The News Agents

Boris Johnson is back. But then again, he never really went away. In a speech today at a soft power forum, he takes a swing at Rishi Sunak and his Windsor Framework after two days of lying low. We discuss the continual Johnson-shaped fly in the Sunak ointment.

And Jon and Lewis go through the latest Hancock WhatsApp developments in the Lockdown Files story, and talk to Mehdi Hasan, MSNBC anchor and author of Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading and Public Speaking to talk about misinformation in the US media.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

The Telegraph have released a slew of Matt Hancock's Whatsapp messages from when he was Health Secretary, at the height of the Covid 19 pandemic.

Lewis and Jon discuss the politics of the investigation, and the ethics, or lack thereof, of the journalist behind the release of the messages. And is Matt Hancock, quite simply, a plonker?

You can watch our episodes in full at https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

We said yesterday that Rishi Sunak had taken a massive gamble announcing a new deal for Northern Ireland without having necessarily laid the political groundwork beforehand.

Well, 24 hours later, and it feels like he might have pulled off a blinder. The far-right of his Tory party are...quiet, and the DUP seem cautiously optimistic. Perhaps most importantly, Boris Johnson, a key potential spanner in Sunak's works, hasn't poked his head above the parapet. Could this be the start of a Conservative government rising from the ashes of internecine warfare? And could that well prove problematic for one Keir Starmer?

And in the podcast, we talk to someone who knows a thing or two about significant Irish agreements: former Taoiseach from 1997-2008, Bertie Ahern, who orchestrated the Good Friday Agreement with Tony Blair's Labour government back in 1998, some 25 years ago.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

For Northern Ireland Protocol, now read Windsor Framework.

A beaming Rishi Sunak and European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, have signed what MIGHT come to be seen as an historic agreement to solve the conundrum of the status of Northern Ireland post-Brexit.

Might, because we don't know how the loyalist, unionist DUP will react, nor the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative Party, the ERG, potentially led by mischief-maker-in-chief, Boris Johnson. What Sunak has negotiated is a victory for pragmatic policy-making. But the raw politics still looks precarious.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

U.S. Senator, Chair of the Budget Committee and TikTok sensation Bernie Sanders joins Lewis and Jon in the studio. He spoke about Joe Biden’s presidency, whether Jeremy Corbyn should stand as an independent candidate, and his new book It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

The environment and food secretary has suggested that - faced with a tomato shortage - people should just eat turnips instead.

It’s all a bit Marie Antoinette but just a bit more depressing.

Today we look at the long-term problem behind our current empty shelves with Observer food critic Jay Rayner.

And on the eve of the anniversary of Russia's second invasion of Ukraine, London's streets are blue and yellow - but is Putin successfully negotiating the West's economic sanctions? We ask corruption hunter-in-chief Bill Browder.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

Most fifteen year olds do stupid things.

Rarely do they join a terrorist organisation in Syria. But today. Shamima Begum - the ISIS bride - lost her appeal - and with it her chance to regain UK citizenship. Do we feel safer as a country? Or soulless? And as Kate Forbes - committed Christian and SNP Finance Minister makes her case to lead Scotland, we ask another committed Christian, MP Tim Farron - once Lib Dem leader, now podcast host - if politics and religion can ever mix in Britain.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

There is too much news today. Frankly.

Putin tried to convince a domestic audience that NATO started the war in Ukraine, Rishi Sunak tried to face down Tory doubters telling him to drop his Northern Ireland deal, and the press and media are mulling over how to respond to accusations of intrusion by Nicola Bulley's grieving family.

We hear from Northern Ireland Shadow Secretary Peter Kyle, Putin's former speechwriter Abbas Gallyanov, and former Head of News at ITN and formerly of broadcasting regulator Ofcom's Stewart Purvis.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

Boris Johnson has been slapped down by a senior Conservative for his interventions on Rishi Sunak's latest Brexit deal over Northern Ireland.

Is the former PM stirring up trouble to pave the way for a comeback?

In the first interview since he left office, Johnson's former Director of Comms Guto Harri speaks exclusively to The News Agents and has a message for his old boss.

And Lewis comes back from Rotherham, where he was over the weekend reporting on a far-right protest gathered outside a hotel housing asylum seekers. He tells us what he heard and saw.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

Rishi Sunak has been in Belfast, hoping he can be the Prime Minister to finally answer the question on the Northern Ireland Protocol. Can he break Brexit gridlock?

And elsewhere in the United Kingdom questions over the strength of the Union have been raised by Nicola Sturgeon's decision to quit as leader of the Scottish National Party.

Does her resignation signal the the start of the decline of the independence movement?

You can watch our episodes in full at https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.