Byline Podcast

The apartment where Byline Times correspondent Zarina Zabrisky and war photographer Paul Conroy are living in Kherson has come under attack from Russian rockets. Adrian Goldberg gets their responses to a lucky miss. There's also an update on Odessa from Zarina while Paul assesses the state of international backing for Ukraine. Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White. Funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times. Made by We Bring Audio for Byline Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adrian Goldberg interviews Grace Blakeley about her new book 'Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom". (Bloomsbury) Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White. Funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times. Made by We Bring Audio for Byline Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve Bannon – former Chief strategist to Donald Trump - recently shared a platform with Liz Truss in which he called Tommy Robinson a 'hero'. Truss appeared to agree. This was at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland and in an article you can read now at Byline Times.com Byline Times executive editor Peter Jukes has sounded a warning about the emergence of a darker, dangerous form of right wing conservatism. He shares his thoughts with Adrian Goldberg. Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg. Funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times. Made by We Bring Audio for Byline Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New findings from a team at Oxford University suggest that privatisation bad for your health.   Researchers looked at 13 long-term studies from well-off countries including the UK to examine what happened ‘before’ and ‘after’ public health provision was outsourced.  Their conclusion: Increases in privatisation generally corresponded with worse quality of care. Adrian Goldberg talks to one of the researchers Ben Goodair, and Cat Hobbs, Director of the campaign group We Own It. Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White. Funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times. Made by We Bring Audio for Byline Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

George Galloway has won victory in the traditionally safe Labour seat of Rochdale by election, after standing on a platform opposing Keir Starmer's stance on Gaza.  Does Gallwoway’s victory - as he suggests - reflect a shift in the tectonic plates of British politics? Or is it just a one off caused in part at least by Labour decision to disown its own candidate Azhar Ali after made anti semitic remarks.Adrian Goldberg talks to Jon Tonge is a professor of politics at Liverpool University.Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg. Funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times. Made by We Bring Audio for Byline Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Has Islamophobia been mainstreamed? It certainly looks like it. Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman recently wrote in the Telegraph that Islamists are “bullying Britain into submission", while ex Tory party Chairman Lee Anderson told GB News that Islamists had "got control" of London Mayor Sadiq Khan. Tory MP Paul Scully has also weighed in claimed that Tower Hamlets in London and Sparkhill in Birmingham which both have large Muslim populations are no go areas.Adrian Goldberg hears from with Amna Abdullatif, an independent councillor in Manchester, and Raheel Mohammed founder and director of Maslaha, a charity that tackles inequalities and discriminations faced by Muslim communities. Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg. Funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times. Made by We Bring Audio for Byline Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is special episode to mark the second anniversary of invasion of Ukraine in 2022.Russia had already annexed Crimea in 2014, and separatists backed by Moscow also sparked fighting in Ukraine’s Donbas region in the same year. The world mostly looked the other way, until Russia launched a full scale invasion of its neighbour two years ago on the false pretext that it was seeking to deNazify Ukraine.Since then more than 42,000 Ukrainian troops are thought to have been killed and 11,000 civilians. Russia’s losses are thought to exceed 150,000 soldiers.Reporter Zarina Zabrisky, who’s been covering the conflict from Ukraine for the Byline Times, has been talking to politicians, military experts, artists and 'ordinary' people to get a sense of how Ukraine is dealing with the conflict. The episode is narrated by her colleague, the war photographer Paul Conroy.Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg. Funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times. Made by We Bring Audio for Byline Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tens of thousands of Palestinians – many of them non combatants - have been killed since October 7th when Hamas launched a series of co-ordinated incursions into Israel. 1200 Israelis – most of them civilians - were slaughtered - and more than 100 hostages taken at the time are still in captivity.Israel’s response – designed it says to free the hostages and destroy Hamas – has led to the deaths of more than 29,000 people. 85% of the population of Gaza has been displaced. Critics like South Africa have accused Israel of genocide – a claim being tested in the International Court of Justice in The Hague.The latest flashpoint is Rafah on the border with Egypt where more than a million Palestinians have fled in the hope of finding safety, only to learn that Israel will launch a ground offensive if the remaining hostages aren’t freed by March 10th – the start of the holy month of Ramadan.Meanwhile in debating the issue, the UK parliament has been caught up in procedural rows that seem to make a mockery of the very serious issue at stake. So why is it so hard to just call for a ceasefire?Adrian Goldberg hears from Shaista Aziz once a Labour councillor in Oxford who quit over Keir Starmer’s support of the Israeli government’s stance and Byline Times political editor Adam Bienkov.Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White. Funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times. Made by We Bring Audio for Byline Times.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are Citizens Assemblies the way to make up the so-called "democratic deficit" which leaves many people estranged from parliament?Sue Gray the former senior civil servant who reported on Partygate during Boris Johnson’s time as Prime Minister seems to think so. In her first interview as chief of staff to Keir Starmer, she revealed that plans are being drawn up to bypass Whitehall and involve the public directly in decision making.Citizens assembles are credited with building consensus in Ireland for allowing gay marriage and ending the ban on abortion. But what exactly are they? How do they work? And will they undermine the role of MPs?Adrian Goldberg hears from Sarah Castell, CEO of the Involve Foundation, which aims to put people at the heart of decision making and Rebecca Willis is a Professor of energy and climate governance at Lancaster University who was behind the Climate Assembly which worked with the UK parliament in 2020.Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White. Funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times. Made by We Bring Audio for Byline Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the Tories are trounced in two by elections is there any way back for Rishi Sunak?Labour overturned Peter Bone’s 18,000 majority in the Northamptonshire seat of Wellingborough – a “catastrophically bad” defeat according to Gavin Barwell, an ex Conservative MP and Theresa May’s former chief of staff.Labour also overcame an 11,000 majority in Kingswood in South Gloucesteshire.This is obviously great news for Keir Starmer; but Reform UK, the party that grew from the ashes of UKIP came third in both by elections offering a threat to the Tories on the right.Adrian Goldberg talks to Byline Times political editor Adam Bienkov and Jon Tonge, professor of politics at Liverpool University.Funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times. Made by Adrian Goldberg/We Bring Audio for Byline Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices