Category Archives: Podcasts

News: Ukraine & Russia Military Moves, Letter Bombs In Spain, Croatia

December 2, 2022: The pullback by Ukraine’s military in the south of the country. Also, letter bombs sent to high profile targets in Spain. Croatia becomes the 20th member of the Euro Zone.

News: China Protests And Zero-Covid Easing, Major Russia Airstrike Planned

December 1, 2022 – The latest on the unrest in China and the easing of some coronavirus restrictions in response. Plus: the repercussions of the Belarusian foreign minister’s sudden death, Oath Keepers go on trial for the Capitol riots in the US and ArtReview’s annual Power 100.

News: Winter Support For Ukraine, Turkey In Syria, Qatar Sends Germany Gas

Nato foreign ministers meet in Bucharest to discuss how to support Ukraine in the winter months. Plus: Turkey plans for a ground operation in Syria, Qatar agrees to supply Germany with gas and Art Basel Miami Beach.

News: U.S. Precision Bombs To Ukraine, Venezuela Politics, China Protests

The Pentagon considers a new plan to provide Ukraine with precision bombs that could hit far behind Russian lines. Plus: Are Venezuela’s government and opposition finding some common ground? And how long will Beijing tolerate protests?

Pentagon Mulling Cheap, Precision Strike Weapon For Ukraine As Arms Makers Wrestle With Demand

The West has struggled to meet Ukraine's demand for more arms. (file photo)
The West has struggled to meet Ukraine’s demand for more arms. (file photo)

Headlines: China Protests Expand, Ukraine Battles To Restore Power, NATO News

November 28, 2022

Ukraine battles to restore power. Plus; China’s unrelenting zero-Covid policy, Kanye West’s presidential bid, a flick through today’s papers and a special interview with General Philip Breedlove, NATO’s former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and General Sir Richard Shirreff, NATO’s former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

Analysis & Opinion: Energy Crisis Politics, Crypto To Zero, U.S. Organized Crime

A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, Europe’s crisis of energy and geopolitics, how crypto goes to zero (10:19) and the consequences of America’s success against organised crime (16:32).

Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’

This week: as the exhibition Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia opens at the Kling & Bang gallery in Reykjavik, Ben Luke talks to Masha Alekhina, one of the founding members of Pussy Riot, and the artist Ragnar Kjartansson, one of the co-curators of the show.

As protests continue across Iran, Aimee Dawson, The Art Newspaper’s acting digital editor, speaks to Shirin Neshat, the artist whose work expressing solidarity with women in Iran was recently installed outside the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

And this episode’s Work of the Week is by the Puerto Rican artist Gabriella Torres-Ferrer. Their 2018 sculpture—called Untitled (Value Your American Lie)—is part of a major new show at the Whitney Museum in New York, exploring art in Puerto Rico in the five years since the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia, Kling & Bang, Reykjavik, until 15 January 2023. Pussy Riot: Riot Days, National Theatre of Iceland, Reykjavik, 25 November. Proceeds from the concert and the exhibition go to supporting Ukraine. You can hear an in-depth interview with Ragnar Kjartansson from 2020 on our sister podcast A brush with… on the usual podcast platforms.No existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, until 23 Apr 2023. 

News: Slovakia Hosts V4 Summit, Somalia ‘Anti-al-Qaeda’ TV, Taiwan Votes

Slovakia hosts the Visegrád Group’s V4 summit, Somalia launches a TV channel aimed at countering al-Shabaab propaganda and Taiwan heads to the polls in local elections.

Plus: today’s papers and Andrew Mueller’s irreverent round-up of the week’s news.

News: Russia Strikes More Ukraine Utilities, Moscow Declared Terrorist State

Russia’s latest strikes in Kyiv cause more power cuts, as the European Parliament votes to declare Moscow a state sponsor of terrorism. Turkey threatens to launch a land operation against Kurdish militants in Syria and the European Space Agency wants to send more people to the moon.

Missile attacks on Ukraine’s battered power grid are an “obvious crime against humanity,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the UN Security Council. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday to take action to stop Russian airstrikes targeting vital infrastructure that have once again plunged Ukrainian cities into darkness and cold as winter sets in.

“Today is just one day, but we have received 70 missiles. That’s the Russian formula of terror,” Zelenskyy said via video link to the Council chamber in New York. He said hospitals, schools, transport infrastructure and residential areas had all been hit. “When we have the temperature below zero, and millions of people without energy supplies, without heating, without water, this is an obvious crime against humanity,” he told the meeting in New York. In his speech,

Zelenskyy called for the adoption of a UN resolution condemning energy terror. Ukraine is waiting to see “a very firm reaction” to Wednesday’s airstrikes from the world, he added. The Council is unlikely to take any action in response to the appeal since Russia is a member with veto power. However, Zelenskyy called for Russia to be denied a vote on any decision concerning its actions.

“We cannot be hostage to one international terrorist,” he said. “Russia is doing everything to make an energy generator a more powerful tool than the UN Charter.” Russia’s UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya responded by complaining that it was against Council rules for Zelenskyy to appear via video and rejected what he called “reckless threats and ultimatums” by Ukraine and its supporters in the West.