The General & The Journalist

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: generalandjournalist@thetimes.co.uk

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: generalandjournalist@thetimes.co.uk
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: generalandjournalist@thetimes.co.uk

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: generalandjournalist@thetimes.co.uk

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: generalandjournalist@thetimes.co.uk
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