Reflecting on the passing of the third anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, award-winning author Andrey Kurkov has written the diary for this week’s New Statesman magazine.

In this conversation, with Tom Gatti, Kurkov contemplates daily life in his hometown, Kyiv, and how the war has changed him as a writer.

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Keir Starmer returns victorious from his meeting with Donald Trump. But was it the success it seems?

Andrew Marr, Hannah Barnes and Rachel Cunliffe answer listener questions on the New Statesman podcast.

Also in this episode:

• Has Zelensky "put one over" on Trump with the rare earth minerals deal?
• Trump's "mob boss" geopolitics
• How the UK could make a radical pivot towards Europe - and have Putin to thank.

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Keir Starmer has promised defence spending will reach 2.5% of GDP by 2027 and 3% in the next Parliament. There’s been some sparring over exactly how much money this equates to, has a maths crime been committed? And how far can this money go?

Hannah Barnes is joined by political editor Andrew Marr and business editor Will Dunn, and later in the programme byt Phil Whitaker, GP and the New Statesman's health writer, to speak about the shake up at the top of NHS England.

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Last week Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist for the first seven months of his first term in office, graced the stage at CPAC (the annual Conservative Political Action Conference) to rapturous applause.

"We're not going to retreat. We're not going to surrender. We're not going to quit. Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Although Bannon fell out of favour with the president back in 2017, he's managed to maintain great influence over the Maga movement, a movement he helped create.

His speech created headlines worldwide after he was accused of performing a Nazi salute to the crowd. Something he denies. He also called for Trump to run for a potentially constitutional breaching third Presidential term in 2028. 

So what does he really believe Maga are still fighting for? 

Kate Lamble is joined by the New Statesman's US correspondent Freddie Hayward, and Politico reporter Ian Ward.

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The number of working age people out of work in Britain 2010 was around 9 million. In 2025? Around 9 million. But why is worklessness in Britain now deemed a crisis, and what can the government do to fix this?

Will Dunn, the New Statesman's business editor, is joined by Alison McGovern, Minister of State for Employment.

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Donald Trump has reached out to Vladimir Putin, over the heads of Ukraine and Europe. The Western alliance is fracturing, so what comes next? Can European nations find the defence budget? And whose terms will this war end on?

Hannah Barnes is joined by Lawrence Freedman, emeritus professor of War Studies at Kings College London, and later in the programme by the New Statesman's associate political editor Rachel Cunliffe, and the former justice secretary David Gauke to discuss the future of our prisons.

Read: The threat of peace, Penal populism has broken Britain’s prisons

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Last Friday the US Vice President - JD Vance, took to the stage and railed against his country’s European allies, accusing them of not listening to voters on issues of migration and free speech. That speech raised serious questions about how the transatlantic alliance will be transformed. 

But Vance also called into question the "democracy" of the firewall. In Germany, there has long been an agreed firewall against the far right. That centrist parties will not collaborate with them, to prevent far right groups from getting in to power. 

This weekend Germany will head to the polls, and currently the far right populist - Alternative fur Deutchland or AfD are polling at around 20%. Could Germany’s far right break through the firewall? 

Kate Lamble is joined by Hans Kundnani and Annette Dittert.

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The novel is a living thing, argues author Deborah Levy in the New Statesman Goldsmith's Prize lecture.

Tom Gatti hosts Deborah Levy, author of Swimming Home and The Man Who Saw Everything, to deliver a special lecture live from the Southbank Centre in London.

Presented in partnership with the Goldsmiths Prize and the Southbank Centre, and recorded at the Southbank Centre.

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHFN7ZY9lzM

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Are local council changes "an attack on democracy"?

Rachel Cunliffe and Megan Kenyon join Hannah Barnes to discuss changes to the rules governing local elections, which Ed Davey and Nigel Farage have attacked as anti-democratic. They answer a listener question about why their local council can "delay my right to vote".

Also in this episode, Megan Kenyon meets Kim Leadbeater for an update on the assisted dying bill, and we answer your questions about the checks and balances that would apply if the bill were to pass.

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Keir Starmer is making a radical shift to appease Reform and "blue labour".

"There has been a conservative revolution going on around the world," says Andrew Marr - and it leaves Keir Starmer with some hard choices.

Andrew joins Hannah Barnes to explain why the prime minister is making a "handbrake turn", and how a new group of MPs known as Blue Labour are having an outsized impact on Labour policy.

Hannah also speaks to Blue Labour member David Smith MP, who claims that the group has more members than are currently known.

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The freedoms that the UK's academy schools have been granted could be curtailed.

Labour's Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill proposes centralising and standardising decision making across state schools in the UK. The Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, claims this will improve conditions for every student across the country.

Katharine Birbalsingh, who has been called "Britain's strictest headteacher", is highly critical of these developments, calling them cultural Marxism. However, senior educator Leora Cruddas - who leads an organisation representing two thirds of UK academies - has welcomed many of the measures in the bill.

Pippa Bailey is joined by Birbalsingh, Cruddas and the New Statesman's Hannah Barnes to discuss who should decide how and what children are taught.

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