The Fourcast

Is Donald Trump driving the world economy off a cliff while you’re on your summer holiday? 
America has just passed $40 trillion of debt. Trump’s tariffs are pushing up prices, his tax cuts are adding to the deficit, and his war with Iran has sent oil prices soaring. 
Now bond markets are turning on him. The US treasury has tried to step in and calm the bond markets, but it doesn’t appear to have worked. 
So what exactly is going on? Is this just a wobble in the bond markets - or a sign of something much worse to come? 
On this episode of The Fourcast, Ciaran Jenkins is joined by Pippa Malmgren, who served as an economic adviser to President Bush, and The Economist’s Archie Hall.

Should Britain tax wealth more heavily? With the government under pressure to find billions for public services and defence, Andy Burnham has refused to rule out a wealth tax. 
But would taxing the richest households actually raise significant money, or drive wealth, investment and entrepreneurs out of the country?
On The Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by Gabriel Zucman, economist and author of 'We Need to Tax Billionaires' and economist Arthur Laffer, creator of the Laffer Curve.
So how unequal is Britain? Has wealth become undertaxed compared with income? And if Britain doesn't tax the richest more, where else should the government find the money?

Nigel Farage has secured re-election in the Clacton by-election, but his political gamble to "stick two fingers up to the establishment" hasn’t gone according to plan. With novelty candidate Count Binface as Farage’s primary challenger, the self-described intergalactic space warrior secured nearly 10,000 votes.
With Farage's personal favorability ratings dropping and accusations that he skipped the declaration to avoid being "humiliated by nobodies," has the Reform leader’s publicity stunt severely backfired? 
In this episode of The Fourcast, Alex Thomson speaks to Popular Conservatism director Mark Littlewood, columnist Sonia Sodha, and polling expert Luke Tryl (Reform UK were unable to find anyone from the party to appear on the podcast).
They analyse whether Reform UK is losing its political momentum, how the ongoing standards investigation affects Farage's future, and whether Britain's political right is facing a deep crisis of credibility.

In the West Bank village of Qusra, Israeli settlers have spent days besieging Palestinian homes, cutting residents off from food and water - an attack even Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has condemned as a “horrific act of terror”. 
But this incident appears to be part of an escalation of settler violence in the West Bank this year. 
So can Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, who have at times condemned the violence but have also done so much to embolden settlers, reign it in? Or is the situation spiralling out of control? 
In a statement, the Israeli military said that soldiers had been deployed in Qusra since Thursday morning to protect residents and maintain security, and "were instructed that the Qusra residents will remain in their homes."
The military added that "soldiers will not operate inside the Palestinian family's home located near the site where the tent that was evacuated and dismantled had been erected".
On this episode of The Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by former Israeli ambassador to Canada Alan Baker, who was part of a commission set up by Benjamin Netanyahu to investigate the legality of settlements in the West Bank. He was also joined by Palestinian ambassador to Unesco Adel Atieh and Haaretz senior analyst Esther Solomon.

In 2019, Theresa May positioned the UK as a global climate leader by enshrining a legally binding Net Zero target by 2050. Fast forward seven years, and the political landscape on the British Right has transformed dramatically. With Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch proposing to repeal Net Zero targets and Reform UK labeling green policies "net-stupid-zero," the consensus around climate action is fracturing. 
All this comes as the UK endures repeated heatwaves, droughts, and severe economic impacts—with summer heatwaves costing an estimated £4.4bn in lost productivity alongside thousands of excess deaths. As extreme weather directly threatens agriculture and rural communities, is the Right out of step with voters, or are they tapping into growing cost-of-living concerns?
In this episode of The Fourcast, Matt Frei explores whether Net Zero scepticism is pragmatic economics or climate denial in disguise. Matt is joined by former Energy Minister Graham Stuart MP, Net Zero Scrutiny Group member Lord Peter Lilley, and former NFU President Baroness Minette Batters to debate conservative ideology, economic reality, and the electoral risks facing the Right.