The News Agents
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/
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Episodes
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Nick Clegg: What really happened at Facebook?
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
Nick Clegg worked intimately alongside Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook/Meta for seven years. He departed Silicon Valley in January and has written a new book - How to Save the Internet - and given his first broadcast interview to The News Agents. Is the world wide web as we know it being dismantled? Does he still see social media as a force for good? Could it impact an election? And how much did Zuckerberg care about the impact the product has on children’s health? We chat AI, British politics, and why he suspended Trump from the platform...The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https:/...
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Why does Keir Starmer keep agreeing with Nigel Farage?
Monday, 1 September 2025
Keir Starmer has shaken up his core team in Downing Street today. It's an attempt to grip the agenda, improve the government's messaging and take on Nigel Farage after a difficult first year in office. "Delivery, delivery, delivery" was what the Prime Minister said was the government's priority for the year ahead - but deliver what? There is a debate taking place in the Labour party between those who believe a more progressive case is needed, that you don't beat Farage by apeing his talking points. Others are convinced that it is only by addressing these concerns that you can stop them from...
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Are we sleepwalking into an AI 'economic bloodbath'?
Friday, 29 August 2025
This is the first part of two special Friday episodes on the way AI promises to transform our politics, economies and societies. Lewis has been in San Francisco, where trillions of dollars of investment in AI is fuelling the 21st century equivalent of the space race. Around half a dozen firms are powering this revolution, largely out of sight or scrutiny. While the political and economic implications are profound, politicians seem unwilling or unable to even conceptualise what might be about to happen to their own voters. In the first of these special episodes, Lewis has been speaking to Ja...
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Weekend Edition: Russian dolls, fax machines & legal threats - the making of the first Women's Rugby World Cup - The Sports Agents
Friday, 29 August 2025
Our guest today, Alice Cooper, fought to set up the first ever Women's Rugby World Cup in 1991, along with three other trailblazing women. It took players selling Russian dolls and vodka to pay their way, organising everything over fax, and Alice losing her job - but they did it. Alice tells Gabby and Mark the story of how they paved the way for this year's World Cup. Plus, we look back at the best bits from this week's shows: former Nottingham Forest player David Prutton asked, could Mourinho replace Nuno at Forest?! After dream debuts for 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha and 15-year-old Max Dowman...
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Everything wrong with Keir Starmer’s media strategy - and how to fix it
Thursday, 28 August 2025
There's news today of a Downing Street shakeup and speculation too about a ministerial reshuffle next week. Parliament returns on Monday, with Labour MPs hoping that the new term will bring with it a chance to rejuvenate a government that has plummeted in the polls and a party that seems almost mutinous. This summer, Nigel Farage has planted himself at the centre of the news agenda - with regular press conference, media stunts and interventions. Labour ministers have been doing the round too - but they seem to have less to say in recent weeks than the Reform leader, Amidst all the talk of a...
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Is a secret US spy ring trying to take over Greenland?
Wednesday, 27 August 2025
It's a story that reads like it's jumped out of a thriller novel. Denmark has today summoned America's top diplomat in the country, after reports emerged that figures connected to the Trump administration had infiltrated Greenland to conduct “covert influence operations”.Denmark's national broadcaster has today come out with a jaw-dropping story alleging that three US citizens are suspected of recruiting Greenlanders for a US-sponsored “separatist” movement. Are they rogue operatives - or are they working on behalf of the US State? Jon and Lewis speak to the journalist who broke the story,L...
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Farage, flags and Connolly: How the Right turned on the State
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
In an airport hangar in Oxfordshire, Nigel Farage unveiled Reform UK's mass deportation plan. Farage pledged to tear up international treaties, build new removal centres, and strike deals with foreign countries in an effort to drive up returns at pace should he become PM. There was a dark message in his speech - that without his radical programme, Britain faces rising anger, even civil disorder.Speaking at length about a political class and a legal class pitted against this action, Farage asked: "Whose side are you on?". It follows a weekend in which Tory politicians have been condemning th...
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Q&A: Trump, Putin and 100% inheritance tax
Friday, 22 August 2025
Does Putin have something on Trump? Is Trump deliberately deflecting attention from the Epstein saga? Is Starmer's advisor, Morgan McSweeney, overestimated by the media? And what response has Lewis had to his 100% inheritance tax theory...?This Friday, Lewis and Jon answer your questions. Visit our new website for more analysis and interviews from the team: https://www.thenewsagents.co.uk/The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal -> https://nordvpn.com/thenewsagents Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee
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Weekend Edition: Can England's Red Roses pick up where the Lionesses left off? - The Sports Agents
Friday, 22 August 2025
As part of a special weekend edition of The Sports Agents - Gabby's been at Twickenham - the home of England rugby - to speak to key members of England's Red Roses squad ahead of the start of the Women's Rugby World Cup! Over 375,000 tickets have already sold for a 32-match home tournament which kicks off on Friday as England bid to avenge their narrow World Cup final defeat to New Zealand back in 2021. Gabby sits down with Mo Hunt and Emily Scarratt, two of England's most decorated players, as well as, former captain-turned-coach Sarah Hunter, for an insight into the mood in the camp, the...
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Israel invades Gaza City. Will anything stop Netanyahu?
Thursday, 21 August 2025
Palestinians have started to flee Gaza City after the IDF commenced its offensive on the largest city in the Strip.The incursion has been condemned by aid agencies, international allies and hostage families. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the move is necessary to "shortening the timelines" to seize "the last terror strongholds" in Gaza from Hamas. What happens now? We speak to Leila Molana-Allen, special correspondent for PBS Newshour.Later, Jon interviews the historian Andrew Lownie about his bombshell new book 'Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York'.Visit o...
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Where are asylum seekers supposed to live now?
Wednesday, 20 August 2025
Anti-migrant protesters are celebrating today, with The Bell Hotel in Epping set to close its doors to asylum seekers after becoming a battleground over the summer on the issue.A High Court ruling ordered The Bell to stop housing migrants on a planning technicality. It did not receive the proper permission to switch its use from short-term stays to people living there for more than 30-day stretches, despite having run as such without incident for more than five years.A failed last-minute attempt by the Home Office to get the case dismissed laid out the department's concerns. The government ...
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Is Palestine Action really a terrorist group?
Tuesday, 19 August 2025
There is a growing chorus of opinion - both inside the Labour party and out - which is increasingly uneasy about the recent mass arrests of demonstrators who have been showing their support for the now proscribed group Palestine Action.Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, banned the direct action group under terrorism legislation in July - but since then hundreds of people have been detained for expressing solidarity with the body and its aims. But that decision has been questioned, with Labour members opposed to the move, Labour MPs critical, and even the author Sally Rooney pledging to fund...
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BONUS EPISODE: Zelenskyy survives the Oval Office... but has anything really changed?
Tuesday, 19 August 2025
In a tone entirely different from Zelenksyy’s last visit to Washington in February, this evening saw Trump praising the Ukrainian president. Zelenksyy was on the charm offensive. And it seemed to work. Trump bestowed his other European guests with compliments and promised that America would play a key part in the security guarantees if there is a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. It was in some ways a remarkable event, with European leaders sat around the roundtable kissing the ring of President Trump. But will it amount to anything? Can the US really guarantee the security of Ukraine?...
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Trump-Zelenskyy: another showdown?
Monday, 18 August 2025
There's plenty about the build up to this Trump-Zelenskyy summit which tells you that it is no normal meeting. The questions over whether President Zelenskyy will wear a suit and tie. The video from the plane where Keir Starmer pleads with Trump to secure a "just peace". And the Truth Social posts from President Trump, just hours ahead of their talks, where he pre-emptively told the world that NATO membership was off the cards for Ukraine, as was the prospect of Crimea being returned.Why is Trump seemingly setting pre-conditions for Ukraine which look very much like Kremlin objectives? Can ...
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BONUS EPISODE: The panic driving Europe’s leaders to Washington with Zelenskyy
Sunday, 17 August 2025
President Zelenksyy is on his way to Washington to meet with President Trump. He's followed by several European leaders, including Keir Starmer. Rarely is international diplomacy carried out under these circumstances. So, what would a deal look like? Why are those European leaders choosing to go to with Zelenkyy? And is this Europe's final stand against Putin?You can visit our website here https://www.thenewsagents.co.uk/The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal -> https://nordvpn.com/thenewsagents Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-b...
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SPECIAL REPORT: Has America’s fentanyl crisis landed in the UK?
Friday, 15 August 2025
From coast to coast, America’s towns and cities have been besieged by an opioid epidemic, a crisis which has wrought misery and wielded political consequence.Deep in the Nevada desert, Las Vegas - a city renowned for its seedy underbelly, has some 1,500 people living in its 600 miles of flash flood tunnels - many addicted to fentanyl. Lewis meets some of the tunnels’ residents to find out how this years-long epidemic is still wreaking havoc and claiming lives. Despite being insulated from the crisis for so long, British treatment services are sounding the alarm bell. Nitazenes, a family of ...
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Weekend Edition: Premier League Q&A - MOTD, Battle of the Bridge & time for hooters? - The Sports Agents
Friday, 15 August 2025
Gabby and Mark answer your Premier League questions ahead of the new season! Which Match of the Day pundit is most fun to watch a match with? Best Premier League game we've ever watched live? And what's our wildest hot take for the season? (09:15)Plus we look back at a big week on the podcast featuring Alan Shearer's Premier League predictions, Chris Wilder's survival guide for promoted sides, and David Ornstein's updates on the biggest transfers. (03:00)📩 Got a question? Send it here: https://forms.gle/9SBbW1SYWqXLKnRT7💭 Tell us your thoughts in our listener survey: https://forms.gle/YMUva...
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Why the hard right hate London
Thursday, 14 August 2025
Barely a day goes by without a right-wing influencer proclaiming that London has fallen. Crime in the capital, it is said, is rampant, police nowhere to be seen - it's a grim picture painted by those who decry 'Sadiq Khan's London'.But is any of this actually borne out in reality? Do the facts back up this portrait of the city? And if not, why are there so many on the hard right so determined to trash London's image?Later, a report from Vegas about a jaw-dropping new AI product, which raises questions about life, death, and the commercialisation of grief.You can visit our website here https...
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Why is the US lecturing Britain on free speech?
Wednesday, 13 August 2025
While the Vice President holidays in the Cotswolds, Donald Trump's administration has accused the British government of “repeatedly” imposing “serious restrictions” on free speech - and accuses the UK of backsliding on human rights. The US State Department cites the Online Safety Act and abortion buffer zones, in its rationale for sounding the alarm about Britain's recent record - does it have a leg to stand on? LBC's political editor Natasha Clark joins Jon to explore that report.Later, with European leaders meeting with President Zelenskyy today, capitals across the continent are bracing ...
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Why has Trump ordered the army onto the streets of DC?
Tuesday, 12 August 2025
“Violent gangs", "bloodthirsty criminals", "roving gangs of wild youths", "drugged out maniacs". These may sounds like scenes from a Charles Dickens novel, but they are the words used by Donald Trump to describe Washington DC, as he announced he was sending the National Guard in to the capital.As recently as May, President Trump was proclaiming a sharp drop in crime in the city. Indeed, the official statistics suggest DC has made significant improvements in safety in the past couple of years. So why is he declaring a war on crime, and taking such drastic action, when the evidence doesn't ba...
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Will Trump and Putin carve up Ukraine – then blame Zelenskyy?
Monday, 11 August 2025
In just a few days time, Vladimir Putin is set to set foot on American soil for the first time in a decade. He's been invited to Alaska by Donald Trump, a man desperate to claim that he has brought the conflict in Ukraine to an end. There is just one problem with that. Putin hasn't offered any significant concessions, and Ukraine and its allies are demanding that no Ukrainian territory seized by Russian soldiers during the war is given up - a red line it looks like Trump is set to ignore. Ukraine's President Zelenksyy, as it stands, isn't even invited to take part in the talks. It all lend...
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Q&A: the Epstein files, Corbyn as PM, and are Reform clickbait?
Friday, 8 August 2025
This Friday, Jon and Lewis are back with more of your questions. Would the markets take fright at a Jeremy Corbyn or Nigel Farage premiership like they did with Liz Truss? Is the media biased towards Reform over the Lib Dems? And could we ever see Benjamin Netanyahu arrested?Later - it may feel like we are living in a uniquely settled world, but was there ever a time in the past century where things actually felt any calmer? You can visit our website here https://www.thenewsagents.co.uk/ The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal -> https:/...
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Weekend Edition: Inside Sheffield Wednesday's crisis & who's next? - The Sports Agents
Friday, 8 August 2025
The Championship kicks off this weekend but Sheffield Wednesday players and staff are still waiting to be paid. For the inside story of how the club fell apart, Mark is joined by Chris Powell, the assistant coach who left a few weeks ago. And it's not just Sheffield who are struggling - so who's next and how do we keep finding ourselves here? (02:00)Plus, we look back at this week's shows where we asked... Is Isak to Liverpool the last transfer saga? And should cricket ditch The Hundred? (18:30)📩 Got a question? Send it here: https://forms.gle/9SBbW1SYWqXLKnRT7💭 Tell us your thoughts in our...
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Did the homelessness minister evict her own tenants for profit?
Thursday, 7 August 2025
Labour's homelessness minister is facing fury from her own side and calls to resign - not for her track record in government but her track record as a landlord. Rushnara Ali, the MP for Bethnal Green and Stepney, rented out a four-bedroom townhouse in east London, and the tenants have gone to the press to complain about their treatment. One told the I newspaper that they received an email saying that the lease on their tenancy would not be renewed as Ms Ali was looking to sell the property - and yet just weeks after they left, they found that the house back on the rental market at nearly £...
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Was Hiroshima a war crime?
Wednesday, 6 August 2025
Thousands of people have gathered in Hiroshima - including representatives from 120 countries - to come together with a renewed call for nuclear disarmament. America's use of the atom bomb on the Japanese city, followed by Nagasaki a few days later, remains the only time in human history that nuclear weapons have been deployed in armed conflict. To some, it was a decisive turning point in WW2 - the moment where the Axis powers realised they were destined for defeat. But to others, including Jeremy Corbyn, the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were crimes against humanity. Could both things ...
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Is Netanyahu set on the full occupation of Gaza?
Tuesday, 5 August 2025
“The die has been cast. We’re going for the full conquest of the Gaza Strip – and defeating Hamas." That was the quote from the Israeli Prime Minister's office given to media last night in Jerusalem. Despite mounting criticism of the plan, including from former military officials, politicians and the families of the hostages still in Hamas captivity, Benjamin Netanyahu appears determined to occupy the entirety of Gaza. Why is he ignoring the pleas, both domestically and internationally, not to escalate the conflict? Would it help or hinder his efforts to free the hostages and eliminate Hama...
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Why are Tories predicting a revolution?
Monday, 4 August 2025
More protests at migrant hotels took place this weekend - with people trying to break into a hotel in Canary Wharf on Sunday. As things escalated, rumours started to swirl. Former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi posted that police had banned all protest outside the hotel- only for the Met to point out that no such ban existed. Another Conservative MP quoted a video claiming (incorrectly) to show an illegal Deliveroo worker getting a police escort. So why are some Tories spreading misinformation? And why are they talking about 'revolts' against the 'regime'? And, as Lewis returns from Japan we take...
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What's going on with young people and God?
Friday, 1 August 2025
Why are more and more young people turning to God? A recent YouGov poll suggests the number has doubled in the past six years from 22% to 45% saying they now actively have faith.It's being called the “Quiet Revival“. It may be happening under the radar but the numbers suggest a revolution. Is it a response to covid, smart phones, or perhaps a crisis in masculinity? Or has atheism just had its day?We are at the Wildfires Christian festival to find out what’s going on. You can visit our website here https://www.thenewsagents.co.uk/
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Weekend Edition: Triple H on 'genius' of Trump, Hulk Hogan's legacy & replacing Vince McMahon - The Sports Agents
Friday, 1 August 2025
We bring you a UK exclusive interview with a genuine WWE icon - Triple H! Mark Pougatch sits down with 'Hunter' to discuss what makes President Trump a 'genius', why wrestling is more real than you might think behind the scenes, and to pay tribute to the late Hulk Hogan. (5:30)Plus, a taste of this week's special interview with Tom Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl winner who rewrote American sporting history, and is now a minority owner of Birmingham City FC. And we reacted to the Lionesses winning the Euros again (is this the new normal?!) with ex-England goalkeeper Karen Bardsley (a huge ...
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Why are defenders of free speech always shutting people down?
Thursday, 31 July 2025
Exclusively on The News Agents, we speak to top democrat Jamie Raskin. He's here on a mission to find out if free speech is under threat in Europe. It’s a big talking point in the MAGASphere - he’s visiting with the judiciary committee. So why did he find himself shouted down at a public event by one Nigel Farage?Later, we talk to Bafta winning actor Adeel Akhtar - famed for Four Lions- about his latest play about money, family, and politics - The Estate. You can visit our website here https://www.thenewsagents.co.uk/ The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/EXC...
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