The Rachman Review

Gideon Rachman discusses how America’s tech war on China has affected Beijing’s long-held plan to assert its economic and military strength on the global stage with Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute of SOAS at London University. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Lebanese have survived civil war, decades of rolling blackouts and even managed the influx of 1.5m Syrian refugees, about a quarter of the country's population. But the explosion in Beirut's port in early August that killed scores of people, left hundreds of thousands homeless and cost billions in property damage, have prompted a more intense reckoning about the decades of corruption and mismanagement by the country’s political elite. Chloe Cornish, the FT’s Middle East correspondent, is in Beirut and tells Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs commentator, about the changes taking place in Lebanon in the aftermath of the blast.  Review clips: Reuters, Associated Press Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gideon Rachman talks to academic and writer Sinan Ulgen about Turkey’s foreign policy under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, focusing on the controversial decision to turn Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia museum back into a mosque and the rationale behind Turkish military interventions in Syria and Libya.Clips: Reuters and Anadolu Agency Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Many countries agreed that the best way to stem the pandemic was to shut down movement, but the US took a different path than its peers in handling the economic fallout. Instead of being kept on payrolls through furlough schemes, millions of Americans have had to seek jobless benefits. Rana Foroohar, the FT’s global business columnist, is standing in for Gideon Rachman this week. She talks with William Spriggs, a professor of economics at Howard University and chief economist of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, about how the pandemic is changing the labour market, and what happens to monopoly power, big data and faith in the free market in its wake.  Review clips: Reuters Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Donald Trump’s “America First” policy represented a marked shift in how the US engaged with its allies. Now Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden is focusing his campaign in part on restoring US leadership on the world stage through strategic alliances. Gideon Rachman is joined by Schwarzman Senior Fellow for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Mira Rapp-Hooper, who is author of Shields of the Republic: The Triumph and Peril of America’s Alliances, and Jeremy Shapiro of the European Council on Foreign Relations in a debate about the future of America’s alliances.*This episode has been updated to include Mira Rapp-Hooper's title. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gideon Rachman talks to FT journalist Michael Peel about the use of false and misleading narratives by world leaders in democracies and dictatorships alike, and how the pandemic may have exposed the limits of doing politics "according to the world as you spin it".  Michael’s book The Fabulists is published by Oneworld. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now in power until 2036 after a recent constitutional change, Vladimir Putin is nevertheless facing a difficult future as the Russian economy stagnates and popular unrest grows. Gideon Rachman and Catherine Belton, author and former FT journalist, discuss how the president and a coterie of close aides took over the wealth of the country on the pretext of reasserting Russia's role on the world stage, but now find themselves without a succession plan. Catherine Belton's book, Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took on the West, is published by William Collins. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In recent weeks people across the world have joined Black Lives Matter protests in response to the police killing of George Floyd in the US. Some activists are uniting under country-specific banners calling for racial equality. Gideon Rachman hosts a panel about the international BLM movement, featuring Dele Olojede, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist from Nigeria, Divya Cherian, a professor of south Asian history at Princeton University and the FT’s Africa editor, David Pilling. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brazil this week became the second country after the US to register more than 50,000 deaths from Covid-19. President Bolsonaro’s mis-handling of the pandemic has led to calls for his impeachment and even fears of a military coup. Gideon Rachman discusses what happens next with Oliver Stuenkel, professor at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo.Sign up to our coronavirus briefing at www.ft.com/rachmanreviewcovidTake part in our survey to offer your views on the show at www.ft.com/rachmansurvey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

India is facing two crises: coronavirus and China. Despite one of the toughest lockdowns in the world, the country has not been able to bring the pandemic under control. Hospitals in New Delhi are overwhelmed. Now a long-standing border dispute with China has turned deadly, with multiple Indian casualties reported. Gideon Rachman talks to Pratap Bhanu Mehta of Ashoka University about how the Modi government is handling the pandemic and the biggest foreign policy crisis the country has seen in decades. --- For more insight and analysis into how the coronavirus pandemic is changing global markets and geopolitics subscribe to the FT’s Coronavirus Business Update. Follow this link to sign up and enjoy a 30-day trial to FT.com: https://www.ft.com/newsletter-signup/coronavirus?segmentId=5af4021f-9697-677a-32eb-b119977b2770 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.