Can Britain’s Politics Cope: David Dimbleby Thinks Not

David Dimbleby was for decades the face of election programs on the BBC. He anchored coverage of 10 UK general elections, as well as the 1975 and 2016 referendums on European membership, the funeral of Princess Diana and a host of other royal and state occasions. He’s seen prime ministers come and…

China vs the US: Kishore Mahbubani on a Zero-Sum Rivalry

Beyond this week’s talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, there’s an epic tale that has been unfolding for decades. It’s a battle to be the world’s number one power and a much bigger story than the latest meeting of these two men.  Kishore Mahbubani is a former …

Anthony Scaramucci: Trump and the Humiliation That Made Him Famous

For a brief moment in 2017, Anthony Scaramucci became a unit of time. His 11-day stint as White House communications director was so short-lived that it entered the political lexicon. Almost a decade on, he has proven more durable than the joke. The Trump loyalist-turned-critic, Wall Street financ…

Why India Has Lost Its Way: Writer Amitav Ghosh on the New World Order, Politics and Past Lives

For more than 30 years, the Indian-born writer Amitav Ghosh has built a global following with novels that draw on deep historical research.  But his latest offering, Ghost-Eye, is more esoteric. The plot moves back and forth between India and the US, using past lives to explore the ties between th…

How to Get a Deal With Iran: Former US Negotiator Wendy Sherman on Power, Pressure and Reality

We’re now eight weeks on from the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, a conflict that’s been watched with increasing alarm by Wendy Sherman, architect of the 2015 nuclear deal between the US and Iran and a former deputy secretary of state. Having spent years across the table from Iranian offici…

Hamlet, James Bond and SNL UK: Riz Ahmed on Reinventing Cultural Icons

A new and radical take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet is out in US cinemas. The force behind it is actor, writer, producer and musician Riz Ahmed. He says the 400-year-old story has never felt more current. Ahmed, Oscar-nominated for Sound of Metal and star of the Oscar-winning live-action short The Long…

America’s Limits, Iran’s Leverage, Pakistan’s Moment: Maleeha Lodhi on a Shifting Order

After almost six weeks of war, how did Pakistan manage to get the US and Iran to talk? Amid a still-fragile situation in the Middle East, that question sits at the heart of this conversation with Maleeha Lodhi. She has served as Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, as well as to the UK and United…

Lionel Shriver on Immigration, Identity and Why She Refuses to Stay Quiet

Lionel Shriver has often tackled complex or contentious issues in her fiction. From school shootings in We Need to Talk About Kevin to economic collapse in The Mandibles.  Her new novel, A Better Life, is the story of a family home taken over by outsiders. In this conversation with Mishal Husain, …

Why Israel Could Be Forced to Stop: Shira Efron on War, Fatigue and Netanyahu's Strategy

With attention fixed on the potential developments between the US and Iran, could the Israeli government be forced to end the war earlier than it might like? The last few weeks have seen daily air strikes by Israel on Iran, and retaliatory attacks that have killed and injured Israelis. The wider p…

Ro Khanna on Stopping the Iran War, Taking on the ‘Epstein Class’ and Taxing Billionaires

US Representative Ro Khanna of California helped force Donald Trump to release the Epstein files. Now he wants to end the war with Iran. Earlier this month, the Democratic Congressman joined forces with Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Republican, on a War Powers resolution seeking to ha…