Right now, culture wars seem to punctuate every moment of our daily lives. Politicising more and more and dividing people over issues both big and small. How have culture wars embedded themselves in so deeply in our politics? What if they are part of a wider design to keep the rich powerful? And how damaging have identity politics been for the left?

Ash Sarkar sat down with Lewis to discuss these questions, which are at the heart of her new book 'Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War'.

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Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

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The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

This week on The Sports Agents...

Mark and Gabby hit the road this week, meeting Formula One drivers at the O2 Arena and travelling to Wigan to chat to the best and possibly most underrated coach in Britain.

First up, an exclusive interview with three-time Grand Prix winner George Russell about taking over from Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes lead driver, swearing rules and the moment you know if your car will be good enough to win a world championship (it's sooner than you think!). (02:45)

Mark also caught up with young British rookie Oliver Bearman, who was three when Hamilton won first world championship. He made a dramatic debut last season: drafted in with two hours notice he finished 7th ahead of Hamilton and Lando Norris, becoming the youngest British F1 driver in the process. So in his first full season can he replicate that success? He didn't in his driving test... (10:45)

And we meet Wigan Warriors Head Coach, Matt Peet, whose recent trophy cabinet is rivalled only by the likes of Pep Guardiola with seven in three years. So how did the life-long Wigan fan, who never played professional rugby league, guide his side to a historic quadruple and the Team of the Year award at Sports Personality of the Year? Might have something to do with the philosophy he reads... (15:30)

Got a question for The Sports Agents - email us at [email protected]

New episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.

The backlash against Donald Trump for his diatribe against Volodymyr Zelenskyy has strengthened. Keir Starmer called the Ukrainian President in a show of support and told him it was "perfectly reasonable" to have suspended elections given Russia's invasion. European leaders have also lined up to reject Trump's claims that Zelenskyy is a "dictator" - even Nigel Farage has distanced himself from that notion, though pointedly has suggested that Ukraine needed to set a timeline for new elections.

But how far can politicians here, and in Europe, push against the American president when so much is at stake for Western security? Or is there an electoral advantage to standing up to the world's most powerful figure if voters think he has overstepped the mark?

We speak to Judith Gough, the UK's former ambassador to Ukraine who knows President Zelenskyy. And later, to More in Common's Luke Tryl, who has been conducting focus groups here about attitudes towards Donald Trump and the Ukraine war.

You can read More in Common's full report on 'Progressive Activists' here: https://www.moreincommon.org.uk/our-work/research/progressive-activists/

How might Trump change the course of the war in Ukraine? And what will the impact be for British and European politics?

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Manchester and Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents USA now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

Not content with parroting talking points from the Kremlin, Donald Trump has hardened his position on Ukraine even further. Taking to Truth Social, the US president branded Volodymyr Zelenskyy a "dictator without elections" who has done "a terrible job" for his country. He warned his counterpart in Kyiv to "move fast or he is not going to have a country left". Those words will chill European leaders, already baffled at President Trump's decision to align himself with Russia so acutely - are we witnessing the beginning of a new Russian-American axis? And where does that leave those countries in the east of Europe, who have spent decades freeing themselves from the iron grip of Moscow?

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Manchester and Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents USA now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

In the weeks following Donald Trump’s scrapping of diversity, equality and inclusion schemes in government, a number of big-name companies have followed suit rolling back their DEI commitments. So why are so many big companies ditching DEI? And what could this rolling back of DEI policies mean for businesses and workplaces? We speak to Alexandra Mousavizadeh.

Later, Gabriel Gatehouse joins us to tell us about frozen heads, psychedelic art, and his search for the mysterious Bitcoin founder.

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents USA now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

European leaders are heading to Paris. American negotiators are heading to Saudi. And the News Agents have arrived in Birmingham. It’s our first live show of 2025 and as a broadcasting first we’re joined by some abseiling window cleaners on today’s episode. We discuss Americas unilateral plan for Ukraine. Why has it left Europeans in tears? What can Starmer do with Trump? And are we really going to see British troops on Ukraine's borders?

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents USA now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

Despite Keir Starmer's long march to Downing Street, there is so much we don't know about our Prime Minister. His media presence, and his Downing Street, is more guarded than the PMs who have preceded him. He has worn many different political personalities on his journey from lawyer, to the House of Commons, to leader of the opposition - he has evolved as his journey to No 10 took shape.

What drives him? What are his fundamental principles? Who are his real allies? Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire have an arguably clearer picture than anyone except the man himself. Their new book 'Get In: The Inside Story of Labour Under Starmer' attempts to get beneath the skin of the man running our country.

They sat down with Lewis to try and answer some of those questions.

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents USA now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

This week on The Sports Agents...

Can the Six Nations learn from the star-studded Super Bowl? We chat to ex-England rugby union player Ugo Monye (03:30).

Could rugby league help the Premier League get VAR right? That's with Phil Bentham, Head of Match Officials at the RFL and former PGMOL VAR coach (10:45).

Joe McEwan tells us about suffering a sudden cardiac arrest when playing lacrosse. At just 22 his heart stopped for 4 minutes but he survived and now he's raising money by walking the length of New Zealand (16:45).

And we laugh about Andy Murray's fateful first ski trip, where he had to be transported down the mountain after biting off more than he could chew (22:45).

Find out more about Cardiac Risk in the Young here

Got a question for The Sports Agents - email us at [email protected]

New episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.

Donald Trump's first stab at a deal on Ukraine appears to have gone very well - for Russia. During a 90 minute phone call with Putin they started to lay out the terms. Including a veto on Ukraine joining NATO and an understanding that Ukraine would never reclaim Crimea. The phone call with Zelensky did not come until afterwards. European leaders are up in arms at being left out of the conversation and can’t work out why Trump is conceding to Putin before he’s even stopped his illegal invasion. Is Trump 'the deal maker' just not actually very good at making deals? And has he profoundly given up on the West and its defence?

Later, what does the Munich terror attack presage for the forthcoming German election? Is it making life for the anti immigrant parties much easier?

And which toddler dared to tell Trump he was not actually the President?

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents USA now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

Kemi Badenoch got rebuffed in PMQs by the Prime Minister telling her for the second week in a row she “hadn’t done her homework".

Why isn’t she cutting through? Does she need to do more media interviews? Or might her safe space be the kind of podcasts Trump used to secure the 2024 election? Today we ask if that media exists here in the UK and if not, why not?

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents USA now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

The AI Summit in Paris assumed it would be the centre of tech action today. That was until Elon Musk put in a cheeky (hostile) bid for Sam Altman's OpenAI company, claiming he was owed the money anyway from a previous deal. There is beef between these two tech bros - who both proudly wear Trump's patronage. They previously worked and innovated together on the company that is now Altman's. Can Musk bully Altman into giving it up? Will Trump help him? And what happens if AI as well as X, tesla, SpaceX and (checks notes) the entire US government is now within Musk's grasp?

Later, is Trump serious about pulling out of NATO? And is the Ukraine war already lost? We speak to Jeremy Hunt about what he's learned from 14 years at the top of government, and what he'd do differently.

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents USA now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/