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Financial Times

Gideon Rachman, the Financial Times chief foreign affairs columnist talks to the decision-makers and thinkers who are shaping world affairs.
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The Rachman Review

US President Donald Trump has pledged to “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars”, China could send its first crewed mission to Mars within a decade, and Elon Musk wants people to actually settle on Mars, transforming the human race into an interplanetary species. 

In a new series of Tech Tonic, the FT’s Peggy Hollinger asks if we’re really about to land, and even live, on the red planet. 

Free to read:

Musk’s mission to Mars

Three days with America’s rocket chasers

Tech Tonic is produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. The senior producer is Edwin Lane. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Original music by Metaphor Music. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coming soon from Tech Tonic: Mission to Mars

Gideon interviews Britain's deputy prime minister David Lammy at the Labour Party conference at a meeting hosted by the Tony Blair Institute. They discuss how the Starmer government, which has had a tough first year in office, can turn things around, as well as the Gaza peace plan, ties with the Trump administration and how to fight 'the politics of grievance'. Clip: Keir Starmer

Free links to read more on this topic: 

Starmer urges Labour to launch ‘patriotic’ fight against Reform

How Donald Trump’s Gaza deal came together

Trump goes mainstream on the Middle East

‘Lost the plot’: Tony Blair’s Gaza role prompts incredulity — and some hope

Subscribe to The Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.

Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.

Follow Gideon on Bluesky or X @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Lammy on the fight for democracy

Gideon talks to Matt Duss, former adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders and executive vice-president of the Washington-based Center for International Policy. They discuss recent curbs on free speech, former president Joe Biden’s foreign policy mistakes, and how identity politics has been used to distract voters from the ever widening gap between rich and poor. Clips: DRM News; Forbes

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Jimmy Kimmel hits out at ‘anti-American’ threats to free speech as show returns

Inside Disney’s decision to bring back Jimmy Kimmel

America’s accelerating exit from itself

Subscribe to The Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.

Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How to fix America

Gideon talks to former Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis about Russia’s recent drone incursion into Polish airspace. What message should Europe and Nato take from this? How worried are the Baltic states about a possible expansion of Vladimir Putin’s war aims? And how vulnerable are they to attack? Clips: BBC, BFBS

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What is Vladimir Putin’s game plan against Nato’s eastern flank?

Russians lose internet access as Ukrainian drones hit close to home

Baltic states know Russian occupation is never temporary

Moscow holds Ukrainian children at hundreds of sites across Russia

Europe turns to Ukrainian tech for ‘drone wall’ against Russia

Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.

Follow Gideon on Bluesky or X @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Russia’s drone incursions put Baltics on alert

Gideon talks to journalist Anshel Pfeffer about Israel’s ‘strongman’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They discuss how his ‘brazen disregard’ for international norms has helped him to cling to power, but also left him at the mercy of more and more extreme forces in Israel. This episode is an edited recording of an event organised by Intelligence Squared that took place in central London earlier this month. Clips: LBC; CNN; BBC

Free links to read more on this topic:

Israel unbound: was Qatar a strike too far?

EU moves to freeze some funding to Israel over war in Gaza

Israeli annexation of the West Bank would be ‘red line’ for UAE

Netanyahu’s disastrous plan to take control of Gaza

Subscribe to The Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.

Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.

Follow Gideon on Bluesky or X @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Israel's man without a plan

Gideon talks to Albanian academic Lea Ypi about her book Indignity. In the book, she describes how living first under the Ottoman empire, then as part of fascist Italy and later in a post-war communist state affected the lives of her grandparents. They discuss possible parallels between the first half of the 20th century and the times we are living in today and ask what lessons can be drawn from this history to avoid making the same mistakes. Clip: AQSHF

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Kant and the case for peace

Albania’s ‘old sheriff’ on course to win fourth term as prime minister

Why the EU’s migration dilemma is pushing the bloc further right

Subscribe to The Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.

Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.

Follow Gideon on Bluesky or X @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lea Ypi on parallels between the 1930s and today

The longheld US position to defend Taiwan’s independent status in the face of Chinese aggression is looking shaky under the Trump administration, in spite of Taiwanese efforts to court the American president. This week, Gideon talks to analyst and author James Crabtree - former director of the Asia office of the International Institute for Strategic Studies - about why the US now seems more interested in doing a deal with China than showing support for Taiwan. They also discuss the broader implications that this, and other issues, might have for US alliances across the Indo-Pacific region, including relations with South Korea, Japan, Australia and India.

Clips: 

Amazon Prime

Follow Gideon on Bluesky @gideonrachman.bsky.social or X @gideonrachman

More on this topic:

Taiwan raises defence spending by 23% under US pressure to counter China threat

Donald Trump blocks Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te from New York stopover

US cancelled military talks with Taiwan

Trump is the gift that keeps giving to China

The geopolitics of chips: Taiwan’s ‘Silicon Shield’

Subscribe to The Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.

Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Clare Williamson. Sound design is by Breen Turner. The executive producer is Flo Phillips.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Taiwan’s Trump problem

Gideon discusses the outcome of the recent Alaska and Washington summits with Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. Has Russia emerged as a clear winner? What can be achieved without more pressure on Vladimir Putin? How effective would western security guarantees be to prevent future Russian aggression?

Clip: Sky News

Free links to read more on this topic:

Ukraine talks expose Trump’s dreadful attention to detail

Donald Trump says US could play role ‘by air’ in Ukraine security guarantee

Donald Trump says US to ‘co-ordinate’ Ukraine’s security with Europe

‘Stab in the back’: Kyiv reels as Trump embraces Putin’s terms

Subscribe to The Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.

Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design by Breen Turner. The executive producer is Flo Phillips.

Follow Gideon on Bluesky or X @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trump ‘plays into Putin’s hands’

The Trump administration has hit India with 50% tariffs. And just after a short military conflict between India and Pakistan, President Trump played host to Pakistan’s army chief of staff at the White House. Gideon discusses what this means for India and for the region with Tanvi Madan, author of a noted history of the US-India relationship. Clip: WION. Weekend Festival link

Free links to read more on this topic:

Donald Trump tariffs threaten Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ drive

How Pakistan wooed Trump — and rattled India

Narendra Modi tells Indian farmers he will ‘never compromise’ in face of 50% US tariffs

India’s Russian oil conundrum: yield to Donald Trump or face tariff backlash

Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Manuela Saragosa.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What next for India as Trump-Modi friendship sours?

Zbigniew Brzeziński was one of the most influential statesmen of the cold war. But many of the geopolitical problems he wrestled with in Russia, China and the Middle East, have returned with a vengeance. Among his many prescient ideas, ‘Zbig’ as he was known, predicted that American hubris might lead to an ‘alliance of the aggrieved’ between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Gideon discusses his life and legacy with FT colleague Ed Luce, who has written an acclaimed biography of the Polish-born strategist. Clip: Voice of America

Free links to read more on this topic:

A new cold war with China won’t help the US

The World of the Cold War — timely reading in an age of US, Russia and China tensions

The last grand strategists: what Brzezinski and Kissinger could teach Trump

King of Kings — the 1979 revolution that changed Iran and the world

Subscribe to The Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.

Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Jean-Marc Eck and the executive producer is Manuela Saragosa.

Follow Gideon on Bluesky or X @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The cold war guru whose warnings on Russia still stand

As world leaders gather in New York for the UN General Assembly, Gideon Rachman speaks to António Guterres, secretary-general of the UN. Guterres explains why he thinks the organisation remains indispensable - as the world struggles to get to grips with an array of daunting global challenges - including war and climate change.

Clip: The Guardian

Free links:

World must exit ‘highway to climate hell’, UN boss warns, as records are again broken

China and US push each other on priorities for UN COP29 climate talks

‘Enfeebled’ UN fights for relevance in divided world

Alarm raised on sea level rise and ocean warming as Pacific Islands leaders meet

Nobel winners hit out at removal of fossil fuels from draft UN pact

China and US push each other on priorities for UN COP29 climate talks

Follow Gideon on X @gideonrachman

Subscribe to The Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.

Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and Simon Panayi.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Does the UN still matter? With António Guterres

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