When President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, one of his first acts was to sign an executive order withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization. The administration's rupture with the WHO began in Trump’s first term, when relations deteriorated as the Covid-19 pandemic set in.

In this conversation with Mishal Husain, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reveals he remains in close contact with US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. despite that break. He also talks about the lessons learned from Covid and why the WHO is still waiting for answers from China as it seeks to understand the origins of the virus.

Beyond the politics of global health, Ghebreyesus opens up about his own childhood trauma and why the death of his brother in 1970 makes the fight against preventable disease personal for him.

02:51 - Being a child of war
06:25 - Working in conflict zones
08:07 - “War and disease are old friends”
09:34 - “Don’t forget the invisible enemy”
11:35 - How far away is the next pandemic?
12:48 - US withdrawal from the WHO
14:50 - Covid and China
16:50 - Personal attacks from the US
18:16 - The US flag has been returned
18.51 Argentina is leaving the WHO
21:22 - Was Covid a lab leak?
22:49 - Waiting for answers from China
26:46 - Vaccine skeptics
27:26 - Texting RFK Jr.
28:56 - “My brother died”
31:06 - “He could have survived”
33:46 - “Defunding mRNA research is the wrong decision”
34:20 - Will MAHA work?
37:27 - A message for President Trump
39:26 - “Viruses get advantage when we are divided”

Read this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

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“KPop Demon Hunters” is the brainchild of Korean-Canadian animator Maggie Kang. It’s Netflix’s biggest-ever film and follows Rumi, Mira and Zoey, members of the girl band Huntrix, as they battle to save the world from dark forces.

As you’ll hear, Kang grew up loving Korean pop music long before it was globally cool and forged a Hollywood career on films including “The Lego Ninjago Movie” and “Kung Fu Panda 3.” In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Kang explains how she had always hoped a story about Korea would one day come her way. But it never did, so she came up with her own.

Kang is in the middle of a life-changing moment. Her movie has already scored wins at the Golden Globes and the Grammys, and now all eyes are on the Oscars. The extraordinary thing is that no one expected “KPop Demon Hunters” to be such a smash hit. Husain asks Kang what it’s been like adjusting to all the attention, and of course whether there’s a sequel in the works.

03:06 - “A global phenomenon”
04:17 - The screaming fans
05:01 - The movie theater screenings
06:49 - Pitching “KPop Demon Hunters”
09:27 - Living between two cultures
12:04 - Growing up as an “outsider”
16:34 - Kang’s first animation book
17:16 - “I liked to draw”
18:21 - Recording the voiceover, over and over
20:11 - The story of “Golden”
21:39 - Rumi, Mira and Zoey in “Golden”
23:00 - Waiting for “the tingles”
25:25 - “We kinda worried it was a little cheesy”
27:27 - Helping the world find Korean culture
29:30 - Choosing the title for a “kooky” movie
34:20 - A message from Kang to the fans
34:48 - “There’s a sequel, surely?”
35:14 - Live action “KPop Demon Hunters”?
37:01 - “I’m still very grounded”
37:22 - Diving back into the sequel?
38:00 - “Wow! You are going to the Oscars!”

Read this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Visit https://www.bloomberg.com/mishal

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Feb. 19 arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the brother of King Charles, puts the British Royal Family into uncharted territory. The former Prince Andrew was detained on suspicion of misconduct in public office after further details emerged of his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

For this bonus episode, Mishal Husain speaks to Allegra Stratton, a contributing editor to Bloomberg who previously worked for Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

She’s also joined by Harry Wilson, a reporter on Bloomberg UK’s finance team who’s been involved in reporting on Epstein’s emails and has previously broken stories about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

They discuss Andrew’s business links and the significance of today’s events for the monarchy and the UK.

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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This winter has been exceptionally brutal in Ukraine. Already the coldest in more than a decade, it’s been made worse by Russian attacks on energy infrastructure that have left millions with no heating and intermittent power.

As Russia’s war approaches its fourth anniversary, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is under intense pressure from Donald Trump to hold elections and accept a peace deal within months. But inside Ukraine and among its allies, there remains deep skepticism that Vladimir Putin is truly interested in a durable peace.

Celebrated writer Andrey Kurkov has lived the reality of the wartime winter in his home city of Kyiv. Best known for his 1996 novel “Death and the Penguin,” set in post-Soviet Ukraine, Kurkov also has written extensively about the current war, publishing three volumes of diaries alongside his fiction. While he’s been determined to remain in Ukraine throughout the conflict, he says the present conditions have been too much to bear. In this conversation with Mishal Husain, he talks about his hopes for peace and how he plans to return to Kyiv in the spring.

02:54 Situation in Kyiv: “Winter allied with Russia”
04:53 Four years since full-scale invasion
07:12 Ukraine is “fragmented”
09:12 “Writing nonfiction is a duty”
12:03 “Nobody’s winning”
14:20 Kurkov’s relationship with Russia
17:47 How the war changed Kurkov and his country
20:19 Kurkov’s message to the Munich Security Conference
21:53 Capitulation “camouflaged” as a peace deal
24:15 Support for Zelenskiy in Ukraine
26:15 Corruption scandals: “I’m very angry”
2:49 “I hope the war will be over this year”
31:43 Observing the war as a diarist
33:14 Humor as a “psychological defense”
35:17 “We are part of Europe”

Watch this podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS

You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Illustration: Uli Knörzer for Bloomberg; Photo: Leonardo Cendamo for Getty

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In 2007 when he was UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband delivered an address to the Labour Party conference. He described a world with “fewer countries at war” and “more democracies than ever before.”

Two decades later, with that vision further from view, Miliband is head of the New York-based International Rescue Committee, one of the world’s largest aid agencies. Its “Emergency Watchlist” cites 20 urgent crises, from Haiti to Sudan and the Middle East to Myanmar. The group finds itself increasingly constrained by widening conflict and shrinking government aid.

The IRC role, however, gave Miliband new purpose after his bid to lead Labour ended in dramatic and personal fashion when in 2010 he lost to his own brother. Now he sees his old friends and rivals back in power, forced to make decisions he finds painful.

In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Miliband discusses the current state of politics in the UK, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s leadership. He talks about Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” and his old boss, former Prime Minister Tony Blair. They also discuss Miliband’s family heritage.

02:30 - His refugee parents and link to work at IRC
08:09 - Growing up, democracy “seemed like the norm”
08:59 - 2007 speech at Labour Party Conference
10:54 - Mark Carney’s 2026 speech at Davos
12:49 - “America will no longer be Atlas”
13:49 - “More autocracies than democracies in the world today”
14:26 - “A revolution in America’s role in the world”
15:42 - IRC work on the US-Mexico border
17:55 - IRC’s 2026 Emergency Watchlist: Sudan and the Occupied Palestinian Territory
18:36 - “Remediation of desperate suffering is our business”
19:06 - “If you talk to the people you have hope.”
23:31 - Jared Kushner’s plans for Gaza
26:21 - Tony Blair and the Board of Peace
32:12 - Cuts to foreign aid
34:55 - “Challenging period” for UK Labour, Starmer
36:06 - Threats from Reform and Andy Burnham
39:07 - What next for Miliband?
40:28 - Relationship with Hilary Clinton

Watch this podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS

You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Illustration: Uli Knörzer for Bloomberg; Source Photo: Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg

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The killing of two US citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis has made January a dark month for many across America. Both Alex Pretti and Renee Good were quickly labeled “domestic terrorists" by the Trump administration, which accused them of endangering the lives of law enforcement. Video evidence soon appeared to contradict government claims, but it’s still a label that filmmaker Laura Poitras says she finds chilling.

Poitras has been producing and directing documentaries for more than 20 years, winning both an Oscar and a Pulitzer Prize for her 2014 work “Citizenfour,” which focussed on the whistleblower Edward Snowden and mass surveillance. She too has her own experience of being regarded as a threat by the US government and says she was on a terrorist watch list for years.

Her latest film, which this week was nominated for a BAFTA, profiles renowned US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. “Cover-Up,” on Netflix, traces Hersh’s life from his early days in Chicago through his scoops of the 1960s to his current journalism on Substack.

It’s a story of media both past and present. In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Poitras also reflects on the role of citizen journalism in documenting government violence in places like Minneapolis.

02:53 - “Legendary investigative journalist” Seymour Hersh
05:35 - Poitras and Hersh’s Iraq connection
06:40 - US public “failed by our legacy media”
09:06 - Cycles of impunity
09:50 - Criticism of Hersh’s journalism
11:30 - Hersh quits the film
15:00 - Hersh’s early life
16:19 - Poitras’ lens on America
17:40 - Parallels between Iraq and Venezuela
19:30 - “Regime change” in Venezuela
20:20 - Poitras under surveillance
23:00 - Leaving the US
24:40 - Edward Snowden and NSA secrets
28:15 - “I’m very happy he’s not in a US prison”
32:00 - “Cover-Up” and the present day
33:33 - “Whistleblowers face the consequences”
35:00 - “Citizen journalists”
37:00 - Mishal speaks to Poitras for a second time
38:00 - Alex Pretti and the violence in Minneapolis
39:30 - “Domestic terrorist”
40:17 - “Journalists have an obligation”
40:50 - A tipping point for ICE?

Watch this podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS

You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rutger Bregman knows what appearing at Davos can do for your profile. His reputation was made when he went there in 2019 and attacked the rich. The clip went viral.

A historian and author originally from the Netherlands, Bregman has been focused on elites ever since, most recently in his book Moral Ambition, and in a series of lectures on the BBC, after which he accused the organization of censoring his views on Donald Trump.

In this conversation with Mishal Husain, we hear more about his worldview, which is more nuanced than some might expect. He discusses how he is impressed by entrepreneurs, favors action over commentary and is putting his book profits toward building a community that furthers his beliefs.

00:00 - Introducing Rutger Bregman
02:30 - The rise of AI
07:53 - Wasted talent
09:22 - I want to pull my hair out
10:05 - European leadership
11:14 - Europe is weak
12:25 - Ideals are worth little without power
13:45 - Building a movement
17:40 - Mamdani and populism
21:00 - The God shaped hole
25:12 - Elon Musk the entrepreneur
26:08 - The BBC and Trump
30:49 - A new form of feudalism
33:56 - Small groups can change the world
35:14 - The best place to think

Watch this podcast here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS

You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What is Donald Trump’s plan for Venezuela? Does he have one? Will he go beyond threats in supporting the uprising in Iran or invading Greenland?

Jeanne Shaheen has been in the US Senate since 2009 and is now the most senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. Her position has given her access to information most lawmakers don’t have. She’s also known as someone prepared to work with Republicans. Indeed, she was one of the eight Democrats who joined the GOP to end last year’s government shutdown over healthcare subsidies that have since been allowed to expire.

In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Shaheen talks about how she’s hoping to reassure traditional American allies shaken by Trump’s attacks and threats as part of a Congressional delegation to Denmark this week. Closer to home, she discusses healthcare, the cost of living and the future of the Democratic party ahead of the midterms.

02:38 - US operation in Venezuela
04:47 - Military action on Greenland?
06:00 - Has Trump already damaged NATO?
07:11 - Is Trump emboldened?
08:13 - Maduro replaced by another “repressive dictator”
12:20 - Trump and Iran
13:31 - Tariffs and China
15:21 - Bipartisanship in a polarized era
18:17 - “I share that frustration”
20:20 - The future of the Democratic party
24:00 - Disquiet amongst Republicans
24:55 - Healthcare and the shutdown
27:25 - Policy differences with her daughter
30:35 - Life after the Senate
31:55 - Optimism for the future?

Read this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend:
www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Visit https://www.bloomberg.com/mishal

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Illustration: Uli Knörzer for Bloomberg; Source Photo: Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Images

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