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This is a global player original podcast. Today we discovered that we have a 20-year-old

Romanian student in the Netherlands who listens to us every day. Wow. His name is Tudor,

and this is what he wrote in to ask us. I love listening to the us every day. Wow. His name is Tudor, and this is what he wrote in to ask us.

I love listening to the show every day, and for the episode on Friday,

I wanted to ask, how do you see the world and democracies in particular,

getting out the situation we find ourselves in?

Only in the past few years we've had the rise of populism in Western democracies, Putin feeling secure enough to invade Ukraine, Xi Jinping threatening to invade Taiwan, adding climate change.

I think you can see why so many young people, such as myself, who keep up with world affairs, are very worried with what is to come, especially since we are the ones who'll have to fix it.

I haven't lost hope, but I believe

things will get much worse before they get any better. Also, if Donald Trump wins next year,

what beverage do you recommend I anesthetize myself with? Something very, very, very, very strong.

He goes on, I love the work that you do, and I wish you all the best.

Tudor, thank you so much.

That's from Tudor Tanesescu in the Netherlands.

You've given us a lot there, and we're going to get stuck in straight away.

Welcome to the newsagents, Q&A's special.

The Newsagents.

It's John.

It's Emily.

And Lewis is somewhere far away on his honeymoon.

Now, Lewis has spent a career as a broadcast journalist.

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