The World Unspun (New Internationalist)

For nearly half a century, the British police embedded agents within progressive political and protest movements; officers deceived activists into intimate relationships, sometimes fathering children, before vanishing from their lives forever. As the Undercover Policing Inquiry continues to unearth new abuses, New Internationalist co-editor Bethany Rielly speaks to two spycops campaigners about their search for justice.

In this episode we also hear evidence given to the ongoing Undercover Policing Inquiry by ex-undercover officer Andy Coles, who is accused of having an intimate relationship with an animal rights activist known as ‘Jessica’ when she was 19 years old. Coles publicly denied the claims in the Peterborough Telegraph after he was unmasked in 2017, dismissing them as ‘lurid’. Despite this, in 2020, the Metropolitan Police upheld a complaint by Jessica, after launching an internal investigation which found ‘credible evidence’ about the alleged relationship. It said Coles would have faced a disciplinary hearing on a charge of gross misconduct if he had not already retired from the Metropolitan Police in 2013. On 18 and 19 December 2024, the ex-officer again refuted the allegations in oral evidence to the inquiry. Other female activists have also accused Coles of making sexual advances on them, which he also denied.

Read NI546: Spying on dissent

Hosts: Maxine Betteridge-Moes & Bethany Rielly

Credits: Paula Lacey (Editorial Assistant), Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design)

Credit for audio clips of hearings: The Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI)

Guests: Tom Fowler, Jessica

The cop who spied on grief (Bethany Rielly, New Internationalist)

Why Spycops victims walked out from the police inquiry (Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance, New Internationalist)

Spycops Info (Undercover policing podcast hosted by Tom Fowler)

2025 marks 50 years since Morocco invaded Western Sahara, forcibly displacing the Sahrawi people into neighbouring Algeria. Women’s rights and climate activist Najla Mohamed-Lamin joins us from the Sahrawi refugee camps to talk about the multigenerational impact of 50 years of forced exile, and the common struggles of Indigenous peoples around the world.

Read NI554: Treaty / NI545: Decolonize now / NI540: Take back the land

Host: Maxine Betteridge-Moes

Credits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer, Digital Editor), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-Editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial Assistant), Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design)

Guest: Najla Mohammed-Lamine

Further reading from this episode:

With all eyes on Gaza, Morocco strengthens its hold on Western Sahara (Maxine Betteridge-Moes, New Internationalist)

Love Locked Up (Maxine Betteridge-Moes, New Internationalist)

Spotlight: Aziza Brahim (Graeme Green, New Internationalist)

A new dawn? Western Sahara and the Arab Spring (Jeremy Corbyn & Stefan Simanowitz, New Internationalist)

War and Peace in Western Sahara (New Internationalist Issue #297) Subscribe to read in our digital archive.

How Sahrawis See the Western Sahara Conflict (Najla Mohamed-Lamin, The National Interest)

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The West may be losing control over the world’s resources but it still dominates weapons systems and information. Vijay Prashad explains why some world leaders are effectively arms dealers and how this influences diplomacy.

Read NI553: The Arms Trade

Host: Maxine Betteridge-Moes

Credits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer, Digital Editor), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-Editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial Assistant), Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design), Thomas Barlow, Impress (Media Consultant)

Guest: Vijay Prashad

Further Reading from this Episode:

How to dismantle the deadly arms trade (Amy Hall, New Internationalist)

Guns or Diplomacy? An interview with Vijay Prashad (Amy Hall, New Internationalist)

Genocide in Gaza: Western Moral Collapse in the Age of Hyper-Imperialism (Palestine Deep Dive interview with Vijay Prashad)

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For this week’s #TheWorldUnspun, we met with Samar Alkhdour, a Palestinian activist in Montreal whose campaign against the obstructive and discriminatory Canadian immigration system has been met with nothing but police repression and silence from the government.

#NI554 Palestine: From Occupation to Uprising

#NI546 Surveillance: Spying on Dissent

Host: Paula Lacey

Credits: Paula Lacey (Producer, Editorial Assistant), Maxine Betteridge-Moes, Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-Editors), Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design), Thomas Barlow, Impress (Media Consultant)

Guest: Samar Alkhdour

Further reading:

How one Gazan mother’s tragedy has fuelled a sit-in action by Nelly Bassily (Disability Visibility Project)

Long waits for Canadian visas leave Gazans in limbo by Anna Mehler Paperny (Reuters)

Joint letter: Urgent changes needed to Canada’s Temporary Residence Visa Program for Gazans Amnesty International Canada

Intended to Fail: Systemic Anti-Palestinian Racism and Canada’s Gaza Temporary Resident Visa Program by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East

Coalition for No Over Policing Palestine/Police Pas la Palestine

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Haiti, the land of the only successful slave uprising in history, was also an experiment in neocolonialism. As the country once again makes global news headlines for all the wrong reasons, we spoke to independent journalist Harold Isaac to better understand how Haiti's complex history of colonization, slavery and its crippling ‘independence debt’ to France contributed to the crisis we’re seeing play out on our screens today.

Host: Maxine Betteridge-Moes

Credits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial assistant), Samuel Raffnell-Williams (Sound design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design), Thomas Barlow, Impress (Media consultant)

Guest: Harold Isaac (@haroldisaac)

Further reading from this episode:

Held to ransom: Haiti's cycle of violence (Harold Isaac in New Internationalist)

Country Profile: Haiti (New Internationalist)

Haiti's Lost Billions (Lazaro Gamio etl a. in The New York Times)

#NI554 Debt: Which way out?

#NI545 Decolonize Now

For up-to-date and accurate reporting on the unfolding crisis in Haiti, Harold recommends following Jacqueline Charles (@jacquiecharles), Frantz Duval (@frantzduval) and Radio RFM (@maradiofm)

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Subscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print or digital subscription.

In the years since Syria’s civil war began in 2011, the country has been slowly drifting away from the mainstream media spotlight. But on 8 December, everything changed.

Turkish-backed opposition forces declared Syria liberated from the 24-year rule of President Bashar al-Assad, capturing the capital Damascus in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

So what does the future hold for religious and ethnic minorities in Syria? Will the Kurds realize their dream of self-governance under the defacto HTS authority? What remains of the country's political opposition and labour movements, and how can the international community support a fair and equal redistribution of power for Syrians?

Matt Broomfield and Leila Al-Shami provide some answers.

Guests: Leila Al-Shami and Matt Broomfield

Host: Maxine Betteridge-Moes

Credits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial assistant), Samuel Raffnell-Williams (Theme music), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design)

Further reading:

The war isn't over (Matt Broomfield, in our forthcoming March/April 2025 issue - subscribe here)

Where to now for Syria’s women? (Zaina Erhaim in New Internationalist)

Riad al-Turk’s Lifelong Struggle for a Free and Democratic Syria (Leila Al-Shami in New Internationalist)

Read NI 526 The Kurds: Betrayed again (New Internationalist, 2020)

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Fascism is a popular term in political discourse today. For the Turkish journalist and writer Ece Temelkuran, that’s a good thing — except that it comes too late. So how can we recognize a country's descent from democracy into fascism and what does resistance look like?

Host: Maxine Betteridge-Moes

Credits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial assistant), Samuel Raffnell-Williams (Sound design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design), Thomas Barlow, Impress (Media consultant)

Guest: Ece Temelkuran

Further reading from this episode:

#NI551 Political Parties

How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Fascism by Ece Temelkuran

Together: A Manifesto Against the Heartless World by Ece Temelkuran

Women who Blow on Knots by Ece Temelkuran (or if you’re in London, go see the stage production at the Arcola Theatre)

Independents’ Day (Conrad Landin in New Internationalist)

Radicalism Jettisoned (Coll McCail in New Internationalist)

How do we continue building international solidarity for Palestine?

#NI552 Disinformation

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Following the defeat of a 2023 referendum on an Indigenous advisory body to Australia's parliament, our latest issue scrutinizes the ongoing denial of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sovereignty. In this episode, guest editor Zoe Holman talks about how she commissioned this Big Story and interviews Senator and Indigenous activist Lidia Thorpe about today's rallying call for Treaty.

Help Rewire the World. Fund journalism that sparks change. Donate today at https://a.nin.tl/2B

Read NI554: Indigenous Sovereignty in Australia

Hosts: Maxine Betteridge-Moes, Zoe Holman

Credits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer, Digital Editor), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-Editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial Assistant), Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design)

Guest: Zoe Holman, Senator Lidia Thorpe

Further Reading from this Episode:

This is not your land (Zoe Holman, New Internationalist)

Truth-telling in the Stolen Country (Zoe Holman, New Internationalist)

Rise from this grave (Tony Birch, Overland)

The last path forward to Treaty (Daniel James, 7am podcast)

Subscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print and/or digital subscription.

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There's a lot of money to be made in the internet. People with good intentions and bad intentions are being driven by profit. So how does this shape our information ecosystem and where does the scope for action lie?

Read #NI552: Disinformation

Host: Maxine Betteridge-Moes

Credits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial assistant), Samuel Raffnell-Williams (Sound design), Thomas Barlow, Impress (Media consultant)

Guest: Nanjala Nyabola

Further reading from this episode:

Strange and Difficult Times: Notes on a Global Pandemic by Nanjala Nyabola

Entering the Matrix of Misinformation

Red Letter Day (Conrad Landin in New Internationalist. Subscribe to read)

The Philippines Disinformation Machine (Don Kevin Hapal in New Internationalist. Subscribe to read)

Fact-checkers to the rescue? (Samira Sawlani in New Internationalist. Subscribe to read)

How Kiswahili tech terms are pushing for digital rights in East Africa (Maxine Betteridge-Moes in Quartz Africa)

No billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media.

Subscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print or digital subscription.