Months before 9/11, a passenger seized control of a Boeing 747 and nearly crashed it into the Sahara.

Everyone survived - including a curious ensemble of famous passengers - but no one quite recovered.

Kate Mossman tells the story of Flight 2069 to Oli Dugmore.

READ: The strange fate of Flight 2069

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Is the New Statesman too soft on Wes Streeting? Are the Lib Dems an unserious party?

Plus our journalists make their predictions for what will happen in 2026, and listen back to their guesses from last year…

Oli Dugmore is joined by Anoosh Chakelian and Rachel Cunliffe.

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After being pushed back not once, not twice, but three times, the government's long-awaited strategy to halve violence against women and girls has been revealed.

Measures include training teachers to spot signs of misogyny in the classroom and police forces introducing specialist rape and sexual offence investigation teams.

But do they go far enough?

Rachel Cunliffe joins Luke O'Reilly.

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Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong’s most famous media tycoon and a British citizen, could be sentenced to life in prison.

What does his case say about the political climate in Hong Kong, and how might it affect relations between the East and West?

Oli Dugmore is joined by Katie Stallard.

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Speculation surrounding a leadership challenge to Keir Starmer is rife.

Andy Burnham, Manchester Mayor, is in the mix as a challenger. But can he find the necessary seat in parliament, and what hurdles does he face?

Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Ethan Croft and George Eaton to discuss.

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The "evil" mass shooting at Bondi Beach was the latest in a rising number of antisemitic attacks.

16 people died in the attack in Sydney, Australia. They were Jews who had gathered to celebrate the first night of Chanukah. Among them, a holocaust survivor and a ten-year old girl.

Antisemitic attacks are on the rise. In this year to September, Australia recorded 1654 anti-semitic incidents. That's three times higher than any year before the war in Gaza.

Here in the UK, Jews faced over 1,500 attacks in the first half of 2025, according to data from the Community Security Trust. That’s the second-highest total in the first half of any year on record, and includes the terrorist attack on a synagogue in Manchester in which two people died. In July, a report authored by Lord John Mann & Penny Mordaunt found “widespread failures to address anti-jewish discrimination in NHS, education, arts and policing”. 

Oli Dugmore is joined by Rachel Cunliffe and Hannah Barnes to ask: are Jews safe?

READ: The Bondi Beach shooting was an attack on Jews.

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Journalist Peter Oborne claims both Labour and Conservatives have fallen short on their response to Israel's war in Gaza.

--

Peter Oborne is a journalist, author and commentator. He was the political editor of The Spectator, a commentator for the Daily Telegraph and now writes for Middle East Eye.

A long-time conservative, Oborne joins Oli Dugmore to explain why he believes the Conservative Party have abandoned their principles, and to discuss the role that successive British governments have played - or failed to play - in dealing with genocides around the world.

Peter Oborne's book "Complicit: Britain's role in the destruction of Gaza" is out now.

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In this week’s episode of You Ask Us, one listener wonders, is the media infatuated with Zack Polanski?

And another challenges our journalists to listen to the Liz Truss podcast.

You ask, we deliver. 

Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Rachel Cunliffe.

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Wes Streeting denied plotting to oust Keir Starmer.

Ailbhe Rea met the Health Secretary to learn what he's really thinking.

***

Ailbhe writes:

Labour is in danger of presenting itself as the “maintenance department for the country”, he says. “The problem with that kind of practical, technocratic approach is that if someone else comes along and says, ‘Well, I’ve got a maintenance company too, and mine’s cheaper,’ why wouldn’t people go, ‘OK, well, we’ll give that maintenance team a try’?” He doesn’t name Starmer, but the critique of the Prime Minister’s “practical, technocratic” leadership is clear.

Streeting has denied plotting against the Labour leader. But when we speak, he strikes me as someone planning for what may lie ahead. I meet a cabinet minister ranging beyond his brief, thinking seriously about what his party needs to do to win the next election – and beginning to outline an alternative to that “maintenance department” approach.

***

Ailbhe Rea joins Anoosh Chakelian on Daily Politics from the New Statesman to discuss her interview with Wes Streeting, including the behind-the-scenes parts she couldn't reveal in her article.

📚 READ

Wes Streeting: "I'm pretty frustrated, to be honest"

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2025/12/wes-streeting-im-pretty-frustrated

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If you are raped in London today, you could be waiting until 2030 for a trial. 

Justice secretary David Lammy has stated that 60 per cent of rape victims drop their cases whilst waiting for the trial. Rape Crisis estimates 1 in 6 women go to the police.

Oli Dugmore is joined by Labour MP Natalie Fleet, who has written for the New Statesman on the fight for justice for victims of rape.

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