The News Agents

In this bonus episode of The News Agents, Jon and Lewis get together to discuss Sunday's emergency meeting of European Leaders here in the UK to resolve a peace plan for Ukraine.

Will Keir Starmer's plan bring us closer to peace in Ukraine? Will Donald Trump get on board? And what will Putin make of the events that have unfolded over the last few days?

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

In this bonus episode of The News Agents, Jon and Lewis react to Friday evening's remarkable events in the White House.

How will the Trump-Zelenskyy fallout impact the war? How will Keir Starmer react? And will Zelenskyy be forced into a resignation as Ukrainian president?

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

There were smiles, laughs, and a few pats on the shoulder - the mood in the Oval Office felt at times amorous as Keir Starmer and Donald Trump got down to business.

The Prime Minister appeared to have defied some of his harshest critics in DC, earning almost fawning praise from the American President and seemingly a series of wins - on tariffs, the Chagos islands, and on Ukraine.

But if Donald Trump is a man who trades on personal relationships and rapport, will that positivity endure once Starmer has left the White House? And how much stock should Britain place in Trump's words, where he often delivers his message with ambiguity and sometimes even contradiction?

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents USA now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

This week on The Sports Agents...

The first refugee to win an Olympic medal, Cindy Ngamba, joined Gabby and Mark before her professional boxing debut to talk about her incredible story from a shock arrest to the hilarious moment she discovered boxing (03:00).

The story of fleeing Afghanistan and getting no support from cricket's governing body (the ICC) with Afghanistan women's cricketer, Firooza Amiri, and international cricket journalist Alison Mitchell (09:00).

Former England women's football captain Steph Houghton talked about how she helped pioneer the rise of women's football from £4,000 per year salaries to winning the Euros and beating World Champions Spain this week (13:30).

And we reveal our karaoke songs... Mark's wasn't what we expected! (22:15)

Got a question for The Sports Agents - email us at [email protected]

New episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.

If you’ve been charged with people trafficking and rape, entry into the US is normally impossible. But it seems the Trump administration has been instrumental in ‘persuading’ the Romanian authorities to hand back the US passports of Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan. But why? Why would the US president want to help a man facing the most serious criminal charges - and he is wanted by the authorities in the UK too? Well Andrew Tate’s following on social media is huge. And his macho, misogyny brought a lot of young men to Trump in 2024. And it looks as though the administration now wants to return the favour, never mind the victims; never mind what he’s accused of.

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents USA now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

As we record, Zelenskyy is looking through the draft agreement which would give America oil, gas and mineral rights in exchange for…what? The final part of the deal is the bit that's missing. Will America pledge military help? And if not what does Ukraine get back?

Later, former Chief Whip Simon Hart describes the utter circus (*shitshow) that surrounded the last few years of Conservative rule. His book, "Ungovernable: The Political Diaries of a Chief Whip", is brutally honest. Will it put people even further off politics?

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents USA now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

On the eve of his trip to Washington, Keir Starmer told the commons that UK defence spending would rise to 2.5 percent within two years. It’s an increase in real money of £13.4 billion. £5 billion of which will come from cutting our foreign aid budget. Is he trying to protect Europe? Or to please Trump? And will it work?

Later, does Labour have the right response to the falling birth rate? Why are all the conversations about family and children coming from the hard right and the MAGA traditionalists? We talk to Josh Simons, Labour MP for Makerfield.

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents USA now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

It didn't take long for Germany's new Chancellor in waiting, Friedrich Merz, to make his presence felt across the Atlantic. Before the final ballots had even been counted in the German elections, Merz took to a television debate to warn that "after Donald Trump's remarks last week...it is clear that this government does not care much about the fate of Europe". He called for the EU to work together at pace to "really achieve independence from the USA", even questioning whether NATO in its current form would continue to exist come the summer. Remarkable words from a politician until now known as a staunch atlanticist - but is he just reflecting the new political era Europe finds itself in? And what does that mean for Keir Starmer and the British government?

Later, Elon Musk instructs millions of federal workers to compile a list of their achievements in the past week or risk the sack, and a podcaster becomes deputy chief of the FBI. What on earth is going on in America's civil service - and is it just becoming an enforcement arm for Donald Trump?

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Manchester and Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents USA now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

Right now, culture wars seem to punctuate every moment of our daily lives. Politicising more and more and dividing people over issues both big and small. How have culture wars embedded themselves in so deeply in our politics? What if they are part of a wider design to keep the rich powerful? And how damaging have identity politics been for the left?

Ash Sarkar sat down with Lewis to discuss these questions, which are at the heart of her new book 'Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War'.

Tickets to The News Agents Live On Stage with HSBC UK are now on sale! You can get your tickets for Manchester and Edinburgh here: https://articles.globalplayer.com/7giHoMavXLgdrd6gaC3GxWG7T8

Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt

Producer: Natalie Indge

Digital Editor: Michaela Walters

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal

Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents

The News Agents USA now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

This week on The Sports Agents...

Mark and Gabby hit the road this week, meeting Formula One drivers at the O2 Arena and travelling to Wigan to chat to the best and possibly most underrated coach in Britain.

First up, an exclusive interview with three-time Grand Prix winner George Russell about taking over from Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes lead driver, swearing rules and the moment you know if your car will be good enough to win a world championship (it's sooner than you think!). (02:45)

Mark also caught up with young British rookie Oliver Bearman, who was three when Hamilton won first world championship. He made a dramatic debut last season: drafted in with two hours notice he finished 7th ahead of Hamilton and Lando Norris, becoming the youngest British F1 driver in the process. So in his first full season can he replicate that success? He didn't in his driving test... (10:45)

And we meet Wigan Warriors Head Coach, Matt Peet, whose recent trophy cabinet is rivalled only by the likes of Pep Guardiola with seven in three years. So how did the life-long Wigan fan, who never played professional rugby league, guide his side to a historic quadruple and the Team of the Year award at Sports Personality of the Year? Might have something to do with the philosophy he reads... (15:30)

Got a question for The Sports Agents - email us at [email protected]

New episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.