The Rachman Review

Israel’s new deal to normalise diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates comes without any concessions on the Palestinian peace process. Gideon Rachman talks to Anshel Pfeffer, author of Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu, about whether this agreement is a political triumph for the Israeli prime minister. They also discuss the lingering questions it leaves about lasting peace.  Review clips: Reuters, CBS Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What are the biggest threats to the future of human existence on the planet? Not nuclear war or climate change as some might think, but man-made pathogens and thinking machines, the Australian philosopher Toby Ord tells Gideon Rachman. He talks about how he reached this conclusion and what can be done to avert disaster. Clips: ReutersToby Ord’s book, The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity, is published by Bloomsbury Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rumours about the US presidential election abound: is voting by mail secure, can Donald Trump postpone it, will the United States Postal Service be able to deliver ballots in time. Gideon Rachman sorts through what is fact and what is fiction in a discussion with Judith Kelley, Dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, and Edward Luce, the FT’s US national editor. Review clips: C-SPAN, Democratic National Convention, ABC News, Reuters, Tony Orlando and Dawn - “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree”  Bell Records (1973) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gideon Rachman discusses how America’s tech war on China has affected Beijing’s long-held plan to assert its economic and military strength on the global stage with Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute of SOAS at London University. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Lebanese have survived civil war, decades of rolling blackouts and even managed the influx of 1.5m Syrian refugees, about a quarter of the country's population. But the explosion in Beirut's port in early August that killed scores of people, left hundreds of thousands homeless and cost billions in property damage, have prompted a more intense reckoning about the decades of corruption and mismanagement by the country’s political elite. Chloe Cornish, the FT’s Middle East correspondent, is in Beirut and tells Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs commentator, about the changes taking place in Lebanon in the aftermath of the blast.  Review clips: Reuters, Associated Press Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gideon Rachman talks to academic and writer Sinan Ulgen about Turkey’s foreign policy under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, focusing on the controversial decision to turn Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia museum back into a mosque and the rationale behind Turkish military interventions in Syria and Libya.Clips: Reuters and Anadolu Agency Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Many countries agreed that the best way to stem the pandemic was to shut down movement, but the US took a different path than its peers in handling the economic fallout. Instead of being kept on payrolls through furlough schemes, millions of Americans have had to seek jobless benefits. Rana Foroohar, the FT’s global business columnist, is standing in for Gideon Rachman this week. She talks with William Spriggs, a professor of economics at Howard University and chief economist of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, about how the pandemic is changing the labour market, and what happens to monopoly power, big data and faith in the free market in its wake.  Review clips: Reuters Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Donald Trump’s “America First” policy represented a marked shift in how the US engaged with its allies. Now Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden is focusing his campaign in part on restoring US leadership on the world stage through strategic alliances. Gideon Rachman is joined by Schwarzman Senior Fellow for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Mira Rapp-Hooper, who is author of Shields of the Republic: The Triumph and Peril of America’s Alliances, and Jeremy Shapiro of the European Council on Foreign Relations in a debate about the future of America’s alliances.*This episode has been updated to include Mira Rapp-Hooper's title. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gideon Rachman talks to FT journalist Michael Peel about the use of false and misleading narratives by world leaders in democracies and dictatorships alike, and how the pandemic may have exposed the limits of doing politics "according to the world as you spin it".  Michael’s book The Fabulists is published by Oneworld. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now in power until 2036 after a recent constitutional change, Vladimir Putin is nevertheless facing a difficult future as the Russian economy stagnates and popular unrest grows. Gideon Rachman and Catherine Belton, author and former FT journalist, discuss how the president and a coterie of close aides took over the wealth of the country on the pretext of reasserting Russia's role on the world stage, but now find themselves without a succession plan. Catherine Belton's book, Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took on the West, is published by William Collins. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.