Famine, mass killings and the collapse of basic government services have pushed Sudan into what the UN now calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. As regional powers across the Middle East fuel the conflict by backing rival factions, civilians have largely been left to fend for themselves. Gideon speaks to Sudanese political analyst Kholood Khair and Sudan expert Alex de Waal to understand how the country reached this point — and where the country and its people go from here. Clips: Sky News; Africa News

Free links to read more on this topic:

There is already an answer to securing Sudan’s future

US rebukes backers of Sudanese paramilitary force behind ‘horrific’ atrocities

The human cost of a world without rules

How the UAE-Saudi Arabia alliance ruptured

Israel’s Horn of Africa gamble raises tension with Arab and Muslim rivals

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Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Now that the Trump administration has fully embraced the ‘Donroe Doctrine’ - a policy claiming the western hemisphere as a US sphere of influence - which country will be next in the line of fire? Gideon discusses this with Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group consultancy, which has just published its top risk report for 2026.

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Venezuela and the trouble with the Donroe doctrine

Greenland’s future must be decided by island and Denmark, Starmer warns Trump

Donald Trump’s imperial Venezuela folly will leave America no richer

The gangs, goons and guerrillas running swaths of Venezuela

No, Trump is not a fascist

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Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Simon Panayi and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Gideon and guests look back at 2025 as well as forward to the year ahead in an FT Live discussion for the Global Boardroom. Donald Trump set the tone of world politics this year from his tariff wars to his efforts to make peace in the Middle East and Ukraine, while also bombing Iran and threatening Venezuela. In a bid to make sense of the contradictions, Gideon is joined by Leslie Vinjamuri, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Dan Drezner, professor of international politics at the Fletcher school at Tufts university in Boston, and James Crabtree, author of an acclaimed book on Modi's India and a forthcoming book on US-China tensions in the Pacific. Clip: PBS

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When business and democracy don’t mix

The AfD’s love-in with Maga

Open source could pop the AI bubble — and soon

China is making trade impossible

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Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.

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Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Donald Trump has accused South Africa of carrying out a genocide against its white population. He also says the nation does not deserve to be a member of the G20, which it hosted last month. FT Africa editor David Pilling - standing in for Gideon - puts these allegations to two South Africans, Lawson Naidoo, a civil society activist, and Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, a foreign policy expert. What is the state of race relations in the country and how are South Africans reacting to the allegations? Clip: CNN

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South Africa arrests Kenyans working at US-run Afrikaner ‘refugee’ centre

The ‘pampered princess’ accused of trafficking South Africans to Russia

How South Africa’s underworld infiltrated its government

South Africans question future of Black empowerment policies

South Africa’s credit rating upgraded for first time in two decades

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Presented by Devid Pilling. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.

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Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Gideon talks to Jens Stoltenberg, Nato's former secretary-general, about Ukraine and Europe's strategic priorities after recent scathing criticism from US president Donald Trump over its failure to end the war: ‘They talk but they don’t produce.’ Clip: Politico

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The White House’s rupture with the western alliance

Trump pushes for ‘free economic zone’ in Donbas, says Zelenskyy

Friedrich Merz offers to host Ukraine talks so deal not done ‘above Europe’s head’

Ukraine’s ‘fortress belt’ that Donald Trump wants to trade for peace

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Subscribe to The Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.

Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.

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Gideon talks to Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of the National Interest, about the rows over racism, Epstein and Israel that have broken out in Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement. Clips: Tucker Carlson, Right wing watch, Dana Loesch

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Marjorie Taylor Greene to resign from Congress after clash with Donald Trump

Trump’s Maga coalition fractures over far-right interview

Maga vs AI: Donald Trump’s Big Tech courtship risks a backlash

Donald Trump’s Maga base split over handling of Jeffrey Epstein files

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Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Gideon talks to Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the senior Democrat on the US Senate Committee on foreign relations, about Donald Trump’s foreign policy. Can Congress stop the president from making big concessions to Russia and attempting regime change in Caracas? Clip: ABC News

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Ukraine has no choice but to engage with US peace plan

Russia pursues peace deal — on its own terms

Donald Trump’s affordability problem: in charts

What is Venezuela’s ‘Cartel of the Suns’?

Mohammed bin Salman, the autocratic Saudi moderniser trying to escape his past

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Investors are spending billions of dollars on novel ways to extend human life through inventive treatments, therapies, and even manipulating our genes. And increasingly, it seems as though anti-ageing efforts have moved from the super rich to a mass market consumer industry. In this series, we’re covering the past, present and future of the longevity movement. We’ll be looking at where the fixation on longevity is coming from, and trying to understand the practical and ethical issues at the heart of this cutting-edge field of research. 

From Silicon Valley fantasies, to Singaporean health spas, to Colombian genetic clinics and beyond, the FT’s Hannah Kuchler and Michael Peel ask whether breakthroughs in science and technology can really help us live longer, and even stop us aging altogether.

Free to read: 

US ‘wellness’ industry scents opportunity to go mainstream

The quest to make young blood into a drug

This season of Tech Tonic was produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon. The senior producer is Edwin Lane. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Fact checking by Simon Greaves, Lucy Baldwin and Tara Cromie. Original music by Metaphor Music. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.

The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.

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The French pioneer of European integration Jean Monnet believed that Europe would be ‘built in crisis’. The war in Ukraine is putting this theory to the test, once again. Gideon discusses with historian Timothy Garton Ash how European leaders are responding to this latest crisis after the brief ‘holiday from history’ that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall. Clip: ITV

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US and Russian officials draft new peace plan for Ukraine

The scramble for Europe is just beginning

Ukraine secures winter gas support from Greece

Poland blames Russia-linked operatives for rail explosion

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Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.

Follow Gideon on Bluesky or X @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Gideon Rachman sits down with the FT's innovation editor John Thornhill and Caiwei Chen, China reporter for the MIT Technology Review, to discuss the race between China and the US to become the 21st-century AI superpower. The west is used to hearing about the might of the Silicon Valley giants, US cutting-edge research and chip dominance. But China has a different approach. Will its use of a cheaper and more efficient open AI model allow China to overtake the US with this era-defining technology?

Want more? Join John and the FT’s Chinese technology correspondent Eleanor Olcott in a live Q&A on November 13 at 1pm GMT where they will be answering your questions on the tech battle between Silicon Valley and Beijing. 

Submit your question: Will China win the AI race?

And subscribe to a new six part newsletter series - 'The State of AI'. It's a collaboration between the FT and MIT Technology Review where writers from both publications debate the defining questions of the AI era. Sign up here 

More on this topic:

The State of AI: is China about to win the race?

China offers tech giants cheap power to boost domestic AI chips

AI pioneers claim human-level general intelligence is already here

The AI race

Who’s right about AI: economists or technologists?

Follow Gideon on Bluesky or X @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman

Subscribe to the Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.

The Rachman Review is presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Clare Williamson. The executive producer is Flo Phillips and the sound design is by Simon Panayi.

Clip: Axios

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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