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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

Gideon discusses whether the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran can hold with Vali Nasr, Professor of Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Can anyone claim victory from the war? Where does this leave the battered regime in Tehran and its nuclear ambitions? And what will the US need to do to ensure that intense fighting doesn’t break out again? Clips: Channel 4 News; BBC

 

Free links to read more on this topic:

Best summer books of 2025: Politics

How Donald Trump brokered a shaky Israel-Iran ceasefire

Gulf expat bubble punctured by missiles

Where is Iran’s uranium? Search continues for 400kg stockpile

Iran’s supreme leader faces his defining moment

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 Simon Panayi 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

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Too soon to celebrate peace between Iran and Israel?

Gideon talks to Oana Lungescu, Nato's former and longest-serving spokesperson, about what to expect from this month’s summit and what's at stake? Can Europe convince the Trump administration that Russia is a risk they need to take seriously, and will an agreement to increase defence spending be enough to satisfy the US president? Clips: Sky; Channel 4, Aljazeera

Free links to read more on this topic:

Europe, the US and the question of values

Europe confronts Trump’s triple threat on Ukraine, Nato and trade

Europe has a weaker hand than it thinks on Ukraine

Nato defence ministers to discuss path to 5% military spending

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 Simon Panayi 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.

Nato’s moment of truth

Gideon Rachman and China historian Rana Mitter discuss the evolution of Xi Jinping from internal exile, to party apparatchik, to strongman leader. What motivates Xi and what’s behind his friendship with the Russian leader? This episode is an edited recording of an event organised by Intelligence Squared that took place in central London late last month. Clip: CGTN

Free links to read more on this topic:

Donald Trump says China’s Xi Jinping is ‘hard to make a deal with’

Xi’s history shapes China’s diplomatic strategy

Chinese defence minister set to skip security forum in Singapore

China’s Xi Jinping likens ‘US hegemony’ to ‘fascist forces’ ahead of Vladimir Putin summit

Xi and Putin are the greatest beneficiaries of Trump’s chaos

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.

What drives China’s strongman?

In a special six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman discuss the economic events reshaping the world in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s election. 

Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Episodes will also be available on the FT’s YouTube channel.

If you’d like to get in touch and ask Martin and Paul a question, please email economics.show@ft.com 

Read Martin’s FT column here

Subscribe to Paul’s substack here

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Coming soon: The Wolf-Krugman Exchange

President Biden’s time in office was a momentous period in world affairs and American foreign policy. The Taliban returned to rule Afghanistan, Russia invaded Ukraine, and Hamas attacked Israel all on the watch of National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan.

Gideon talks to Sullivan about the Biden legacy and hears how and why events unfolded and what the Trump administration is doing now. 

Clips: BBC, CBS, Sky News, The Guardian, Radio Free Europe, CGTN

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

More on this topic:

Europe needs to keep up the pressure on Netanyahu

Putin thinks that time is on his side

Former national security adviser Jake Sullivan: ‘The core engines of American power are humming

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 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.

A foreign policy debrief with Jake Sullivan

The EU is in Donald Trump’s cross hairs. So how should it respond? In this week’s episode, Paschal Donohoe, Ireland’s finance minister and president of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, discusses whether the euro can challenge the dollar. He tells Gideon that European integration should go even further - and makes the case for immigration and a new relationship between the EU and the UK. 

Clips: Euronews,PBS Newshour

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

More on this topic:

Why the EU beats Trump at the art of the deal

How the UK and EU thrashed out a post-Brexit reset in relations

Donald Trump says US will ‘100%’ strike trade deal with EU

Euro has ‘clear path’ towards greater reserve currency use, says Eurogroup president

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 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.

Is Trump a threat or an opportunity for the EU?

After a short but intense clash, a ceasefire is holding between India and Pakistan, but tensions remain high. Both sides claim victory, but the rapid escalation in the conflict bodes ill for future diplomacy between the two countries. Gideon talks to Professor Sushant Singh, lecturer in south Asian Studies at Yale University, about the conflict and what’s at stake if tensions escalate again. Clips: Times of India, Fox News

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

More on this topic:

How India and Pakistan pulled back from brink of war

India and Pakistan’s fragile ceasefire holds after alleged breaches

​​Narendra Modi says India has proved ‘superiority’ over Pakistan in clashes

India and Pakistan: a conflict in the hands of two religious strongmen

Military briefing: India and Pakistan test red lines of nuclear rivalry

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 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.

India and Pakistan: what now?

German businessman Joerg Wuttke has been an observer of China since the 1980s, watching it evolve from backwater to superpower. He talks to Gideon about US-China rivalry and how Europe can find its place as a trading partner to both powers. Clip: CNBC

Free links to read more on this topic:

China launches large-scale military exercises around Taiwan

China’s Xi Jinping tells top global CEOs to use their influence to defend trade

China is suffering its own ‘China shock’

BASF’s Joerg Wuttke: ‘The essence of China is this warrior’

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

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com 

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

China in the age of Trump 2.0

Gideon talks to Russia experts Catherine Belton and Arkady Ostrovsky about Vladimir Putin’s goals. They discuss his early ambition to restore Russia’s status as a global superpower. And they go on to analyse why, after a quarter of a century in power, Putin may see his best chance yet of achieving that goal - at a cost of hundreds of thousands of Russian lives. This episode is an edited recording of an event organised by Intelligence Squared that took place in central London earlier this month.

Free links to read more on this topic:

The age of the strongman

Trump, Putin, Xi and the new age of empire

US agrees maritime ceasefire deal with Ukraine and Russia

Ukraine ceasefire: what is Vladimir Putin’s game?

Russia trained officers for attacks on Japan and South Korea

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.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

The making of Vladimir Putin

Thirty years ago Mexico made a fateful decision to open its economy and engage with the US. Now that decision is being tested by Donald Trump’s tariff threat. Gideon talks to Mexican economist Luis de la Calle about the impact this could have on his country's economy and that of the US. Clips: ABC News; Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo

Free links to read more on this topic:

How Trump could destroy his own political movement

Half of Mexico’s exports to US risk steep tariffs

Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum is riding high on Donald Trump’s trade war

China delays approval of BYD’s Mexico plant amid fears tech could leak to US

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.

Follow Gideon on X @gideonrachman

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

Mexico hopes to stave off Trump tariffs

The pandemic, climate change and peacekeeping are all priorities for the UN in 2021, but these challenges require multilateral solutions at a time when the world's superpowers are drifting further apart. Gideon Rachman talks to António Guterres, secretary-general of the UN, about bridging security and military divides to solve pressing global problems. 

 

Review clips: World Economic Forum

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António Guterres on the United Nations in a fractured world

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