From the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the current escalation of the war between Israel, Palestine and their neighbouring countries, the Middle East has been besieged by almost constant conflict.

Is it history? Politics? Resources? Or religion driving these tensions?

Tanjil Rashid is joined by historian and author Simon Sebag Montefiore, whose new book The Cauldron tells the story of the making of the modern Middle East.

Alexei Sayle has never much cared for a conventional view of the world.

Born in 1950s Liverpool to committed communist parents, he was named after Maxim Gorky - real name Alexei Maximovich Peshkov. Dyed-in-the-wool Marxism, in other words, was baked in from birth, and he's Jewish on his mother's side.

His first two memoirs, Stalin Ate My Homework and Thatcher Stole My Trousers, told the story of that red upbringing. Now Sayle is back with volume three: How I've Tried to Change the World, exploring a lifetime of protests, marches, and what decades on the picket line have taught him about being a Marxist today.

The investigation into Nigel's "Farage Fest" election party, Andy Burnham's Ukrainian jam session and Pope Leo XIV making it onto Vanity Fair's best dressed list.

Anoosh Chakelian and Will Dunn round up the stories of the week.

It's nearly a year since Zack Polanski took the reins of the Green party.

In many ways the party has never been so successful – with five MPs, leading six local authorities and a leader who cuts through with the public.

But now the Greens have to contend with a new – and relatively popular – Prime Minister, and internal factions within the party threaten to make life difficult for Polanski as he heads towards the summer conference.

How is the Green leader faring one year on?

Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Ailbhe Rea and Megan Kenyon

Produced by Chris Stone

One of the first big decisions of Andy Burnham's premiership is looming: whether to drill for North Sea oil and gas.

Labour made a manifesto promise not to grant new licences for oil and gas exploration, but the question of whether to go ahead and drill at the Rosebank and Jackdaw sites - offshore oil and gas fields that have pre-existing licences - remains.

After a summer of wildfires and heatwaves, but with our energy security and cost-of-living precarious, the new Prime Minister faces a political dilemma.

Anoosh Chakelian is joined by political editor Ailbhe Rea.

What constitutes a wealthy society, Richard Tice saying we should "enjoy" climate change and the clamour around Harry and Meghan's return to the UK.

Anoosh Chakelian and Oli Dugmore discuss the stories of the week.

Charlotte Higgins has spent most of her career interviewing and critiquing artists, authors and poets as the Guardian's chief culture writer. It was unlikely that her work would ever take her to a warzone.

But following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she found herself drawn to this country under siege. She wanted to ask, what happens to art under war? And could Ukrainian culture not just survive, but flourish?

On the one hand, Burnham may never be as popular as he is now. On the other, the PM could lose an election if he calls it soon, bringing his long-held dream of being prime minister to a horribly premature end.

Anoosh Chakelian is joined by political editor Ailbhe Rea.

In 2011, Luke Harding was ordered to leave Russia - the first Western journalist to be exiled since the fall of the Soviet Union. As the Guardian's senior correspondent, he continued to watch Russia from afar, covering WikiLeaks, Edward Snowden, and the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. But in recent years he crept back closer to Moscow, reporting from the front lines of the war in Ukraine.

His new book, Betrayal, follows the many contours of this conflict and what they tell us about the new age of global power: What kind of control does Russia have over Donald Trump? How did North Korean soldiers end up in Ukraine? Why did a Reform leader undertake work for the Russian state for 40k?

Luke Harding joins Oli Dugmore in this episode of The Exchange, a podcast from the New Statesman.

After its victory in Clacton, Reform has announced plans to slash the welfare state.

Over the weekend, Robert Jenrick claimed a Reform government would cut £50 billion from the welfare bill, excluding foreign nationals from most benefits.

Meanwhile, a parliamentary investigation into Nigel Farage's finances has resumed, after he was found to have accepted a £5 million gift from billionaire Christopher Harborne.

Anoosh Chakelian is joined by political editor Ailbhe Rea.