The News Agents
Global
Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall – three of the UK’s top journalists – host an award-winning daily news podcast: The News Agents.
They’re not just here to tell you what's happening, but why. Expect astute analysis and explanation of the day's news – and a healthy dose of scepticism and the ability to laugh at it all when needed.
Episodes are available every weekday afternoon. You can listen to The News Agents on Alexa, just say "Alexa ask Global Player to play The News Agents"
The News Agents is a Global Player Original podcast.
For advertising opportunities on this podcast email: dax@global.com
You can visit our website here https://www.thenewsagents.co.uk/
They’re not just here to tell you what's happening, but why. Expect astute analysis and explanation of the day's news – and a healthy dose of scepticism and the ability to laugh at it all when needed.
Episodes are available every weekday afternoon. You can listen to The News Agents on Alexa, just say "Alexa ask Global Player to play The News Agents"
The News Agents is a Global Player Original podcast.
For advertising opportunities on this podcast email: dax@global.com
You can visit our website here https://www.thenewsagents.co.uk/
Episodes
Mentioned books
May 25, 2023 • 32min
Elon Musk and the man who wants to take on Trump
We'll be looking at sex, lies and Downing Street later in this episode with a writer who worked in Number10 - and we'll be asking if politicians REALLY want an honest conversation about Immigration - but we begin with the newest launch failure by Elon Musk. This one involved not a rocket but a presidential candidate - who thinks he can beat Donald Trump. If that was ever true, it feels much more unlikely today after the campaign launch went up in flames.
May 24, 2023 • 40min
Partygate: Boris Johnson breaks the rules (again)
Does it matter if Boris Johnson broke more Covid rules by inviting guests to his country home, Chequers, when the rest of the country was in lockdown? His former advisor Guto Harri says it's time to get over it. There are more important things to discuss. But we're not so sure the country is quite so ready to forgive and move on. What does it say about the country in which we live, if rules no longer count and if the civil servants who report wrongdoing are threatened with legal action? Later we look at the latest Presidential hopeful to take on Donald Trump - Ron DeSantis, Florida Governor, who is launching his campaign on Twitter.
May 23, 2023 • 37min
How Johnson's government pressured the Premier League into the Saudi takeover
Celebrations at Newcastle United as they qualify for the Champions League. It's a success story for the club, team and fans - but it's all been helped by new money from their Saudi backers. Today we look at a future of football as nation states - securing victories on the pitch, battling geopolitics off it. And we look at the investigation by The Athletic journalist Adam Crafton, who reveals the pressure Boris Johnson's government brought to bear on the Premier League during the Saudi takeover of Newcastle, the failure of which he said would be "an immediate risk" to the UK/Saudi relationship.
May 22, 2023 • 33min
Speedy Suella: How long can she last?
Did Home Secretary Suella Braverman break the ministerial code by asking civil servants to help her avoid a public speed awareness course?She insists there's nothing to see here - she's taken the points on her licence and wants to move on. Her allies insist she's the victim of a smear campaign by those who don't like her immigration policies. But today on the News Agents we talk to former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland who asks what she was doing at the National Conservatism conference, and whether she is committed to 'collective cabinet responsibility' - a subtle dig at her own prime ministerial ambitions perhaps?
May 19, 2023 • 29min
Why can't politicians just say sorry?
When Matt Hancock visited News Agents HQ yesterday, he repeatedly refused to answer questions about decisions he made in government during the pandemic. And it got us thinking about why so many politicians struggle to admit when they’ve got things wrong. Today Lewis asks why is it - in politics - that sorry always seems to be the hardest word?
May 18, 2023 • 43min
Exclusive: Matt Hancock on NatCon, Covid, WhatsApps and “being human”
Matt Hancock, this afternoon, walked into The News Agents bunker for the first time. In this full, unedited interview, he tells us what he makes of the right of the Conservative Party, why he gave Isabel Oakeshott 100,000 of his WhatsApp messages, and he tells us who he thinks leaked the video revealing his affair with his aide at the height of Covid restrictions.
May 17, 2023 • 38min
Why is Liz Truss provoking China?
The MP for South West Norfolk has made a speech in Taiwan urging the UK Government to treat China as a security threat. She's the first former PM to visit Taiwan since Margaret Thatcher. China - which is seeking 'reunification' with Taiwain - has called it a 'dangerous stunt'. Many in Truss's own party feel the same way. But is there sense in her message even if she's the wrong one to deliver it? And what is she hoping to achieve - for the world, her party and herself? And, later, we speak to Oscar-winning actress Rachel Weisz about playing twins in her drama 'Dead Ringers', moves to curtail women's rights in the US, her husband James Bond, and Lewis' acorn.
May 16, 2023 • 38min
NatCon: fruitcakes, fringe, or future of the Tory Party?
Today we take you behind the scenes at Nat Con: the Conservative-ish conference taking place in London this week. It's a meeting of hard Brexiteers, nationalists, libertarians, and the 'anti woke'. With a smattering of Holocaust minimisers, homophobes and climate-deniers thrown in for good measure. It's an exciting place - attended by senior cabinet ministers too - and today we ask if they are the fringe or the future of the Conservative Party.
May 15, 2023 • 38min
Alastair Campbell on war, w**kers and winning elections
A warning: explicit language from the very start of the episode. Alastair Campbell meets the The News Agents in the ultimate podcast mash up. We ask him about his "wanker switch" and what happens when things go wrong live on air. And about the Starmer strategy for quiet winning.We also talk war, Murdoch and tactical voting. Later we hear from Jacob Rees Mogg who admits the Voter ID legislation was gerrymandering.
May 12, 2023 • 41min
Ukraine: a war without end?
It's Eurovision weekend. But the biggest party in Europe will not take place in Ukraine -last year’s victor - but in Liverpool. This episode is not about Eurovision, but instead asking where we are with the Ukraine war, over 400 days since its start. With more than 9000 Ukrainian civilians dead, are we any closer to the conflict’s end? We take you in depth and discover how everything hinges on the Ukrainian counter offensive, now finally coming.And in our latest My Political Make Up interview we talk to Labour MP and Shadow Minister for Women, Jess Phillips.
