The Spectator Podcast: War Games

In this week’s episode, we talk about the escalating situation in Syria and ask, would counter strikes actually help? We also look into ‘drill’ music, a genre of rap popular with the London youth most vulnerable to gang activity. Last, we talk Spice Girls and Beyoncé – what is modern ‘girl power’?

President Trump is facing a major foreign policy test in the Middle East. Reports came in over the weekend of a brutal chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria. The most likely suspect is President Assad, or as Trump likes to call him, ‘Animal Assad’. But, Paul Wood asks in this week’s cover, how certain can we be that it really is Assad’s doing, and what good will Western retaliation do? Paul is the BBC World Affairs correspondent, and he is joined by James Forsyth, our Political Editor, who writes in this week’s magazine that Britain must not underestimate its global role.