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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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For more than a century, the Middle East has been made and remade by collapsing empires, colonial borders, revolutions, wars and powerful rulers. Now, Iran is weakening, Gulf states are becoming more influential and old alliances are shifting again. 

Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore joins Tom and Patrick to discuss how the modern Middle East was forged and why the forces that shaped it are still at work today. Who is gaining power, who is losing it, and are we watching the birth of a new regional order?

Who do you think is reshaping the new Middle East? Get in touch: [email protected]

Chapters:

00:00 — How the modern Middle East was made

13:15 — Colonialism, Sykes-Picot and the birth of “zombie states”

23:45 — Is the term “Middle East” now obsolete?

29:30 — Iran’s regional empire and the October 7 wars

36:45 — Six converging theatres—and reasons for hope

The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East by Simon Sebag Montefiore is available in stores now

Guest: Simon Sebag Montefiore, British historian and author

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: Dana Chan, Getty

Clips: Getty

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Ukraine’s drone campaign is reaching deeper into Russia than ever before, striking oil terminals, ships and targets around Moscow and St Petersburg. As casualties rise and attacks put growing pressure on Russia’s economy and war machine, is Ukraine beginning to change the course of the conflict?

In this bonus audio explainer, The Sunday Times’s Mark Urban examines how Ukraine’s long-range strikes are testing Russia’s defences – and whether Vladimir Putin is approaching a serious turning point in the war.

Get in touch: [email protected]

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North Korea has supplied Russia with millions of artillery rounds, thousands of troops and workers for its drone factories to support its war in Ukraine. In return, Russian money, food, energy and weapons are reviving Pyongyang’s economy, giving it military battlefield experience and potentially advancing Kim Jong Un’s nuclear and missile capabilities.

Dr Victor Cha, former White House national security official and one of America’s leading Korea experts, joins The General & The Journalist to explain how Russia has made an isolated regime richer and more dangerous. How powerful has North Korea become? Why have decades of denuclearisation diplomacy failed? And could talks with Washington loosen Kim’s alliance with Putin?

Should the West accept a nuclear North Korea? Get in touch: [email protected]

Chapters:

• 00:00 North Korea’s economic boom
• 08:31 Russia fuels Kim Jong Un
• 14:18 China, Russia and North Korea
• 18:32 North Korea’s nuclear threat
• 26:16 Why denuclearisation failed
• 33:46 Kim Jong Un’s successor and future

Guest: Dr Victor Cha, president of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

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: Dana Chan, Getty

Clips: Reuters, Getty

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Mossad has spent decades building intelligence networks inside Iran, using spies, cyber operations and covert technology to penetrate the regime at the highest levels.

Yossi Cohen, former director of Mossad, joins The General & The Journalist to reveal how Israel’s spies recruit agents, operate behind enemy lines and target Iran’s leadership. How far is Mossad willing to go? And can Israel’s intelligence successes ultimately bring about regime change in Iran? And where does covert action cross the line?

The Sword of Freedom: Israel, Mossad, and the Secret War by Yossi Cohen is available at Harper Collins.

• 00:00 - Former Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen on Israel’s Intelligence Strategy
• 03:01 - How Mossad Penetrated the Iranian Regime’s Deepest Secrets
• 09:24 - HUMINT vs. SIGINT: Why Human Spies Outperform Cyber Intelligence
• 14:16 - Exploding Pagers, Sabotage & The Ethics of Covert Operations
• 24:28 - The Future of Iran, Regime Change & Yossi Cohen’s Political Ambitions

Guest: Yossi Cohen, former director of Mossad

Host: Tom Newton Dunn

Producer: Julia Webster and Shabnam Grewal

Executive producer: Priyanka Deladia 

Image: Getty

Clips: BBC

How should Andy Burnham approach the UK’s relationship with Israel? Get in touch: [email protected]

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