Byline Times editor in chief Hardeep Matharu and executive editor Peter Jukes assess Trump's first month in power.

Produced by Adrian Goldberg and Phil Driscoll.

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As this podcast was recorded, European heads of state were holding an emergency summit in Paris having been blindsided by President Trump’s apparent willingness to enter negotiations with Putin about the future of Ukraine without President Zelensky.

The US has indicated that any military assistance it does give to Kyiv will be dependent on access to its mineral deposits, but Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has ruled out the country’s NATO membership,

Sir Keir Starmer has said the UK is willing to commit troops to a peace keeping force if a settlement can be reached, but there’s a bigger picture at play here…the reshaping of the world in accordance with the dictates of MAGA.

Trump and his accomplices see a world in which major powers operate spheres of influence – so that the Americas belong to the US and Eastern Europe is Russia’s...the people of Taiwan must be feeling very twitchy right now.

As for Europe, the President has made it clear that we’ll have to make a far greater contribution to our defence – at the same time as hobbling our economy with tariffs. 

When it comes to freedom, is seems that America is no longer the Great Protector. Instead it’s the Great Protectionist. 

Adrian Goldberg gets a view from Byline Times reporter Zarina Zabrisky in Odesa.

Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White.

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Adrian Goldberg talks to Kolbassia Haoussou, from Freedom From Torture - a former refugee - about government guidance stating that any asylum seeker who arrives in the UK on a 'dangerous journey', will be denied citizenship.

That's despite the fact that Britain is a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which says asylum seekers and refugees should not be penalised for illegal entry to a country.

This is the latest move from Labour to show that it's being tough on migration.

The Home Office recently released photos of migrants being forced on deportation flights, some in handcuffs and waist restraints; it also published footage of enforcement raids which were part of a crackdown on illegal workers.

Facebook Ads placed by Labour boasting about some of these measures have used Reform UK's colours, not the party’s traditional red… so is Keir Starmer cosplaying Nigel Farage? If you vote Labour, are you actually getting Reform instead?

Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg.

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Adrian Goldberg gets a view from Canada and Mexico as President Trump announces swingeing tarrifs on the import of steel and aluminium from his nearest neighbours. We hear from Alex Gonzalez Ormerod, a political analyst at The Mexico Political Economist and Jen Hassum, is Executive Director at the Broadbent Institute, a progressive Canadian think tank.

 Produced in Birmingham, UK by Adrian Goldberg.

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Adrian Goldberg talks about the early weeks of Donald Trump's second coming as US President.

Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White.

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Adrian Goldberg talks Putin, Big Tech and Defending Democracy with Jana Zikmundova, Belgium’s ambassador to Ukraine between 2011 and 2014, and now an activist with the NGO Defend Democracy. Jana grew up in Czechoslovakia, and as a 12 year old, saw Russian tanks invade her homeland.

Produced in Brmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White.

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Byline Times co founder Peter Jukes and Byline Times editor Hardeep Matharu chart changes in the media landscape from Murdoch to Musk.

Introduced by Adrian Goldberg. Produced by Adrian Goldberg and Phil Driscoll.

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Is there no end in sight for the London’s title as the libel capital of the world? Adrian Goldberg hears from Peter Geoghean who runs the Democracy for Sale substack about 'the craziest defamation case' he’s ever worked on. It’s ended with Solicitors Regulation Authority deciding to take no action a law firm who pursued the investigative website Bellingcat on behalf of a sanctioned Russian warlord.

 Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White,

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We mark Press Freedom Day by celebrating the Anti-Slapp campaign, which is aimed at protecting journalists who want to expose wrongdoing.

A SLAPP is a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation – a legal case brought, usually by the rich and powerful to intimidate those who want to question their behaviour into silence.

Famous examples include the fomerChelsea owner and Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich who took action against Catherine Belton and her publisher Harper Collins over claims made in Belton’s book ‘Putin’s People’: and attempts by lawyers working for the then Chancellor Nadim Zahawi to gag tax lawyer and journalist Dan Neidle who’d been investigating his.finances.

Adrian Goldberg hears from Susan Coughtrie, co chair of the Anti Slapp coalition and  Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana, CEO of the press regulator Impress.

Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg.

Funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times.

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This time, the chance for a long listen, with Byline Times editor Hardeep Matharu and Byline times co-founder Peter Jukes, reflecting on the inauguration of Donald Trump and the farewell address of Joe Biden, the outgoing US president. Biden warned of the dangers of a 'tech industrial complex' taking over the States.

Produced by Adrian Goldberg and Phil Driscoll.

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