Thomas Heatherwick’s designs have become icons in his home city of London, including the eye-catching cauldron at the 2012 Olympic Games and the reimagined Routemaster bus. The British designer's projects have popped up around the world — and not without controversy. In this week’s edition of Power Play, host Anne McElvoy talks to Heatherwick about his mission to change the way our cities and urban areas are built. His new book "Humanise" implores mayors and town planners around the world to...

Israel’s most senior diplomat – Michael Herzog, the ambassador to the U.S. – is in the eye of a diplomatic storm in the country that is Israel’s most vital ally. He insists that a ceasefire "would invite the next war." In this week's edition of Power Play, host Anne McElvoy talks to Ambassador Herzog about Israel's raid on Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital, how long the conflict is likely to last and the U.S.'s discussions with Israel on what happens after the war. Anne is then joined by POLITICO’s...

One month after war broke out between Israel and Hamas, the solidarity of European leaders is being tested. Nowhere more so than in Greece, on the EU's southern border, which has traditional ties to Israel and Arab states. On this week’s edition of Power Play, host Anne McElvoy speaks to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on his concerns about the war in the Middle East, Greece's proximity to the region, and the prospect of increasing humanitarian aid via a sea corridor. They also...

Over 100 leading figures from the biggest tech companies and governments across the globe have assembled for Britain’s two-day AI Safety summit. The UK hopes the event will galvanize power players into agreeing common aims to regulate the growth of artificial intelligence. In this early edition of Power Play, host Anne McElvoy talks to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak about the risks and opportunities posed by AI, as well as other pressing global issues. Anne is then joined by POLITICO’s...

As the Middle East crisis deepens, how should the West react to a growing sense of unease about the world order? On this week's edition of Power Play, host Anne McElvoy speaks to Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Europe's leading digital publisher, Axel Springer (POLITICO's parent company). His new book, "Trade Trap," calls for a new approach to free trade between democracies. He believes we are experiencing a "war of systems, and it is truly a battle between democracies and autocracies." Anne is also...

The carnage on the streets of Gaza and mounting tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbours presented a bleak and chaotic backdrop for President Biden’s impromptu visit to Tel Aviv. Is this a conflict on the brink of exploding across the region?  In this week’s episode of Power Play, host Anne McElvoy talks to David Petraeus, the former director of the CIA and four-star general who led coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has co-authored a new book, "Conflict: The Evolution of...

The horrific events unfolding in Israel have sent shockwaves around the world. As the death toll mounts from Hamas' deadly attacks and Israel's retaliatory strikes on Gaza, how will the ensuing conflict alter the power balance of the Middle East and its alliances? In this week’s episode of Power Play, host Anne McElvoy talks to Ron Prosor, Israel's ambassador to Germany. Prosor has also served as the Israeli Ambassador to the UK and Permanent Representative to the UN. She also talks to Fleur...

The crisis in the U.S. House of Representatives is resonating far beyond Washington, not least in Ukraine, where the durability of America's commitment to the war effort has been thrown into doubt after future funding was omitted from its recent stopgap funding deal. Can Ukraine and its allies in Europe go it alone without agreement on further aid from Congress? And is America’s foreign policy shifting away from the days of spreading liberal democracy? In this week’s episode of Power Play,...

The exit of the most powerful player at News Corp has made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic. At 92, Rupert Murdoch has decided to step down as executive chairman, making way for his son Lachlan. But will much change, given Rupert Murdoch's reputation for being close to the action? In this week's episode of Power Play, host Anne McElvoy talks to Michael Wolff, long-time chronicler of the Murdoch empire and biographer. His latest book, "The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch...

In this inaugural episode of POLITICO's new global podcast Power Play, host Anne McElvoy talks to the man who hopes to be Britain's next prime minister, Keir Starmer. In a wide-ranging interview on global affairs, the Labour leader reveals his concerns about China. He warns that the U.K. needs to “wean itself off” China “when it comes to trade, commerce and technology.” Starmer also tells Anne what he thinks about Donald Trump, Joe Biden, the war in Ukraine and his vision for a "clean energy...

POLITICO's new weekly transatlantic podcast Power Play is officially coming to your podcast feed on Thursday, September 21! Hosted by renowned British journalist Anne McElvoy, Power Play takes listeners inside the minds of those who wield power to better understand the choices they face. The show features guests at the top of their fields in government, business, civil society and more — accompanied by the expert analysis of journalists across POLITICO's newsrooms globally, giving listeners...

In an exclusive interview for POLITICO's forthcoming podcast Power Play, Richard Moore, chief of the UK's Secret Intelligence Service — MI6 — speaks to Anne McElvoy about how the culture of agencies like MI6 is changing. Recorded in Prague, a city that shaped the outcome of the Cold War, Moore shares revealing insights into MI6's approach to Russia, China and other threats to the West. Britain's chief spy explains why he believes the West needs to commit to a battle for freedom and against...

In our penultimate episode from Davos, POLITICO Europe's Editor-in-Chief, Jamil Anderlini, sits down with Academy Award-winning film director Oliver Stone to discuss his new documentary, "Nuclear." In this live conversation recorded at the Blockchain Hub at WEF, Jamil and Oliver are joined by Joshua Goldstein, author of the book which inspired the film, "A Bright Future." The European Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, also explains to POLITICO's Jakob Hanke Vela why the EU...

We're back with another episode from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. POLITICO's Suzanne Lynch, Alex Ward and Jakob Hanke Vela reveal the on-the-ground EU-U.S. subsidy spat playing out here in Davos. We analyze European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's speech at the WEF, where she announced the EU's policy response to compete with Washington's subsidy spree. And Alex speaks to U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, who played an instrumental role in passing America's Inflation...

As the World Economic Forum gets underway, we dive into the stories everyone is talking about on the Magic Mountain. POLITICO's Jakob Hanke Vela sits down with PwC Global Chairman Bob Moritz to discuss the findings from their global CEO survey — most CEOs are more pessimistic than they've been in over a decade about the economic growth outlook in the next year. Host Suzanne Lynch discusses the future of the World Economic Forum with POLITICO's Ryan Heath. He has spoken to dozens of people...

From Davos, Switzerland, the POLITICO crew unpacks the big global issues facing businesses, governments and international organizations as top leaders gather for this year's World Economic Forum. Host Suzanne Lynch is joined by Ryan Heath, Erin Banco and Alex Ward to debate which issues are likely to dominate over the coming days — everything from recession concerns to climate and crypto. The veterans on our crew reveal their top tips for surviving the dizzying week atop the magic mountain,...

Last week at a New York Times event during the U.N. General Assembly, World Bank President David Malpass dodged questions about the science of climate change and said, "I don't even know — I'm not a scientist." On the heels of the controversial comments, POLITICO reporter and Global Insider author Ryan Heath interviewed Malpass to get his perspective on the comments. They also examined the World Bank's approach to funding projects to combat climate change and the challenges facing global...

A growing energy crisis, record greenhouse gas concentrations, and increasing extreme weather events, have been hot topics at this year's U.N. General Assembly. Climate action promised by countries worldwide has fallen far short of what's needed to meet the international goal to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. This week The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) held its first meeting of the new Global Leadership Council, a coalition of global public and private...

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been a constant backdrop to the U.N. General Assembly this year. From influencing commodity prices to exacerbating already difficult U.N. Sustainable Development Goals to challenging the rules-based global order and effectiveness of multilateral organizations. Events this week catapulted the conflict back to the forefront as international leaders gathered. Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank, and Urmas Reinsalu, Estonia's foreign minister,...

Global Insider is on the ground at the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. If there is a single word that defines or encapsulates UNGA, it's partnerships. That's mostly good because it means collaborating to reach the scale that all advocates and activists here work towards. There's a radical opportunity to implement solutions at scale, but it's also a case-by-case basis to ensure a partnership works. To learn what it takes to scale local solutions and the need for optimism in the fight...

This week Global Insider is on the ground at the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. After decades of progress in reducing poverty and improving health outcomes, the world has started falling far behind in meeting the 17 U.N. sustainable development goals (SDGs) agreed to by all governments in 2015. And this year, Russia is the drama that colors everything that happens in the debates, donor conferences, and planning for how the U.N. meets its global goals. POLITICO's Ryan Health asked...

The free-wheeling globalization era is over: That makes life tough for Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the British Trade Secretary charged with selling her country’s “Global Britain” policy. Singapore’s Trade Minister Gan Kim Yong has to cope with the rise of his massive neighbor, China. Both are promoting export hubs battered from all sides as first Covid and now Russia’s invasion of Ukraine upend supply chains. Despite the World Trade Organization’s failure to conclude new global trade deals or speed...

The European Union has spent 60 years tearing down commercial and migration barriers between its member countries: and yet the flow of people and goods and services between California and Texas, is still much larger than between Germany and France. Rather than that being a sign of failure, this week’s guests — Matthias Matthijs and Craig Parsons — say the opposite is true. They argue the EU has removed regulatory barriers but failed to tear down cultural ones: leaving the continent with an...

Where on earth can you combine interests in arms trafficking, blood diamonds and expensive cars? Global Witness is one such place. The non-profit’s co-founder Patrick Alley — who’s made a career out of scrutinizing “very bad people” — shares timely lessons about what works and what doesn’t in exposing corruption, as the world puts Russian interests under the microscope.

POLITICO’s Ryan Heath joins Ivo Daalder, former US Ambassador to NATO and now President of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Carla Robbins (Council on Foreign Relations) and Elise Labott (Zivvy Media) for a panel discussion on the dangerous new phase of Russia’s Ukraine invasion, corporate Germany’s deep ties to Moscow, and NATO’s likely northern expansion