Byline Podcast

Adrian Goldberg hears from Zarina Zabrisky, a Byline Times reporter on the frontline of Ukraine's defence against Russian aggression in Kherson. Zarina details the impact of the withdrawal of US intelligence, especially in the Kursk region, parts of which Ukraine had seized in a counter offensive; and she also tells us about claims made by former KGB agent that Donald Trump was recruited as a Russian spy in 1987.Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump's treatment of his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy is increasingly looking less like international diploamacy and more like performative cruelty. But why? Adrrian Goldberg introduces a conversation between Byline Times Executive Editor Peter Jukes and Editor in Chief Hardeep Matharu.Produced by Adrian Goldberg, Harvey White and Phil Driscoll. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer really be the bridge across the Atlantic to Donald Trump, an American president seemingly hell bent on destroying the NATO alliance…?Adrian Goldberg discusses whether the two leaders have a special relationship - and whether that can help Ukraine - with former UK diplomat Alex Hall Hall.Produced in Birmingham UK, by Adrian Goldberg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adrian Goldberg asks 'what's next for Germany?' after an election which saw the centre-right Union alliance between the conservative CDU and the CSU takes 28% of the vote. The CDU’s leader Friedrich Merz is in pole position to form the next government and become Chancellor but the far right AfD came second with 20% of the votes and polled especially strongly in the east of the country. Merz has talked about the need for Germany to wean itself off dependence on the US for defence.Adrian is joined by Helena Marschall, an activist with Berlin-based environmental pressure group Fridays for Future, and Jonathan Barth is a co-founder and Senior Fellow of ZOE Institute for Future-Fit economies.Produced in Birmingham, UK by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Social media phenomenon and left wing polemicist Ash Sarkar talks to Adrian Goldberg about her new book 'Minority Rule – Adventures In The Culture Wars' published by Bloomsbury.Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the third anniversary of Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine, Adrian Goldberg talks to Ukrainian opposition MP Inna Sovsun.Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Byline Times editor in chief Hardeep Matharu and executive editor Peter Jukes assess Trump's first month in power.Produced by Adrian Goldberg and Phil Driscoll. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As this podcast was recorded, European heads of state were holding an emergency summit in Paris having been blindsided by President Trump’s apparent willingness to enter negotiations with Putin about the future of Ukraine without President Zelensky. The US has indicated that any military assistance it does give to Kyiv will be dependent on access to its mineral deposits, but Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has ruled out the country’s NATO membership, Sir Keir Starmer has said the UK is willing to commit troops to a peace keeping force if a settlement can be reached, but there’s a bigger picture at play here…the reshaping of the world in accordance with the dictates of MAGA.Trump and his accomplices see a world in which major powers operate spheres of influence – so that the Americas belong to the US and Eastern Europe is Russia’s...the people of Taiwan must be feeling very twitchy right now.As for Europe, the President has made it clear that we’ll have to make a far greater contribution to our defence – at the same time as hobbling our economy with tariffs. When it comes to freedom, is seems that America is no longer the Great Protector. Instead it’s the Great Protectionist. Adrian Goldberg gets a view from Byline Times reporter Zarina Zabrisky in Odesa.Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adrian Goldberg talks to Kolbassia Haoussou, from Freedom From Torture - a former refugee - about government guidance stating that any asylum seeker who arrives in the UK on a 'dangerous journey', will be denied citizenship.That's despite the fact that Britain is a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which says asylum seekers and refugees should not be penalised for illegal entry to a country.This is the latest move from Labour to show that it's being tough on migration. The Home Office recently released photos of migrants being forced on deportation flights, some in handcuffs and waist restraints; it also published footage of enforcement raids which were part of a crackdown on illegal workers.Facebook Ads placed by Labour boasting about some of these measures have used Reform UK's colours, not the party’s traditional red… so is Keir Starmer cosplaying Nigel Farage? If you vote Labour, are you actually getting Reform instead?Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adrian Goldberg gets a view from Canada and Mexico as President Trump announces swingeing tarrifs on the import of steel and aluminium from his nearest neighbours. We hear from Alex Gonzalez Ormerod, a political analyst at The Mexico Political Economist and Jen Hassum, is Executive Director at the Broadbent Institute, a progressive Canadian think tank. Produced in Birmingham, UK by Adrian Goldberg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices