The Exchange | Long-form interviews from the New Statesman

In 2011, Luke Harding was ordered to leave Russia - the first Western journalist to be exiled since the fall of the Soviet Union. As the Guardian's senior correspondent, he continued to watch Russia from afar, covering WikiLeaks, Edward Snowden, and the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. But in recent years he crept back closer to Moscow, reporting from the front lines of the war in Ukraine.

His new book, Betrayal, follows the many contours of this conflict and what they tell us about the new age of global power: What kind of control does Russia have over Donald Trump? How did North Korean soldiers end up in Ukraine? Why did a Reform leader undertake work for the Russian state for 40k?

Luke Harding joins Oli Dugmore in this episode of The Exchange, a podcast from the New Statesman.
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Most people would say that Britain is, by and large, a liberal country. Individuals have the freedom to express their individual beliefs, others are expected to accept this difference in opinion with a certain level of tolerance. Our government is decided by free and fair elections, we have a high level of personal freedom and protected rights.
But Adrian Wooldridge, author and Bloomberg columnist, thinks we're getting it completely wrong in how we think about liberalism.

Wooldridge joined Oli Dugmore to ask whether Britain is a liberal country shortly before discontent from both the left and right ousted Keir Starmer from office.

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For ten years Gianni Infantino has run FIFA more or less unchallenged - cosying up to Putin, the Saudis, and above all Trump, and turning the World Cup into the most commercially aggressive tournament the sport has ever seen.

Then a few weeks ago, it emerged he'd been secretly negotiating to sell a fifth of FIFA's business to outside investors for $20 billion. The plan collapsed within days, under a revolt from football associations around the world.

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For decades, hell, even centuries, there’s only been one show in town for the British right - the Conservative Party.

But now, as the British electoral system complains and convulses and shudders and shrieks, a right-wing party has been at the top of the polls; it’s just not the Tories.

Broadcaster, author and political commentator Iain Dale joins Oli Dugmore to discuss Reform, Restore, and the potential revitalisation of the Conservative Party.
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Keir Starmer is no longer prime minister, Andy Burnham is.

What just happened? Why did it happen? And what now?

Oli Dugmore is joined by the New Statesman's editor-in-chief Tom McTague for a Starmer retrospective.

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