The Fourcast

The boss of Nvidia, one of the world’s most valuable companies, has admitted to an affair. But this is no ordinary corporate scandal. The twist? The woman involved is suspected of being a Chinese spy. 
CEO Jensen Huang is now at the centre of an internal investigation of whether he has been the target of a “foreign intelligence effort” at Nvidia. The company, which is worth £3.5 trillion, sits at the heart of the global AI race. The biggest tech firms, think everyone from Amazon to Microsoft and Google to Meta, use Nvidia computer chips, making Nvidia strategically vital to America’s competition with China.
The tech giant’s stock plummeted by almost 8% when markets opened despite Nvidia denials that company secrets - or America’s national security - has been compromised. Meanwhile the Chinese government has also rebuffed the accusations calling them “baseless”.
So what’s really going on? What could a foreign intelligence operation hope to gain from a company like Nvidia? What information might be valuable to a spy? And what could this mean for the global balance of power in the AI race?
In this episode of The Fourcast, our Data Correspondent Ciaran Jenkins and Economics Editor Helia Ebrahimi are joined by Tahlia Peterson, a fellow in the Cyber and Tech team with RUSI to unpack the story and explain why an affair at one of the world’s biggest companies could have far reaching consequences far beyond Silicon Valley.

For weeks, France has been gripped by huge protests which have left the country in chaos and its government in a full blown crisis.
What started as student protests, have grown into nationwide demonstrations - and now strikes - in protest at the cost of living, pay and public services.
But the response from the government has been controversial, with many criticising what they see as heavy-handed tactics by police.
On this episode of the Fourcast, Alex Thomson is joined by Alice De Brito, the Vice President of the National Students’ Union of France, as well as Steve Erlanger, the chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe for the New York Times.
They discuss whether the chaos could pave the way for the far-right, if France can pay for the protesters’ demands and whether the unrest could spread around Europe.

Donald Trump promised to bring peace to the Middle East, but after months of war with Iran, American voters have delivered a stinging rebuke to the president in the midterm elections.

So what does that mean for America's role in the region? And after decades of wars and interventions, has the US done more harm than good?

On this episode of The Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined by the award-winning journalist and author Kim Ghattas. Her new book, The Best Kind of American: Murder, War, and America's Undoing in the Middle East, tells the story of an assassination in Beirut more than 40 years ago, and what it reveals about America's role in the region today.

The midterms have been a disaster for Donald Trump and the Republican party. The democrats have retaken the house and the senate with shock results across the country. So what does this all mean? Is America’s electorate going through another major realignment? And has this completely shattered Trump’s authority? 
On this episode of the Fourcast, Kiran Moodley was joined by Democrat strategist Joe Caiazzo and Henry Olsen, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Wafa Mustafa has spent years searching for her missing father, who was arrested in Syria in 2013. Before his disappearance, he gave her a chilling warning: if he was arrested again, she would have to flee the country or Bashar al-Assad’s forces would torture her.
In this episode of The Fourcast, Syrian filmmaker Waad al-Kateab and activist Wafa Mustafa join Krishnan Guru-Murthy to discuss their upcoming documentary, Maybe Tomorrow, about Wafa’s search for her father, and the thousands of families still waiting for answers about loved ones who disappeared in Assad’s Syria.