The Briefing Room

In under two weeks Syrian rebels have moved through the country and taken Damascus - bringing to an end 50 years of rule by the Assad family. The country borders Israel, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq, and in which Iran and Russia take the most active of interests. So why did the government of Bashar Al Assad fall so fast, who are HTS the rebels who toppled him, and what does it mean for the region and...

North Korean troops are fighting Ukrainians in Russia, while Ukraine has finally been permitted to use US missiles deep into Russian territory. It’s over 1000 days since Vladimir Putin’s full scale invasion of his neighbour and the circle of those involved in the conflict seems to widen. But though the situation changes the central question doesn’t. That question being which side can best stay the...

Our prisons are overcrowded, the Government recently released a group of prisoners early to ease the pressure. Britain seems to incarcerate more people per head of population compared to any other Western European country. Now the Government has announced there is going to be a Review of Sentencing to see what we can do to reduce the number of people in prison. Recently an eight week consultation...

All over Europe and in the corridors of Nato policy makers are discussing the implications for the continent of the Trump victory in the American presidential election. For 70 years the alliance with the USA has been the foundation stone of European defence. During his last term in office, it was reported that Trump wanted to take the US out of Nato. That didn’t happen but he made clear his discon...

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered the first Labour Budget in 14 years. Naturally there was a flurry of instant responses to individual tax measures, but what about the big picture? Well, more than a week has passed, and the dust is settling. We thought it was time to return to a panel of experts who we spoke to in September. Is this really a once in a generation budget? What will it mean for...

David Aaronovitch and guests discuss the recent events in Lebanon. Israel has been widely blamed for a series of pager and walkie-talkie attacks targeting members of Hezbollah. Does this mark the invention of a new kind of warfare and what might the wider consequences be for the region? Guests: Shashank Joshi, The Economist's defence editor Professor Lina Khatib, Director of the Middle East Instit...

David Aaronovitch and guests discuss the challenges facing Germany. Worries over the economy and immigration have seen the far right AfD party gain support in the former east Germany. Guests: Guy Chazan, Berlin bureau chief at the Financial Times Dr Constanze Stelzenmuller, Director of the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings Institution Marcel Fratzscher, President DIW Berlin - Ger...

Last month the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, warned that "things would get worse before they got better". The Chancellor Rachel Reeves has already said that there's a £22 billion black hole in the government's finances left by the Conservatives. The budget at the end of October, we're told, will be "painful". But just how bad a state is the UK economy really in? And how constrained is the new...

The first human cases of MPox were detected in 1970. But a new strain detected in Congo in 2023 has got scientists confused. How worried should we be and are we prepared for it? Dr Jonas Albarnaz, a Research Fellow specialising in pox viruses at The Pirbright Institute Dr Lilith Whittles, lecturer and Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow in the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis D...

David Aaronovitch and guests discuss the risk of escalation on Russian borders and further afield and explore what form that might take if it were to happen. Guests: Natia Seskuria, founder and executive director of the Regional Institute for Security Studies (RISS), a Tbilisi-based think tank Dr Jack Watling, Senior Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United Services Institute, Michael...

David Aaronovitch and guests discuss China's desire for 'peaceful reunification' with Taiwan. Can it really be done peacefully and what happens if it can't? Guests: Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, BBC Asia correspondent based in Taipei Amanda Hsiao, Crisis Group's Senior Analyst for China Dr Lauren Dickey, Taiwan analyst at the China Power Project at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies Shas...

In the first of three programmes, David Aaronovitch explores the risk of escalation and wider conflict in the Middle East. What would all out war look like and how likely is it? Guests: Shashank Joshi, The Economist's defence editor Professor Lina Khatib, Director of the Middle East Institute at SOAS University of London Dr Burcu Ozcelik, Senior Research Fellow for Middle East Security within the...

David Aaronovitch and guests discuss Labour's plans for planning reform. This week the Housing Secretary, Angela Rayner announced a new National Planning Policy Framework. Will it boost economic growth? Sir John Armitt, Chairman of the UK's National Infrastructure Commission Catriona Riddell is an independent planning consultant and commentator who advises on planning policy Anthony Breach, Associ...

Machine learning has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. Bigger, more powerful computers can crunch ever more amounts of data, analysing complex information just as accurately, it’s claimed, as the best specialists and at speeds humans can never achieve. With the potential to make a significant difference to healthcare - helping to diagnose disease, summarise patients’ medical notes, even...

Surveys suggest that at least one in four of us will suffer from anxiety and depression during our lifetimes. The prevalence of these conditions is one of the reasons given for poor school attendance. And it's estimated that these mental health disorders account for 12.5% of all sickness leave in the UK. So what’s caused such an explosion in mental distress and what, if anything, can be done to br...

Half the UK population will get cancer during their lifetime - and rates are rising. Each year, around 385,000 people in the UK are diagnosed and around 167,00 lives are lost to the disease. But scientists are developing new therapies, including personalised vaccines and targeted drugs, that attack cancer cells directly and more effectively. It's hoped this pioneering work could lead to better sur...

2024 is the year of elections and already hundreds of millions of people around the world have been to the polls. A few months ago The Briefing Room looked ahead to elections in South Africa and India. Both have since delivered shocks to their ruling parties which failed to win parliamentary majorities. So why did the main parties in both countries do worse than expected? And what does this mean f...

David Aaronovitch and guests dissect Sudan's ongoing civil war. This conflict is now one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters. How can it be brought to an end? Guests: James Copnall - presenter of Newsday on the BBC World Service and former BBC Sudan correspondent Mohanad Hashim - Sudanese journalist working on Newshour on the BBC World Service Dame Rosalind Marsden - associate fellow of th...

David Aaronovitch and guests examine Joe Biden's ceasefire deal and ask whether - despite some positive noises from both sides - Israel and Hamas are interested in making it work. Guests: David Makovsky, Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations Anshel Pfeffer, columnist and Israel correspondent at The Economist Lina Khatib,...

David Aaronovitch and guests assess the fallout from France's EU elections and President Macron's subsequent decision to call parliamentary elections later this month. Guests: Hugh Schofield, BBC Paris Correspondent Sophie Pedder, Paris bureau chief at The Economist Mujtaba Rahman, Managing Director for Europe at Eurasia Group who advise investors on political risk Dr Françoise Boucek, Visiting Re...

David Aaronovitch and guests discuss Donald Trump's conviction in the hush money case, examine the cases yet to be heard and ask whether any of this hurts his election chances? Guests: Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America correspondent Jack Chin, Professor of Criminal Law at the University of California, Davis Wendy Schiller, Professor of Political Science at Brown University Production team: Caroli...

David Aaronovitch and guests assess the latest developments in Ukraine. In 2022, Russia was expected to win the war easily. That didn't happen. But is Russia gaining the upper hand now? Guests: James Waterhouse, BBC’s Ukraine Correspondent Polina Ivanova, FT correspondent covering Russia, Ukraine and Central Asia Michael Clarke, Professor of Defence Studies at Kings College London and Specialist A...

David Aaronovitch and guests discuss the current financial crisis facing UK universities and ask what can be done about it. Guests: Branwen Jeffreys, BBC Education Editor Nick Hillman, Director of The Higher Education Policy Institute Madeleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford and member of the Migration Advisory Committee Alan Manning, Professor of Econo...

The H5N1 strain of avian flu isn't new. It was discovered in China in 1996. But in recent years it's started passing from mammal to mammal and it's now rife on cattle farms in the United States. How much should humans worry? David Aaronovitch speaks to: Professor Wendy Barclay, action medical research chair in virology at Imperial College London Kai Kupferschmidt, science journalist and molecular...

David Aaronovitch and guests explore the troubled state of the water industry in the UK. How do companies solve the sewage problem, fix the leaks and reduce the debt mountain? Guests: Kate Bayliss, research associate in the Department of Economics at SOAS, University of London David Hall, visiting professor in the Public Services International Research Unit at the University of Greenwich Sir Diete...