''Sputnik: Orbiting the world with George Galloway'' was a weekly television programme on
RT UK
RT UK, also known as Russia Today, was a free-to-air television news channel based in the United Kingdom. It was part of the RT network, a Russian state-controlled international television network funded by the federal tax budget of the Russia ...
presented by broadcaster
George Galloway
George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer who is currently leader of the Workers Party of Britain, serving since 2019. Between 1987 and 2010, and then between 2012 and 2015, Galloway was a Member o ...
and his wife Gayatri. It was produced by Global Media Services, a subsidiary of the American news agency
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...
. The series began its run on 16 November 2013, but was off-air because of the
2015 general election
This national electoral calendar for 2015 lists the national/Federation, federal elections held in 2015 in all List of sovereign states, sovereign states and their Dependent territory, dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though na ...
between 28 March 2015 (71) and 16 May 2015 (72).
In March 2021 the show was co-hosted by James Giles for six weeks. The programme covered world affairs with expert guests in conversation with the programme's hosts. It usually covered two separate stories; one in each half of the 30-minute slot.
Following the beginning of the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine,
Ofcom
The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom.
Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
revoked RT's UK broadcasting licence "with immediate effect" on 18 March 2022 after concluding the outlet was not "fit and proper" or a "responsible broadcaster"; thus, Galloway's program came to an end.
Notable guests
*
Gilad Atzmon
Gilad Atzmon ( he, גלעד עצמון, ; born 9 June 1963) is a British jazz saxophonist, novelist, political activist, and writer.
As a musician, he is best known as a saxophonist and bandleader. His instruments include the saxophone, acco ...
, Israeli-born musician and political activist.
*
Vince Cable
Sir John Vincent Cable (born 9 May 1943) is a British politician who was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2017 to 2019. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Twickenham from 1997 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2019. He also served in the Cabinet a ...
, Liberal Democrat politician.
*
David Davis, British Conservative Party politician.
*
Nigel Farage
Nigel Paul Farage (; born 3 April 1964) is a British broadcaster and former politician who was Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2006 to 2009 and 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Brexit Party (renamed Reform UK in 2021) from 201 ...
, then leader of the
UK Independence Party
The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member ...
.
*
Rob Griffiths, General Secretary of the
Communist Party of Britain
The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and ...
.
*
Lee Jasper
Lee Jasper (born 4 November 1958) is a British politician and activist. He served as Senior Policy Advisor on Equalities to the then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone until he resigned on 4 March 2008. More recently, he stood as the Respect Party ...
, political activist.
*
Steve Keen
Steve Keen (born 28 March 1953) is an Australian economist and author. He considers himself a post-Keynesian, criticising neoclassical economics as inconsistent, unscientific and empirically unsupported. The major influences on Keen's thinking ...
, economist and author.
*
Seumas Milne
Seumas Patrick Charles Milne (born 5 September 1958)Winchester College: A Register. Edited by P.S.W.K. McClure and R.P. Stevens, on behalf of the Wardens and Fellows of Winchester College. 7th edition, 2014. pp. 582 (Short Half 1971 list heading) ...
, associate editor of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide ...
''.
*
Peter Oborne
Peter Alan Oborne (; born 11 July 1957) is a British journalist and broadcaster. He is the former chief political commentator of ''The Daily Telegraph'', from which he resigned in early 2015. He is author of ''The Rise of Political Lying'', ''Th ...
, British journalist and writer.
*
Jacob Rees-Mogg
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (born 24 May 1969) is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Somerset since 2010. Now a backbencher, he served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council ...
, Conservative MP.
*
Jill Stein
Jill Ellen Stein (born May 14, 1950) is an American physician, activist, and former political candidate. She was the Green Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 and 2016 elections and the Green-Rainbow Party's candid ...
, presidential candidate for the
Green Party of the United States
The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) is a federation of Green state political parties in the United States. The party promotes green politics, specifically environmentalism; nonviolence; social justice; participatory democracy, gras ...
.
*
Andy Worthington
Andy Worthington is a British historian, investigative journalist, and film director.
He has published three books, two on Stonehenge and one on the war on terror, been published in numerous publications and directed documentary films. Artic ...
, historian and investigative journalist.
*
Arron Banks
Arron Fraser Andrew Banks (born 1966) is a British businessman and political donor. He is the co-founder (with Richard Tice) of the Leave.EU campaign. Banks was previously one of the largest donors to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and helped ...
, businessman and
Leave.EU
Leave.EU was a political campaign group that was first established to support the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union in the June 2016 referendum. Founded in July 2015 as The Know, the campaign was relaunched in September of th ...
donor.
References
{{RT programs
George Galloway
RT (TV network) original programming
2013 British television series debuts