The Fourcast

Last year we saw political scandals, supply issues, petrol fares, energy companies going bust and a general sense that things aren't really going to plan. So what will 2022 bring us both politically and economically in the UK?

Will this new year see Boris bounce back or Labour become a credible force for a general election that could come sooner rather than later?

To preview 2022 and the fall out from 2021, Kiran talks to our business and global trade correspondent Paul McNamara.

Sources: ITV News, Sky News, The Guardian, Evening Standard

Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of grooming and trafficking underage girls for the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

For the victims, this is a rare moment of justice after so many years living in silence and fear. 

But it may also just be the start of more questions about the network that Epstein and Maxwell operated: who else was involved and what does this mean for Prince Andrew, a friend of both the guilty parties.

On today’s Fourcast, our investigations editor, Job Rabkin, details what we learnt from the trial and the testimonies from the key witnesses - and we look ahead to the next chapter in a story that is not yet over.

ABC: Good Morning America, Woman’s Hour, Reuters

Last year there were many huge foreign news stories, the  Taliban returning to power in Afghanistan and the humanitarian crisis that followed, conflict in Ethiopia, China’s rise as the superpower of the 21st Century and the threat of cyber warfare. 

But what might we see happen in the world in 2022?

To look back at what happened last year and discuss what might happen in the year to come, we talk to our International Editor, Lindsey Hilsum.

In China, many women have had enough. There’s a feminist awakening, as groups challenge laws and customs, which they believe are entrenched in sexist ideas.

But as the movement grows, the ruling Communist Party wants to shut it down, labelling these liberal attitudes as opposition to their growing nationalist agenda.

In this revisited episode from August 2021, we speak to the reporter Jessie Lau who tells us about the women on the front line of China’s feminist fightback, and whether the #MeToo movement in China can prevail.

Sources: YouTube: TanWeiwei, DW News, CNN, ITV News

Black women are four times more likely to die in childbirth than women of other ethnicities, with many reporting that they’re being dismissed and neglected by healthcare professionals throughout pregnancy, childbirth and beyond.

So, could inducing pregnant Black women and bringing their birth forward early address that problem? That’s what one prominent medical committee, NICE, proposed this summer. 

In this revisited episode from September 2021, we speak to a doctor who says it’ll make birth safer for mums and babies, and a campaigner who says that early induction is not the solution to a deep and complex issue, rooted in racism and inadequate healthcare for Black mothers-to-be.

A warning, this episode includes discussion about maternal death and stillbirth.

Italy was the first European country to feel the full force of Covid-19. Stark images of army trucks carrying bodies, ICU wards beyond capacity and the deserted streets of Milan and Rome, were a ringing alarm bell to Europe, of what was to come.

In this episode from August 2021, Antonello Guerrera, a journalist for the Italian newspaper la Repubblica, talks about how those scenes are embedded in the minds of Italians, forming a solidarity and caution that could mean they are more likely than others to embrace vaccinations and vaccine passports, and reflects on whether recent sporting triumphs represent a redemption for the country, after the despair of 2020.

Sources: Sky Sports, Andrea Bocelli, CGTN, NBC News, France 24

On 8 December, there was a momentous transfer of power in Europe. Angela Merkel stepped down as Chancellor of Germany after 16 years - handing power to Olaf Scholz.

This peaceful transfer is taking place in a nation that - after the turmoil of Brexit, Trump and populist uprisings across Europe - has become THE liberal democratic bastion of the free world. 

It is a remarkable feat for modern Germany.

From the evil of Nazism, the horror ashes of conflict and the divisions of the Cold War - to this: a nation that embraces coalitions, embraces millions of refugees and embraces a united Europe.

How did we get here?

In today’s episode, John Kampfner, the author of “Why the Germans Do it Better”, explains how Germany became great again.

Sources: DW News, CBS, BBC News, British Pathe 

It’s the variant that’s threatened Christmas, triggered a record-breaking vaccination drive, and seen Covid measures tightened. 

But how much do we know about Omicron? How effective are boosters? Are you less likely to get severely ill than you are from Delta? What can we learn from the place the variant was discovered, South Africa, and what does their data mean for the UK? 

Today on The Fourcast, we speak to our Health and Social Care Editor Victoria Macdonald to hear how our hospitals are coping; Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg to analyse the Omicron data from South Africa, and Professor Ravi Gupta, a clinical microbiologist at the University of Cambridge, who warns that the South Africa data might not be particularly relevant to the UK after all.

Sources: BBC News, Sky News, Channel 4 News

He’s an icon of broadcast journalism, trusted to deliver the news to the nation for almost half a century. The face of facts, authority, and empathy. But as 2021 comes to an end, so too does Jon Snow’s time at Channel 4 News. 

So in his final week at Channel 4 News, today on The Fourcast, Kiran Moodley looks back at just a few of the many highlights of his incredible career. From the fall of the Berlin Wall to interviewing Nelson Mandela, as we celebrate a man who’s been at the front line of history in the making for 45 years. 

Sources: ITN / Channel 4 News

He has rewritten the history books to affirm his place in China’s national narrative and is set for another decade in power.

But who exactly is the Chinese Premiere, Xi Jinping? And what is his guiding political thought? 

In today’s podcast, we talk to SOAS’ Olivia Cheung to explain his rise to power and what his first decade in office tells us about his priorities both home and abroad - from a crackdown on dissidents and the Uyghur people - to an expanding Chinese empire that could one day include Taiwan.