The Arctic is going through changes to its climate, economics and geo-politics. What does it mean for the region and the rest of the world? The fact that glaciers are melting and the white landscape is...

In his election campaign President Milei set out his chainsaw approach to cutting spending and inflation. A year on, how has his presidency turned out? David Aaronovitch and guests explore - why was...

New weight loss drugs known commercially as Wegovy and Mounjaro have been demonstrated to have a big effect in helping people to lose weight, and have recently been approved for use in obesity treatment in...

Syrian rebels launched an offensive taking most of a major city - Aleppo - from the forces of the government. Suddenly there has been talk about the possible collapse of the regime that rules most of a...

North Korean troops are fighting Ukrainians in Russia and while Ukraine has finally been permitted to use US missiles deep into Russian territory. Meanwhile Iranian rockets land on targets in Ukraine. It’s...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Democrats and Republicans have promised to solve the border crisis in recent times but they've failed and it remains a huge election issue. How does the problem get resolved?David Aaronovitch talks to:Gustavo...

David Aaronovitch and guests discuss the reasons why millions of people in the UK aged between 16 and 64 are neither working nor looking for work and what we can do about it. Tony Wilson, Director of the...

2024 is the year of elections. According to one estimate just under 50% of all the people on earth live in countries where by December 31st there will have been a national vote. In terms of population size...

David Aaronovitch and guests explore the thinking behind Iran's decision to attack Israel and ask what the short and long term aims of the Iranian regime are. Guests: Shashank Joshi, Defence editor at The...

Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to “eliminate” Hamas but after six months of death and destruction in Gaza what do we know about their status?David Aaronovitch talks to: Jennifer Jefferis,...

The state pension system relies on the workers of today paying the pensions of current retirees. But does an aging population and rising costs threaten that model continuing?David Aaronovitch talks to:Paul...

2024 is the year of elections. According to one estimate just under 50% of all the people on earth live in countries where by December 31st there will have been a national vote. To mark this phenomenon we are...

2024 is the year of elections. According to one estimate just under 50% of all the people on earth live in countries where by December 31st there will have been a national vote. To mark this phenomenon we are...

In 1964, pre-historic remains were discovered at Jabal Aṣ-Ṣaḥābah - or Mountain of the Companions - in the Nile Valley near what is now the border of northern Sudan and Egypt. That site contained evidence of...

It is two years since Russia began its costly conflict against Ukraine. How does it fund its war effort, how do sanctions impact that and how tight is Putin's grip on power?Guests: Sarah Rainsford, BBC...

Deaths from synthetic opioids such as nitazenes and fentanyl are low in the UK but there are fears the problem could escalate and that figures don't show the true picture of the situation. David Aaronovitch...

This week a great queue of dentistless Bristolians appeared outside a new practice offering NHS treatment. That followed a report on children’s health which specifically referenced the poor and worsening...

This week the Education Select Committee said that Ofsted and the Government must rebuild trust and make major changes to school inspections.This follows months of news coverage of the death of Ruth Perry,...

The UK is experiencing more rain and more floods than previously, and because of climate change this is set to get worse. More than 6 million homes are at risk of flooding in the UK. What is the state of the...

It’s been another difficult week for local government. Birmingham City Council announced it needs to make up to 600 redundancies to help balance its books and Middlesbrough Council decided to apply to the...

As if the conflict in Gaza wasn’t bad enough, the fighting has ignited old and new tensions elsewhere across the region. Since the surprise attack by Hamas on 7th October, clashes on the Lebanon-Israel border...

It’s almost 4 years since the UK left the European Union. Recent polls show a majority of people want to re-join the EU. But is this a realistic option?So in this week’s programme David Aaronovitch asks could...

Aliens are back on the radar after a US Congressional hearing in the summer that featured former intelligence officer, David Grusch. The US Air Force veteran was once part of a task force created to look...

Housing charity Shelter’s latest figures show that homelessness has risen rapidly in the last year. In England, 279,400 people are living in temporary accommodation - an increase of 14% - most of whom are...

Euthanasia is illegal in the UK. All attempts to change the law have failed. Other countries have legalised Assisted Dying and/or Euthanasia. In this week’s Briefing Room with David Aaronovitch we find out...

The start of Ukraine’s counter-offensive against occupying Russian forces was hailed as the breakthrough moment of the war so far. Now six months on, we ask what happened?The Secretary General of NATO has...

UK net migration hit a record 745,000 in 2022 according to recently revised figures from the Office for National Statistics.That means the numbers coming to live in the UK were almost three quarters of a...