It’s been a while.

Since we last spoke there has been an election. There has been European Championships AND there has been an Olympic Games.

There have even been riots. Riots caused and fuelled by a myriad of complex social and political reasons. So complex, even, that we can’t completely rule out deep seated and widespread dissatisfaction with What’s Happening Now’s being on a summer break. (James’ note: We can).

So as we reach the end of August, we need to ask ‘What’s Happening Next?’.

Well, James is *still* recovering from his celebratory election night out (last we heard he was fifteen Diet Cokes deep, telling a man in a Westminster Wetherspoons that the future looked ‘PAF-tastic’) and Sam is reeling from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where he was genuinely heckled on his appearance on a ‘Star Trek vs Star Wars’ panel show for being too geeky. How dare they, you ask? We don’t know either.

But recovery, whether from sugar highs or ego lows, can’t go on forever. In this newsletter we look forward and give you a peak into what’s to come. Frst, let’s look back and fill you in on our long overdue insight on the events of July…

Election 2024 In-depth analysis

Hahahahahahahaha bye Liz.

WHN (Labour’s version)

You might have noticed we didn’t *love* the last government, but What’s Happening Now is for more than just pure politics.

The news and the government of the day take attention, but we’re here to figure out what’s the matter with what matters way beyond Westminster.

So, in September, we’ll be back for Series 3, with an eye on what the new leadership are doing and another on the wider world around us. Will that make us cross-eyed, or just cross? Time will tell.

But first… a Summer Special

When we say ‘summer’ you may think ‘isn’t it nearly Autumn?’.

Firstly, stop that. Secondly, for the sake of this newsletter, let’s embrace the last rays of summertime.

And that means sun, sea and… SPACE.

That’s right, for our summer special we are tackling the topic literally no-one is talking about. We’ve zoomed out from the usual day-to-day so far that the only thing to talk about is the biggest news in the galaxy.

That means we’ll soon be exploring the next stage of exploration - Space X’s Starship.

While the episode dives into what makes Starship significant, there has been other galaxy gossip in the news recently…

• What’s Boeing on here then? One small step for the company, one giant embarassment as two astronauts on an 8 day mission now look set for a space stay lasting 8 months.

• You can’t make an omelette (rocket) without breaking a few eggs (also rockets), as a recent explosion at a UK spaceport showed.

• FINALLY the UK military will get to find out what Earth looks like, as a first-of-its-kind imaging satellite was launched.

Things Can Only Get Better

As we head into our third series, we are aiming high. Higher even than a space summer special.

‘What’s higher than space?’ you may ask. A fair question. While, scientifically speaking, the answer is probably ‘more space’, for WHN it’s other things.

For us it means the best gosh darn series we’ve done yet. Big conversations, new features, fun guests… we might even get a jingle.

To do more, we’re growing the team and getting more guests than ever. We’ve spoken to winners of Emmys, Edinburgh awards, BAFTAs. Some even replied.

Our new and improved lineup will take on money, politics, net zero, nightlife, voting Conservative and more to ask the big question of… What’s Happening Now?

Series 3, coming soon.

Doubling down on your local town

Rubbish collection. Crime. How your elected representatives spend your money. Those bread things that people make chip sandwiches with and argue about on Facebook.

Where you live, and your connection to it, matters. This week at What’s Happening Now we step away from big national politics to big local… things? From buses to bins, news to Neo from the Matrix, we use two whole episodes to take quick tour across local issues.

What Else Is Happening?

We revealed how AI generated music is well and truly here, with James at the forefront of the revolution. Since discussing the new offering from Suno (www.suno.ai), have both he and Sam become addicted to making mash-ups and melodies? Perhaps. This is their first go which they dreamt up on the show.

Speaking of voices…

Ok, we weren’t speaking of voices, but you get it. On one of this week’s episodes, Sam spoke to actress and voice coach, Jessica Dennis. Fresh from a wildly successful run of the Merchant of Venice with the RSC, she’s now on WHN.

Why the US Election matters to Britain

In our last newsletter and podcast, we took a look at what was happening with the US election and why it might, should or could matter to us here in Britain. We were joined by former Obama strategist Karin Robinson and the whole episode can be found at the link below.

A few weeks on from that, our very own James O’Malley has a look at the state of play and what impact we might feel as it unfolds.

Is it really going to be Trump vs Biden again?

Yep, I’m afraid so. As of last month, both Donald Trump and Joe Biden officially secured the nomination of their respective parties to be their Presidential candidate in the election in November, following a series of mini intra-party “primary” elections in different states across the country.

While Biden was elected virtually unopposed (save for a handful of no-hopers), Trump did face what is known as a “primary challenge” from former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley– though in the end, Trump won almost every contest in which he faced her.

So it really does seem like we’re about to spend eight months watching the least wanted sequel since Space Jam: A New Legacy.

However, there is a small chance the race could suddenly become more exciting again.

For example, in recent weeks there has been a lot of debate amongst Democrats about whether Biden is too old to be President again, and whether his age might cause him to lose – as I guess there are some voters who would prefer an insane but slightly younger President to a broadly competent, if a little senile, older President.

Similarly, on the Republican side there is a chance that the many, many criminal trials Trump is facing might cause him legal problems before election day. Though it’s unlikely that most will be resolved by the time voters go to the polls, if he is convicted – or even jailed – you would think that might cause the parties to reconsider. Though who knows anymore?

In any case, the next key things to watch for are both party conventions in July and August. Though both are usually just formalities, crowning the candidate who has already won the primary election… If there are going to be any last minute changes of candidates, those are the places that any changes are going to be made.

Do we need to worry about Trump? The world survived last time around…

A second Trump term would likely be very different to the first time around – and by “different”, I mean “worse”.

Last time, Trump initially needed the help of, and tried to cooperate with, the traditional Republican establishment. This meant that you had functioning adults, like a former congressman called Reince Priebus, installed as Trump’s Chief of Staff. Sure, the ‘establishment’ Republicans were still the sorts of people who like to cut taxes and reduce social security payments and so on – but at least they could be trusted to stop Trump pressing the nuclear button just because he’s bored.

And that’s what makes the prospect of more Trump a bit scary. As next time around, he won’t even have these guardrails. It’ll be all of the real crazies, all of the time. Not to mention this time he’s going to be entering office even more bitter and angry. So at a minimum we can expect him to staff his government with the nuttiest of nutters – and abuse the powers of his office to go after his political opponents.

How would Trump winning affect Britain directly?

There’s an old saying that when America sneezes, the world catches a cold – and this remains true. When bad things happen in America, they tend to impact the rest of us.

Here in Britain, the two biggest areas of concern are on defence and the economy.

On defence, much like in his first term Trump is incredibly hostile towards NATO. Crucially, the worry is that he wouldn’t back Article 5 – the agreement that says if one member is attacked, we are all attacked. It’s a crucial part of what keeps all of Europe safe, as together we’re a big enough threat to stop Putin doing anything silly.

But a promise is only as good as the word of whoever made it – and if there’s any sign America wouldn’t stand by, say, Estonia, if Putin were to send in the tanks, then it will become worthless and make us all less safe.

And as things currently stand, even if Trump backs NATO, it’s likely that if he’s President that Ukraine will fall to Putin anyway, as Trump is extremely hostile to the idea of providing President Zelenskyy with weapons to fight back against Russia.

I know what you’re thinking – cheery stuff!

But there are also less spicy things to worry about too. For example, one of Trump’s strangest policies is to put a 10% tariff on imports across the board. That means if Americans buy anything from outside the country, they will have to pay more – which if implemented will presumably mean American consumers buy less stuff from Britain and Europe.

And given how deeply entwined our economies are – it seems impossible that if he goes through with it, that we won’t feel the negative economic effects too.

How do the current polls look and are they likely to change?

This is the mad thing. You could be forgiven for thinking that Biden can expect to cruise to victory, but over the last few years he has bled support and his approval ratings have reached record lows. So if you look at most polls now, Trump is ahead.

However, polling is just a snapshot of a moment in time, and there is still a long way to go until November. So Democrats are hoping that the polls will slowly turn, as American voters realise that – yes, really – Trump is running for President again.

And similarly, though the polls are mostly neck and neck, there is still the unknown factor of Trump being on trial. This isn’t just unprecedented, it is un-Presidented – as no major Presidential candidate has ever been in his position before. So we don’t know what effect that will have on the race.

So it’s worth watching the race closely as at the moment, it could plausibly be either of them who wins. Let’s just hope Biden doesn’t have a fall or catch a cold between now and November.

Who was happening now?

This week, Sam was joined by the local expert in nearly everything, James O’Malley, and the three pioneering panellists Michael MacLeod, Kate Knowles and Ed Jennings. Their publications can be found below and, honestly, we’ve found you don’t need to live in their neighbourhoods to enjoy their work. The full conversation will feature in a bonus episode this week.

The Edinburgh Minute

Curation of Edinburgh life, news, culture and communities. Join 8,000+ locals on the mailing list to get a free 7am daily news roundup. Or help keep this going for a fiver a month. Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

By Michael MacLeod

Birmingham Dispatch

A new quality newspaper for Birmingham and the West Midlands, delivered by email. Get great local journalism in your inbox daily by joining our free list, or join us as a paying member.

By The Dispatch

Local Authority

Independent Medway news covering local news, politics, culture, and the weirder side of our towns.

By Medwayish

Also joining us this week were members of the WHN team, Ben Lovell and Emmy Fyles, as well as the comedian Stella Graham. You can find more about Stella on her website; www.stellagraham.com

Last, and by no means least, was the actress and accent coach, Jessica Dennis, who (appropriately) can be found at;

www.theaccentcoach.co.uk

‘Ageing’ is just another word for living.

Age doesn’t matter, unless you’re a cheese.

It’s important to have a twinkle in your wrinkle.

The internet is full of ‘inspirational’, and mildly unnerving, quotes about getting older and this week, What’s Happening Now jumped on board as we talked ageing.

As ever, we did some laps around the news garden to find out what’s been happening in and beyond the headlines, before getting the news on the olds and the importance of age in society, in the House of Lords and to each of us.

Listen now, we hope it puts a twinkle in your wrinkle. Whatever that means.

What’s Happening Now?

On the pod, we picked out the stories that grabbed us this week, whether interesting, fun, vaguely unnerving or worthy of more attention:

• The new face of pacing pensioners.

• Forget the Black Country, it’s time for the Blackout Country as we heard that Birmingham is broke.

• They turn up everywhere! Nuclear weapons in space and in the sea.

It would be a crime… to miss this episode

Don’t miss last weeks episode, as secrets got out with Sam and James reliving their own criminal experiences, finding out about the latest TFL crime fighting and hearing from both sides of the law, as we spoke to investigative journalist Tir Dhondy and former police officer, Paul Hogarth.

Beyond the podcast, we spoke to Tir even more about her latest BBC documentary, Hunting the Rolex Rippers.

Off topic

Sam started the show musing on the rest of the week, including Zendaya’s eye-catching red carpet look. Last year’s actors strike, raising concerns about AI, seems a long time ago…

Who was happening now?

Sam was joined by his old friend, James O’Malley, who you can find more from on his own regular Substack.

Odds and Ends of History

Why that thing you retweeted is probably wrong.

By James O'Malley

The comedian Lewis Hedges alsp joined us to talk the news, the prospect of getting older and, frankly, to sit there and defend Birmingham. Lewis is on Instagram at @ledges96.

We know, we’re sorry. It’s been too long.

Series 1 may seem like a vaguely distant memory but we were never going to leave you for long. With Christmas, New Year and a full series of The Traitors out of the way, What’s Happening Now is back and is happening again.

But what is What’s Happening Now? Good question, we’re glad you asked. And vaguely surprised you’re signed up to our newsletter already.

WHN is a podcast, newsletter and, in the not too distant future, even more wild and adventurous content bringing together journalists and comedians to find out what’s the matter with what matters in, under and beyond the headlines.

For the first podcast episode of 2024, we asked the question that we’re sure has been troubling you as much as it’s been troubling us. With the help of comedian Belle Emilie Gold and UCL’s Professor of Materials and Society Mark Miodownik we found out what’s happening now… with air travel.

What’s Happening Now?

On the pod, we picked out the stories that grabbed us this week, whether interesting, funny, vaguely unnerving or worthy of more attention:

• The running dope and the enhanced games.

  

• Slow musical news. One for the kids?

• A confident, conservative rebrand. Another angle on that from Peter Geoghegan below.

  Democracy for Sale

  Liz Truss’s ‘PopCons’: dark money in plain sight

  I bumped into a friend in a local coffee shop the other day. He told me he’d been enjoying this newsletter. He also had some questions. How did I find stories? And how did I choose the ‘style’ to report them in? The first question is simple (and complicated!) The stories on Democracy for Sale…

  Read more

  2 years ago · 41 likes · 2 comments · Peter Geoghegan

Mark his words

Sam and James sat down with Mark Miodownik, author and Professor of Materials and Society at UCL, to talk the safety of air travel, whether Sam should hate his holiday and how James’ one rebellious vice could actually be bad for him.

Giving it air time

Remember the first time we all got obsessed with planes? It was bound to happen again. So if this week’s episode has got you in the mood for more, here is our selection of the most interesting air-travel-specific content out there this week.

• Sky News visited a private jet conference and met a man with a worrying medical condition. Steve Varsano, the founder of The Jet Business, is “allergic to the word luxury”, apparently. We aren’t medical professionals but he might need to change jobs.

• Super Bowl? Super busy local airports, more like. The number of private jets arriving to watch the Chiefs play the 49ers, or to see Taylor Swift watch that, is overwhelming the city. If only the New York Jets had made it this far - then we really would have had a story for you.

• Talking of Taylor Swift, because that’s what we all do nowadays, it seems her legal quest to stop her jet being tracked is continuing, even if one of those has been sold. Taylor isn’t the first person to take issue with the approach, after Elon Musk previously objected to the work of Jack Sweeney, who tracks the flights of high profile public figures. While complaints focus on invasion of privacy and endangering safety, Sweeney maintains he shares publicly available data in an effort to aid transparency.

• Remember, Mark Miodownik told us about how so many of the world’s flights are concentrated in a small group of users, so the ‘transparency’ conversation might be worth having. Especially in the context of the latest climate news.

We usually prefer to quote different sources for our stories, but this week we hope you’ll understand that Sky News was the only appropriate choice.

Who was happening now?

Sam was joined by his co-pilot, James O’Malley, who you can find more from on his own regular substack.

Odds and Ends of History

Why that thing you retweeted is probably wrong.

By James O'Malley

The WHN regulars were joined by the actress and comedian Belle Emilie Gold who you can find on Instagram here.

The engineer, scientist, author and very helpful man Mark Miodownik, UCL’s Professor of Materials and Society no less, took on the job of educating, inspiring and only slightly worrying us.