Ukraine's spring offensive has begun. But what can it realistically achieve? What can be done to prevent this becoming a 'forever war'? And in the meantime, how has this regional conflict impacted on global politics. Are we seeing a changed international order, with the rise of China and a new role for Africa and the Global South? David Aaronovitch and guests discuss the long game for Ukraine and its western allies. Guests: Michael Clarke, Professor of Defence studies and Specialist Advisor to t...
Jun 22, 2023•29 min
The Online Safety Bill is a new set of internet laws to protect children and adults. It will place more responsibility on the technology giants to monitor content. Will it succeed? David Aaronovitch talks to: Joshua Rozenberg, legal commentator and presenter of Radio 4’s Law In Action programme Lorna Woods, Professor of Internet Law at the University of Essex Victoria Nash is the Director, an Associate Professor, and Senior Policy Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute Gina Neff is the Executiv...
May 11, 2023•29 min
Recent movements by Ukraine and Russia's military forces suggest that the long awaited spring offensive could start any day. David Aaronovitch and guests discuss the implications. Guests: Michael Clarke, Professor of Defence studies and Specialist Advisor to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy Vitaly Shevchenko, Russia editor at BBC Monitoring Tomila Lankina, Professor of politics and international relations at LSE Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, Director of the US and the Americas progra...
May 04, 2023•28 min
David Aaronovitch and guests discuss the latest events in Sudan. Fighting has been commonplace ever since Sudan gained independence but what's behind the latest violence? Guests: James Copnall - currently presenting Newsday on the BBC World Service and formerly the BBC's Sudan correspondent Mohanad Hashim - Sudanese journalist working on Newshour on the BBC World Service Dame Rosalind Marsden, associate fellow at the Chatham House International Affairs and former UK ambassador to Sudan Professor...
Apr 27, 2023•29 min
Rishi Sunak says the UK has an 'anti maths mindset' and that low levels of numeracy are damaging the economy. Will studying maths until the age of 18 solve the problem? David Aaronovitch talks to: Branwen Jeffreys, the BBC's Education Editor Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies Emma Lark, Associate Dean Ambition Institute leading the Master's in Expert Teaching Rob Eastaway, author and director of Maths Inspiration ...
Apr 20, 2023•30 min
Artificial intelligence is going to change all our lives. There are seemingly limitless opportunities. But as computers get ever more powerful how much cautious do we need to be? David Aaronovitch talks to: Professor Michael Wooldridge, Director of Foundational AI at The Alan Turing Institute Nina Schick, author, entrepreneur and advisor specialising in Generative AI Dr Anders Sandberg, a Senior Research Fellow at The Future of Humanity Institute Produced by: Kirsteen Knight, Isobel Gough and Be...
Apr 13, 2023•30 min
David Aaronovitch and guests discuss Donald Trump's appearance in a New York court this week, his other looming legal cases and what all this means for him politically. Guests:: Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America correspondent Renato Mariotti, legal affairs columnist for POLITICO magazine, a former federal prosecutor and host of the It’s Complicated podcast Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, Director of the US and the Americas programme at Chatham House Dr Mitchell Robertson, associate lecturer in US History ...
Apr 06, 2023•30 min
David Aaronovitch and guests take a deep dive into the Windsor Framework. The original protocol was deemed unworkable but does this new deal solve Northern Ireland's trading arrangements? Guests: Peter Foster, FT’s public policy editor & editor of the newsletter “Britain After Brexit” Anand Menon, director at UK in a Changing Europe Sam McBride, Northern Ireland Editor of the Belfast Telegraph & Sunday Independent Jill Rutter, Senior Fellow at the Institute For Government Produced by: Ki...
Mar 02, 2023•29 min
The Briefing Room's David Aaronovitch is joined by a team of experts to find out more about the Wagner group, the mysterious private organisation, that's acknowledged by the Russian government to have been supplying soldiers to fight its war in Ukraine. Wagner's leader, Yevgheny Prigozhin, was once known as Vladimir Putin's 'chef'. Soldiers fighting for him won the battle for Soledar - one of few military successes for Russia in Ukraine in recent months. Has his prowess on the battlefield re-inv...
Feb 23, 2023•29 min
The WHO have described last week's Turkey-Syria earthquake as one of Europe's worst natural disasters in the last 100 years. David Aaronovitch finds out why it was so deadly. Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are: Stephen Hicks, Seismologist at University College London Professor Dina D’Ayala, Co-Director of the Earthquake and People Interaction Centre at UCL, and UNESCO Chair on Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Engineering. Firdevs Robinson, London-based journalist, broadcast...
Feb 16, 2023•29 min
Avian flu has devastated poultry farms and wild bird populations around the world and now it's spread to mammals such as mink and seals. Cases in humans have been rare but worryingly fatal in more than half of the recorded incidences. How worried should we be about the risk of a new global pandemic? Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are: Wendy Barclay, Head of the Department of Infectious Disease and Chair in Influenza Virology at Imperial College London Dr Wendy Puryear, Molecular ...
Feb 09, 2023•30 min
The government wants hundreds of thousands of over 50s to return the workforce as Britain mounts an economic recovery. More than half million people in that age bracket have left work since 2019. Will the promise of a 'midlife MOT' encourage people to come back to work? And do employers want them? Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are: Torsten Bell, Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation Mike Crowhurst, Director at Public First Tony Wilson, Director Institute for Employment St...
Feb 02, 2023•29 min
The next round of rail strikes look set to compound long-running problems with Britain's railways. But the problems on the network go far beyond this spate of industrial action. David Aaronvitch asks the experts in The Briefing Room this week the reasons why our rail network has acquired such a reputation for unreliability, and what can be done to put it right. Contributors: Christian Wolmar Mark Smith Jennifer Williams Gareth Dennis Producers: Kirsteen Knight Ben Carter Daniel Gordon Production...
Jan 26, 2023•29 min
At the end of 2022, with winter approaching, there were warnings right across Europe of an impending energy crisis. There was talk of potential electricity blackouts. But today, in the depths of that same winter, why are energy storage facilities well topped up and prices of oil and gas falling instead? David Aaronovitch finds out from the experts with him in The Briefing Room this week. Contributors: Nathalie Thomas Javier Blas Kate Mulvany Sir Dieter Helm Producers: Kirsteen Knight Ben Carter ...
Jan 19, 2023•30 min
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised 'urgent action' to tackle the NHS crisis. The experts in The Briefing Room with David Aaronovitch this week consider what can be done to tackle problems such as: chronic staff shortages; the thousands of 'bed blockers' and the backlog of people waiting for surgical procedures. Contributors: Annabelle Collins, Senior Correspondent, Health Service Journal Nigel Edwards, Chief Executive, Nuffield Trust Jill Manthorpe, Professor of Social Work at King's Colleg...
Jan 12, 2023•30 min
David Aaronovitch and a panel of experts evaluate the current situation in Ukraine and explore how the war might evolve in the remaining winter months and into the Spring. Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are: Michael Clarke, Professor of Defence studies and Specialist Advisor to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King's College London Samantha de Bendern, Associate Fellow at the Royal Institute of Inter...
Jan 05, 2023•30 min
For years, the major problem of world demography was thought to be the risk of over-population. Now, it's the fact that the global population is ageing fast. According to the United Nations, the number of people over 65 is set to double between now and 2050, to 1.6 billion people. And, at the same time, the birth rate in most of the world is falling, often sharply. This demographic shift comes with huge social and economic implications. What are they, and what can we do to cope with them? Joinin...
Dec 29, 2022•30 min
The first mission in NASA’s Artemis space programme returned to Earth earlier this month, after a journey of over 1.3 million miles around the Moon and back. Over next few years NASA will launch Artemis missions two and three, with the help of the European and Japanese space agencies, as well as Elon Musk's Space X. The aim is eventually to build a permanent base for scientific - and possibly economic development - on the Moon. Meanwhile, China is pursuing a lunar exploration programme of its ow...
Dec 22, 2022•29 min
In the 1970s the UK was gripped by double-digit inflation driven by energy price shocks. Inflation was controlled by raising interest rates as a recession raged. And that prompted workers to demand higher wages. Sound familiar? This week and next will see rail workers, ambulance staff, nurses, bus drivers, baggage handlers, highway workers, Border Force, driving examiners and the Royal Mail all striking on various days. As things stand, the prospects of a resolution don’t look promising. So are ...
Dec 15, 2022•30 min
Earlier this week Sir Keir Starmer announced that Labour would abolish the House of Lords in its first term if he is elected prime minister. He’d replace it with a new, elected second chamber. Some Tories were quick to ridicule the idea and even some Labour peers have urged Starmer to focus on more urgent domestic reforms rather than get caught up in a ‘constitutional quagmire’. But how would Starmer's plan work in reality and is it a good idea? Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are...
Dec 08, 2022•29 min
Chants of ‘Xi Jinping step down’ were heard on the lips of some demonstrators in China last weekend. A rare example of dissent against the Chinese leader. The cause of the protestors fury is pretty clear – nearly three years of the government’s zero-Covid policy has proved too much to bear for many Chinese. The Chinese Communist Party acted quickly by sending police to protest sites and increasing online censorship. But on Tuesday some local health officials began suggesting that they needed to ...
Dec 01, 2022•29 min
‘We will now open a new chapter in our national story, striking free trade deals around the world’ said Boris Johnson in December 2020 after the UK struck a deal with the European Union for relations after Brexit. The government say these new deals will help level up the UK, cut red tape, provide better investment opportunities and open new digital markets. But, nearly three years after leaving the EU, what deals have we negotiated, are they providing the benefits we were promised and what chall...
Nov 24, 2022•29 min
The Russians are on the back foot in the war in Ukraine and have just evacuated the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson. The setbacks for Moscow have led to increasing concern in western capitals about the prospect of President Vladimir Putin using a nuclear weapon. But what are the real chances of Russia moving from nuclear threats to nuclear action. And how might the NATO powers respond? Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are: Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies...
Oct 20, 2022•30 min
The volatility on the financial markets is continuing in the wake of the chancellor's announcement of massive tax cuts last month. The government's current plan is to announce full details of how it will fund those cuts and balance the books on October 31st. One of its options is to rein in public spending - the expenditure that goes on healthcare, schools, welfare, infrastructure and much more, So what is the level of public spending right now, how does it compare historically and what would be...
Oct 13, 2022•30 min
Since mid-September, women and girls in Iran have been staging demonstrations against the regime. Social media has been full of images of female protestors cutting off their hair and removing their Islamic head-covering in open defiance of the security forces. These protests have their roots in the arrest of a young woman called Mahsa Amini for minor infractions of the Islamic Republic’s dress code and her subsequent death in custody. But there have been several waves of protest since the Irania...
Oct 06, 2022•28 min
The financial markets have been in turmoil since the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, unveiled a big package of economic measures last Friday. Traders responded to the prospect of major tax cuts by selling the pound. The Bank of England then had to intervene to protect the UK's pension system. What exactly is causing the financial instability and what might that mean for the British economy over the next few years? Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are: Dharshini David, BBC Economics Cor...
Sep 29, 2022•30 min
This week the new UK government is unveiling its first major package of economic measures. They're aimed at achieving what Prime Minister Liz Truss says is her number one priority: promoting economic growth. Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he shares the same aspiration for Britain. But low growth is an entrenched problem, dating back decades. So why has the UK been performing so badly and what needs to be done to turn us into a high-growth country? Joining David Aaronovitch in The Br...
Sep 22, 2022•29 min
Ukraine's military has retaken thousands of square kilometres of territory near the north-eastern city of Kharkiv. The Russians are said to have retreated in haste and disarray, but they retaliated by shelling a large power plant, causing blackouts in Kharkiv, the country's second biggest city. Is Ukraine's successful counter-offensive a turning point in the war? Could Ukraine win? Experts say Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, won't countenance defeat, and will escalate instead of retreating o...
Sep 15, 2022•30 min
Soaring household bills have made energy the number one issue facing the government and consumers in Britain. But in addition to the cost, there may be another problem ahead as winter approaches. Experts are increasingly worried about the supply of both electricity and gas from Europe, and how that might affect the power system here. So how worried should we be about energy shortages? And what can the government do to limit their impact? Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are: Kathry...
Sep 01, 2022•30 min
The NHS often appears to be in a state of permanent crisis. Recently, there've been headlines about long waiting times for ambulances and the huge backlog for routine surgery. Before that, the Health Service faced a two-year pandemic which may rear its head again this winter. But the NHS also has a big underlying problem. It has tens of thousands of vacancies for doctors, nurses and other medical workers – and that makes all the other pressures on the Health Service even harder to handle. So why...
Aug 25, 2022•29 min
