The Briefing Room

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...

‘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 th...

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...

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, S...

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 cod...

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 ne...

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...

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 Rus...

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 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...

Despite recent heavy rainfall, much of England is experiencing drought conditions. Both rivers and reservoirs are running low, and the water companies have told millions to stop using their hosepipes. Scientists warn that the current difficulties are only a glimpse of the much tougher challenges the UK will face in the future because of climate change. They estimate that there's a one-in-four chan...

There are growing calls for emergency measures to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. Energy bills are now predicted to be hundreds of pounds higher than was expected just a few weeks ago. The Bank of England has increased interest rates, and warned of the twin threat of inflation and a recession. What policy options does the government have? How can ministers get help to the growing numbers of peop...

Scotland has the worst figures for drug-related deaths anywhere in Europe. According to National Records for Scotland, 1,330 drug users died in 2021 - a slight improvement, but a death rate per capita which is still 4.8 times higher than England's. Why do so many Scots die from drugs? And what more can be done to prevent it? Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are: James Cook, BBC Scotl...

Last week, temperatures in the UK reached a record-breaking 40.3 degrees centigrade. As Britons sweltered in their homes and offices, railway lines buckled, fires broke out in Greater London and the tarmac on Luton Airport runway began to lift. Climate Change scientists now describe this kind of heat as 'the new normal'. How well is Britain set up to cope with extreme weather events? Do we need to...

The war in Ukraine is about to enter its sixth month. The cost of Russia’s invasion has been enormous: millions of refugees; thousands of dead soldiers; thousands more dead civilians; and billions of dollars’ worth of physical damage. It’s the most consequential military conflict for a generation. This week the Briefing Room investigates what’s happening now on the ground and whether either side i...

More than two years after the emergence of Covid, infection levels are high once again. The Office for National Statistics estimates that 2.7 million people, or 1 in 25 of us, have got Coronavirus. There’s concern too about new Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5 – mutations which help the virus re-infect our bodies. But how worried should we actually be this time? Are the mutations normal or an alarmi...

Last year spending on health and social care in the UK hit nearly £200bn. That’s roughly a fifth of total government spending. Yet the perception has been that things have got worse. Have they? If so, how much worse? How do we compare with other similar countries? And what might we do differently? Joining David Aaronovitch in the briefing room are: Siva Anandaciva, Chief Analyst at the King’s Fund...

Last year the Taliban launched an offensive in Afghanistan that, within a matter of weeks succeeded beyond the West’s wildest nightmares. In August Kabul fell and life changed dramatically for the Afghan people. Since then they’ve faced food shortages, a failing economy and a bombing campaign launched by Afghanistan’s own ISIS, ISIS-K. So is it Taliban 2.0 as some people hoped? How is it dealing w...

Last week cryptocurrency suffered it’s ‘black Wednesday’ moment. Investors raced to withdraw their funds and more than $200billion was wiped off the cryptocurrency market. One currency lost 98% of its value. Ironically it was a so-called “stablecoin”, whose value is meant to be pegged to currencies like the dollar, that collapsed. Was this a solitary - but very costly - blip or is the crypto bubbl...

The election in Northern Ireland saw nationalists, Sinn Fein, win the most votes. Their leader, Michelle O'Neill, becomes first minister. It has been heralded as a historic result. But what will its impact - on Stormont politics, the protocol and the union - end up being? Joining David Aaronovitch in the briefing room are: Enda McClafferty, BBC Northern Ireland's political editor Ann Watt, directo...

In late February, German chancellor Olaf Scholz described Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a ‘Zeitenwende’ - turning point - sparking the biggest shift in German foreign policy since the Cold War. The highlights included a 100bn euro package to boost the military and meet Nato’s 2 per cent of GDP defence spending obligation, send weapons to Ukraine and end his country’s dependency on Russian energy...

What will the social and economic costs be of China's full-scale lockdown of Shanghai? David Aaronovitch examines the problems with the country's vaccination programme. Joining David in the briefing room are: Robin Brant, BBC Correspondent based in Shanghai Vincent Ni, China Affairs correspondent for The Guardian Professor Nancy Qian, Northwestern University Dr Yu Jie, senior research fellow on Ch...

The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has unveiled a plan to stop small boat crossings in the English Channel by sending asylum seekers to Rwanda. But will it work? Joining David Aaronovitch in the briefing room are: Mark Easton, BBC's Home Editor Alexander Betts, Professor of Forced Migration and International Affairs at the Refugees Studies Centre Nicolas Rollason, partner and head of Business Immigr...

It's a month now since Russian forces invaded Ukraine. The west have sanctioned Russia and provided aid packages to Ukraine but what more can it do to help Ukraine win the war? Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are: Gustav Gressel, senior policy fellow with the Wider Europe Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) Berlin office. Dr Sarah Schiffling, International...

Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have been underway this week. At the same time Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities have come under savage bombardment. If some sort of peace is to be brokered what compromises might be possible and what will be required to get there? David Aaronovitch is joined by: Oleksiy Semeniy, former advisor to the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Aglaya...