what the international community can do to stop the bloodshed.
Produced by Calum Fraser, Rob Thomson and Ka Yee Mak.
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