Christiane Amanpour Presents: The Ex Files

Christiane and Tina answer your questions on Trump's threats to make Canada the 51st state. Canada has reportedly prepared for the possibility of a US invasion- but how realistic is that threat, and is Mark Carney right to take it seriously?

The Cornell 7 case has raised questions about how universities and law enforcement respond to sexual assault allegations. Why do major institutions so often fail survivors, and what needs to change?

Plus: Tina weighs in on Prince Andrew's legal action against the police, as well as the latest row between Charles Spencer and King Charles over Princess Diana.

Please note: this episode was recorded on the 5th October.

Christiane Amanpour Presents: The Ex Files is a Global production, available every Tuesday and Thursday on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your shows. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.

The gruesome botched execution of Christa Pike has prompted an international debate about the use of the death penalty. Should it prompt America - the only major western democracy which still uses capital punishment - to finally scrap the death penalty?

Christiane and guest co-host Tina Brown dissect the 'barbaric' attempts to execute Pike, explain why prison doctors are so poorly trained and reveal why there is a shortage of lethal injection drugs in the US. They also ask: what does this extraordinary case say about America? Christiane talks about her personal experience of visiting a death penalty facility in person and she and Tina discuss whether anything is likely to change as a result of this story.

Plus, they look ahead to the midterms. Are these elections simply a referendum on Donald Trump? Christiane asks why so many senior Republicans still won't criticise the President by name and they discuss whether candidates would do better if they did. Plus Tina explains her theory on how Trump has lost his touch, and they give their reactions to the latest on the President's war with the press.

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Christiane and Jamie answer your questions on the five men arrested over a suspected plot at RAF Fairford, one of the military bases the UK let the US use to bomb Iran. Is Iran's war now spilling into Britain and Europe more generally?

A Baltic foreign minister recently told Christiane that Europe had been "a fat, lazy cat" until now - and credited Trump with finally getting the continent spending on defence. So why didn’t Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, agree?

Plus: is the UN worth anything without leverage over Washington, Moscow or Beijing? What did Trump actually gain in Greenland? And are Ukraine's strikes inside Russia backfiring?

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Xi got the pomp, the pageantry and a trip to see the US Constitution. America got a promise of two pandas.

In this episode, Christiane and Jamie ask what Trump's summit with Xi actually achieved? Why was there no AI agreement? Is the Taiwan arms sale dead or just delayed? And why is Trump pushing hardest on America's friends while reaching for its adversaries?

Plus Christiane gives her reaction to her exclusive UNGA interviews with Brazil's President Lula and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

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Saudi Arabia wants to take the fight to the Houthis, so why is Washington so reluctant to help? Christiane and Jamie unpack what's holding the US back, and what it means for the relationship if America is no longer willing to act as Saudi Arabia's security guarantor. Could Riyadh start looking to Europe, or even China, for better protection from Iran and its proxies?

They also tackle a challenge from a listener who asks why Jamie is so focused on the threat from China and Russia - when the US and Israel stand accused of devastating actions of their own.

Then, to Afghanistan, where the question is whether the international community has any real leverage left. Could diplomatic, trade and economic engagement, or the easing of targeted sanctions, be made conditional on genuine improvements in women's rights and their place in Afghan society? And is there any prospect the Taliban would accept that bargain?

Plus, after another dreadful set of election results, is Chancellor Merz's position in Germany now untenable? And did the far-right AfD do better or worse in the state elections than Christiane and Jamie expected?

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How do you negotiate with a government you can't predict? That's the question preoccupying presidents and prime ministers this week, as leaders gather in New York for the UN General Assembly with every major global crisis in the same building at the same time. Christiane and Jamie ask whether wars are solvable and alliances can be strengthened while the world's superpower keeps moving the goalposts.

Christiane brings the view from the very top. Fresh from interviewing Brazil's President Lula, and with Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney building a political reputation for standing up to Trump, she and Jamie examine how major nations are quietly engineering workarounds for dealing with the Trump administration. Is this a sustainable new model of diplomacy? They also look ahead to two meetings that will test this fragile system: Trump and Xi, with AI now a national security question rather than a tech issue, and Trump and Zelensky, with Kyiv increasingly frustrated by reduced American support.

Later, Christiane responds to Trump's latest attempted crackdown on press freedom: his ban on journalists from CNN, MS Now and Politico from entering the White House. Christiane explains why this is such a concerning move and why authoritarian regimes all over the world will be the ones who benefit.

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Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei has called the US–China AI race his "toughest dilemma", Christiane and Jamie ask – how worried should we be that artificial intelligence is becoming the next arms race?

Plus, they look at Russia's reported strike on a train near Ukraine's border with Poland, shortly after European security officials had travelled through. Is it a warning to Europe, and could it mark a new escalation in the war?

And, 25 years after 9/11, Christiane reflects on Gander’s heartfelt welcome to stranded passengers and the bond it created between the US and Canada. Can that relationship be repaired despite the ongoing trade war?

Finally, given America’s role in the Good Friday Agreement, how significant are Trump’s recent comments about a united Ireland?

Christiane Amanpour Presents: The Ex Files is a Global production, available every Tuesday and Thursday on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your shows. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.

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Is Trump's war with Iran making America weaker? Christiane and Jamie examine what the conflict is costing the US – from military resources and its position in Europe and Asia to the risk of spreading America's power too thinly.

They also examine how the war is affecting Iran, as pressure mounts on its economy and the battle for control of the Strait of Hormuz intensifies. With the US reportedly running down its stocks of defensive missiles, could the conflict give Iran greater leverage?

Plus, two crucial elections are coming up. Christiane and Jamie discuss what the US midterms could mean for Trump, and why Israel's election in October could become a reckoning for Benjamin Netanyahu. After sanctions were introduced on West Bank settlers, they ask, is Israel becoming increasingly isolated internationally?

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The AfD has won the Saxony-Anhalt state election - the first far-right win in a German election of this kind since the Nazi era. Christiane explains why it's so dangerous, and why Germany's "firewall" against the far right is now the thing to watch.

Plus, has Witkoff and Kushner's trip to Moscow and Kyiv achieved anything? Jamie doubts they're the right negotiators, and explains what would actually bring Russia to the table. The hosts also tackle the foiled Russian plot at Leipzig airport, and Ratko Mladić's burial in Serbia with full military honours, which Christiane calls a 'disgrace'.

Finally, Barbara on YouTube asks why they're so biased against Trump.

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Twenty-five years after 9/11, Christiane and Jamie dedicate a special episode to their memories of the day the world changed forever.

Christiane becomes emotional as she recalls the first time she saw the images of planes hitting the Twin Towers. She also reveals how it took her so long to hear about the attack in the first place, given she was thousands of miles away on assignment in Sierra Leone, cut off from phones and pictures. She describes the scramble to get word to her, the long journey back to London to broadcast, and her fear that Jamie might also have been a target for the terrorists.

Meanwhile, Jamie explains how he instinctively declared the incident 'an attack on the world' as he went on air to react - and unpicks what the US Government got right and wrong in its immediate response to 9/11.

Later, Christiane & Jamie turn to what those attacks set in motion. Why did the world unite behind the war in Afghanistan, and how did that consensus collapse in Iraq? They explain how the Iraq War began the long destruction of trust in America, not only because there were no weapons of mass destruction, but because the war was fought so badly.

And they finish on the question that runs through all of it: with Trump now waging his own war against Iran, did 9/11 leave America on a permanent war footing?

Christiane Amanpour Presents: The Ex Files is a Global production, available every Tuesday and Thursday on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your shows. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.

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