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The News Agents

The News Agents

Podcast | United Kingdom | Left
www.globalplayer.com/podcasts/42KuWz/

UK political news podcast with Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel, and Lewis Goodall. Making sense of the news.

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Discussions from The News Agents

🎭 Culture
February 07, 2026

Welcome to the Winter Olympics! - The Sports Agents

The Winter Olympics are here! What sport are we all going to pretend to be an expert at? Curling maybe? Today Gabby and Mark are joined by one of Great Britain’s biggest medal hopes, freestyle skier Kirsty Muir. She started skiing at 3 years old on the dry slopes of Scotland - imagine the carpet burn doing flips on that surface! Her nan can’t even watch when she does the huge tricks. This year she’s already won gold at the X Games and her third World Cup title. So can she win gold in Italy? P...

United Kingdom
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đź“š Education
February 07, 2026

How the government became a student loan shark

Imagine a loan where the Government sets the terms. It can change the terms at any time, and you have no recourse to alter them yourself. A loan designed so most people never clear it, but pay for it anyway. Not because they failed, but because that’s how it was built. This is the system successive British governments have built. In this episode of The News Agents, we examine the relations of our student loan system and ask how can it be that the UK government has built a system that you migh...

United Kingdom
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🏛️ Politics
February 06, 2026

Can Keir Starmer save himself from the Mandelson scandal?

Keir Starmer apologised this morning for appointing Peter Mandelson as Britain's ambassador to the US. He said he should never have believed "the lies" of Mandelson. He says he understands the "anger and frustration" of Labour MPs. But is he in a position to win back the support of his own party? How close is he to the brink? And - if Mandelson's relationship with Epstein was widely known at the time of his appointment - what is the PM actually apologising for? One of those concerned Labour M...

United Kingdom
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🏛️ Politics
February 05, 2026

Could the Mandelson scandal bring down Keir Starmer?

Keir Starmer says Peter Mandelson "lied repeatedly" about the extent of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and said that he regrets appointing the Labour Peer as US ambassador in 2024. But with the relationship between the men well known, questions about the Prime Minister's political judgement are looming. Could this be the moment that brings down the Prime Minister? Later, Sir Brian Leveson on why the courts system faces potential collapse without major reform - and the calls to resurre...

United Kingdom
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🏛️ Politics
February 04, 2026

Did Peter Mandelson betray Britain to impress Jeffrey Epstein?

Things are moving at quite a pace these days, but at the time of writing Peter Mandelson has relinquished his peerage and the Prime Minister has asked the Cabinet Office to hand over Mandelson's emails to the police. The Republican campaign group has also called on the police to investigate Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. Will any of this lead anywhere? Or is it all just noise? And why have the Clinton’s now decided to testify before Congress on what they knew about Jefrey Epstein? The News Agent...

United Kingdom
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🏛️ Politics
February 03, 2026

Could Peter Mandelson end up in jail?

Peter Mandelson has resigned from the Labour party and insists he "doesn’t recall" receiving tens of thousands of pounds from Jeffrey Epstein but has now called for "an investigation.by me“ to check. What was he doing lobbying for the paedophile billionaire from the heart of government? And what retribution if any should he now face? Keir Starmer has called for his peerage to be removed. But is Keir the only person who can actually make it happen? Later we hear from tax expert Dan Neidle on w...

United Kingdom
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🎭 Culture
January 31, 2026

Content is king but at what cost to player privacy? - The Sports Agents

You’ve likely seen the viral video of Coco Gauff smashing her racket in a corridor at the Australian Open. She tried to go somewhere without cameras and failed. Now she's complaining the only private place is the locker room, Novak Djokovic says it's like "big brother", Iga Swiatek thinks they're "animals in a zoo". Content is king but at what cost to player privacy? Isn’t this the kind of access we all wanted to drive sports broadcasting forward and grow the sport? The bigger the sport - the...

Global
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🏛️ Politics
January 31, 2026

Is British politics just ungovernable?

Keir Starmer is historically unpopular. When he entered Downing Street, his approval rating stood around +10%. Now? The Prime Minister languishes around -50%. It's the steepest drop in support for any governing party still in its infancy. 8 out of 10 people say that Britain is getting worse as a place to live under Labour's watch. One poll conducted towards the end of last year suggested that even Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had more public confidence than Keir Starmer's government. What on ea...

United Kingdom
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🏛️ Politics
January 30, 2026

Is Trump about to rig the midterm elections?

The election offices of Fulton County were raided by FBI agents yesterday morning. Fulton, in the state of Georgia, was at the heart of Donald Trump's claims six years ago that he’d won the 2020 election (he didn’t). Why are ballot boxes of archived votes now being removed from the premises? Is this still about a six years ago old grudge? Or does it presage Trump's plan for the November midterm elections? We speak to the Commissioner on the premises who watched the action unfold before her ey...

United States
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🏛️ Politics
January 29, 2026

Why does Kemi Badenoch want an even smaller Tory party?

Kemi Badenoch has told her party not to get in her way as she steers it further to the Right. Is this the correct assessment of what the Conservatives needs to attract voters back? Or is she way off? Later, Trump has threatened Iran with his big beautiful armada. Does he have any concern for the protestors getting killed in their tens of thousands thousands? Or is this all about US interests? The News Agents is hsbc.co.uk/

United Kingdom
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🏛️ Politics
January 28, 2026

Has Trump lost the battle for Minneapolis?

Donald Trump's tone on Minneapolis has changed in the last 24 hours. He’s now having conciliatory meetings and phone calls with State Governor Tim Walz and the city's Mayor Jacob Frey. And it looks like he’s removed his Border Commander Gregory Bovino and put him out to pasture in California. What's behind the change of heart? Was it the polls? The murder of American citizens? Or the fact that his administration’s account of the killings has been flatly caught out by camera evidence. Is his I...

United States
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🏛️ Politics
January 27, 2026

Is Reform UK becoming a Tory party retirement home?

Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman has renounced the party that gave her power, and defected to Reform. She's telling us today that Britain is broken and “she” (Britain, not Suella) was “suffering”. Are Reform better off with her? Are the Tories better off without her? And has it been enough of a distraction from the Andy Burnham saga to give Keir Starmer a lucky break? Later, is Trump panicking about his ICE strategy after the latest murder of a US citizen on the streets of Minneapolis? ...

United Kingdom
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