The General & The Journalist

In this month's Q&A, Patrick and Tom examine Donald Trump’s controversial deal to buy Russian diesel, the shifting world order, and the threats facing Western security. Plus, they consider a listener’s idea for bringing veterans closer to the public.

Send your questions in to [email protected]

Hosts: General Sir Patrick Sanders and Tom Newton Dunn

Patrick brings his experience as a former head of the British Army to the podcast. He is also a Conservative peer and advises the party on defence.

Producer: Julia Webster

Executive producer: Priyanka Deladia

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For a decade, US spies and diplomats have reported mysterious symptoms including strange noises, sudden pressure and debilitating neurological symptoms… but no one has definitively explained why. Now, two investigative journalists say they have uncovered new evidence of a suspected microwave weapon, a Russian connection and a US government failure to confront the truth.

Their new book, The Havana Syndrome: Secret Weapons, a Government Cover-Up, and the Greatest Spy Mystery of Our Time, raises fresh questions about intelligence failures, covert warfare and a mystery that may be far from over. Is Russia behind these mysterious events and has the US government been hiding what it knows?

Get in touch: [email protected]

• 04:00 The first mysterious attacks
• 16:57 The alleged Russian microwave weapon
• 26:29 The scientific evidence and scepticism
• 29:24 Was there a government cover-up?
• 35:23 Is the mystery still unfolding?

Guests: Michael Rey and Oriana Zill de Granados, investigative producers for CBS’s 60 Minutes

Hosts: General Sir Patrick Sanders and Tom Newton Dunn

Patrick brings his experience as a former head of the British Army to the podcast. He is also a Conservative peer and advises the party on defence.

Producer: Julia Webster

Executive producer: Priyanka Deladia

Image: Getty

Clips: BBC, TODAY, 6 News Australia

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Houthis have advanced along Yemen’s Red Sea coast threatening one of the world’s most important shipping routes through Bab al-Mandab. Yemeni government forces are fighting back, but the Iran-backed group’s ability to disrupt global trade and strike across the region continues to grow.

Yemen expert Nadwa Al-Dawsari joins Tom and Patrick to explain how the Houthis became a regional military power, how much control Iran really has over them, and whether Yemen is becoming another front in Tehran’s wider proxy war. So, how far can the Houthis expand, and can they be stopped?

Get in touch: [email protected]

00:49 — The Houthis fight to seize Yemen’s Red Sea coast

02:58 — How Iran helped build Houthi military power

07:01 — Why the Bab el-Mandeb threatens global shipping

14:07 — Who are the Houthis and their enemies

22:13 — Can the US stop the Houthi threat?

Guest: Nadwa Al-Dawsari, Fellow at the Centre on Armed Groups and Associate Fellow at the Middle East Institute

Hosts: General Sir Patrick Sanders and Tom Newton Dunn

Patrick brings his experience as a former head of the British Army to the podcast. He is also a Conservative peer and advises the party on defence.

Producers: Julia Webster with help from Robert Wallace

Executive producer: Priyanka Deladia

Image: Denise Kelly, Getty

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Russia steps up sabotage, interference and intimidation across Europe, how far is Vladimir Putin prepared to go?

Former MI6 chief Sir John Scarlett joins Tom and Patrick to explain what Putin wants in Ukraine, whether Russia could escalate into a direct confrontation with NATO, and why intelligence back channels may be crucial to preventing escalation.

Get in touch: [email protected]

• 05:28 - Did the West misjudge Putin?
• 09:46 - Is Putin under pressure?
• 15:04 - What does Putin want in Ukraine?
• 17:30 - Russia’s hybrid war against NATO
• 23:49 - Why the CIA Chief went to Moscow

Guest: Sir John Scarlett, former MI6 Chief and co-founder of SC Strategy

Hosts: General Sir Patrick Sanders and Tom Newton Dunn

Patrick brings his experience as a former head of the British Army to the podcast. He is also a Conservative peer and advises the party on defence.

Producer: Julia Webster, Shabnam Grewal

Executive producer: Priyanka Deladia

Image: Kathia Mestanza, Getty

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

America has 11 aircraft carriers. So why is the US Navy struggling to deploy more than three at once?

In this bonus video explainer, The Sunday Times’s Mark Urban examines the growing strain on America’s carrier fleet. These 100,000-ton floating airfields have long been symbols of US military power, but delayed ships, lengthy repairs and overstretched crews are making it increasingly difficult to keep them at sea. If Washington cannot reliably deploy the fleet it already has, what does that mean for America’s ability to project power around the world – and are aircraft carriers becoming a symbol not of US strength, but of its limits?

00:00 – America’s aircraft carrier problem

00:53 – Delayed ships and ageing carriers

02:24 – Trump’s proposed carrier redesign

03:25 – Longer deployments, greater strain

04:50 – The carrier gap in the Pacific

06:09 – The $25 billion carrier group at risk

07:30 – The cost to the wider fleet

08:38 – Shipyard decline and military power

Get in touch: [email protected]

Producer: Yasmin Butt

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More than 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement, Britain remains bitterly divided over how to resolve legacy cases from the Troubles. The government’s new Northern Ireland Troubles Bill would allow some halted inquests to resume and reform the system for investigating legacy cases, with ministers insisting that veterans will be protected from unnecessary repeat investigations.

But former senior SAS veterans Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton and George Simm argue it could reopen the door to repeated investigations that erode soldiers’ trust in the Government and ultimately weaken the SAS itself. Can Britain deliver justice for the past without undermining the soldiers it may need for the wars of the future?

Get in touch: [email protected]

• 00:47 – Inside the SAS
• 10:24 – Northern Ireland legacy lawfare
• 16:29 – Loughgall and shoot-to-kill claims
• 22:15 – How lawfare is damaging the SAS
• 27:30 – The fight to protect British soldiers

Guests: Former SAS Squadron Commander Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton and former SAS Regimental Sergeant Major George Simm

Hosts: Tom Newton Dunn

Producer: Julia Webster

Executive producer: Priyanka Deladia

Image: Kathia Mestanza, Getty

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Russia is holding its first State Duma election since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but the Kremlin has worked to ensure the outcome is never truly in doubt. Nina Khrushcheva, great-granddaughter of the former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, joins us to examine what the vote reveals about Putin’s rule and how the war in Ukraine is mounting pressure on Putin. With public patience under strain and unease growing among the elite, how much longer can Putin keep pressing this war on?

Get in touch: [email protected]

00:55 – Nina Khrushcheva on Putin’s Russia

07:50 – Inside Russia’s rigged election

16:37 – Putin’s mobilisation gamble

23:04 – Russia’s war economy and breaking point

30:04 – Putin’s escalating threat to NATO

Guest: Nina Khrushcheva, professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York City

Hosts: General Sir Patrick Sanders and Tom Newton Dunn

Patrick brings his experience as a former head of the British Army to the podcast. He is also a Conservative peer and advises the party on defence.

Producer: Julia Webster, Shabnam Grewal

Executive producer: Dan Box, Tim Walklate 

Image: Dana Chan, Getty

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was one of the most audacious acts of sabotage in modern history - in September 2022, explosions ripped through the Nord Stream pipelines carrying natural gas from Russia underneath the Baltic Sea. The attack reshaped European geo-politics but at the time, no one knew who ordered the bombing, or carried it out. Journalist Bojan Pancevski has spent three years tracing the operation - and says the answers to those questions involve a tiny team of divers, a rented yacht and a former erotic model known only as ‘Freya’. 

Get in touch: [email protected]

00:00 – Who blew up Nord Stream?

02:55 – Why Nord Stream mattered

06:39 – Inside the sabotage mission

17:19 – Russia, CIA or Ukraine?

24:00 – Evidence, arrests and who ordered it

Guest: Bojan Pancevski, chief European political correspondent for the Wall Street Journal

Hosts: Tom Newton Dunn

Producer: Julia Webster

Executive producer: Dan Box

Image: Kathia Mestanza, Getty

Clips: Getty Images, Danish Defence Command

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across Nato’s eastern flank, defence planners are increasingly focused on one date: 2030. War games, military assessments and troop deployments are being shaped around a stark question – could Moscow be ready to test Nato within the next few years?

The Times’s defence editor Larisa Brown examines why 2030 has become such a crucial deadline for European defence, how Russia could try to probe Nato’s borders and whether the alliance is moving fast enough to deter Vladimir Putin.

Get in touch: [email protected]

Producer: Jack Feeney

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan have signed the Mecca Pact, a new defence alliance built around the promise that an attack on one is an attack on all.

Together they bring Saudi money and religious authority, Turkey’s military strength and defence industry and Pakistan’s army and nuclear power. But would any of them really go to war for the others? 

Tom and Patrick are joined by Lieutenant General Sir Simon Mayall to explore why the pact has emerged now. Is it a response to Iran’s decline, growing doubts over America’s reliability or the changing relationship with Israel? Or is the Mecca Pact merely a strategic hedge, or the beginning of a new balance of power in the Middle East?

How do you think the Mecca Defence Alliance will impact the region? Get in touch: [email protected]

• 00:00 - Mecca Pact Explained
• 05:04 - Saudi–Turkey–Pakistan Defence Alliance
• 13:02 - Why the Mecca Pact Matters Now
• 23:32 - Is the Mecca Pact a New NATO?
• 32:53 - Future of Middle East Security

Guest: Ltn Gen Sir Simon Mayall, KBE, CB, retired British Army officer and a Middle East Adviser at the Ministry of Defence.

Hosts: General Sir Patrick Sanders and Tom Newton Dunn.

Patrick brings his experience as a former head of the British Army to the podcast. He is also a Conservative peer and advises the party on defence.

Producer: Julia Webster and Shabnam Grewal

Executive producer: Priyanka Deladia 

Image: Dana Chan, Getty

Clips: Getty

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.