In this, the first episode of 90 Seconds to Midnight, the Daily Mail’s Special Correspondent David Patrikarakos is in Kyiv to meet legendary Ukrainian war reporter Illia Ponomarenko. In a wide ranging discussion, the two catch up on the recent Ukrainian counter-offensive into Russian territory; what any potential peace between Russia and Ukraine might look like; and, the breaking news of further American support for Ukraine from US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Producer: Max Bower  Editor: Chelsey Ranore  Executive Producer: Bella Soames  Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini  Host: David Patrikarakos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Foreign Secretary David Lammy talks Special Correspondent David Patrikarakos about the pager attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon and escalating tensions across the wider region; the latest from Ukraine; and how we know that Putin is rattled... We also hear from defence expert Andrew Fox about the ramifications of the attacks against Hezbollah and the potential for a wider regional war in the Middle East. Producer: Max Bower  Editor: Chelsey Ranore  Executive Producer: Bella Soames  Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini  Host: David Patrikarakos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Beirut local Ronnie Chatah talks to 90 Seconds to Midnight about the latest developments on the ground in Lebanon and how likely an all-out war is between Israel and Hezbollah.  Ronnie also explains whether Israel's motives are different against Hezbollah compared to Hamas and the shadowy role and aims of Iran in this escalating conflict that is threatening to engulf the Middle East.  Producer: Max Bower  Editor: Chelsey Ranore  Executive Producer: Bella Soames  Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini  Host: David Patrikarakos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Patrikarakos is joined by Niall Ferguson to discuss the latest events in the Middle East; why the US is irrelevant in the calculations of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu; and, how Israel is likely to retaliate against Iran. They also discuss the ‘Axis of Ill Will’ comprising China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea; why Ferguson believes that we are in the early stages of a second Cold War and the probability of this escalating into World War III; and whether the US will discover the true meaning of deterrence. Producer: Max Bower  Editor: Chelsey Ranore  Executive Producer: Bella Soames  Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini  Host: David Patrikarakos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One year on from the October 7th attacks on Israel, David Patrikarakos is in Tel Aviv to hear how that day sparked one of the most dangerous and uncertain periods in the recent history of the Middle East. First, David talks to IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Reserve Peter Lerner to get the latest on the Israel’s military operations in both Gaza and Lebanon, before sitting down with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to hear why he thinks Benjamin Netanyahu is the biggest obstacle to a peaceful resolution of the conflict and the safe return of the hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.  Producer: Max Bower  Editor: Alex Graham Executive Producer: Bella Soames  Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini  Host: David Patrikarakos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the eve of the US Presidential election the foremost chronicler of Trump’s first term, Michael Wolff, speaks with David Patrikarakos to share what is really going on in Trump’s camp; what is really driving the former President and why his son-in-law may become one of the most influential figures in global geo-politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Despite years of intense sanctions, regimes like Russia and Iran are not only surviving but thriving at keeping the money rolling in.    What makes it worse is that we can’t blame it all on Tehran or Moscow. The uncomfortable truth is that much of this network of corrupt finance was created by us in the West… London being a primary culprit.    In this episode David Patrikarakos speaks to Pulitzer Prize winning historian Anne Applebaum about how these countries are using shadow financial networks to earn and launder hundreds of billions every year, how it's having an increasingly dangerous effect on global geo-politics and why the West is partly to blame.   Producer: Max Bower  Editor: Alex Graham  Executive Producer: Bella Soames  Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini  Host: David Patrikarakos  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Patrikarakos speaks to Iran expert Holly Dagres to unpick one of the most complex countries on earth – Iran. The two discuss whether the Islamic Republic really wants to wipe out the West; just how stable it is; and, why its huge Gen Z population may prove to be the most significant factor in long term geopolitics of the Middle East. Producer: Max Bower  Editor: Alex Graham Executive Producer: Bella Soames  Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini  Host: David Patrikarakos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After perhaps the most extraordinary election result in US history, David Patrikarakos speaks to famed historian Sir Simon Schama to unpack what on earth happens next.    The pair also discuss how a second Trump term will push America toward authoritarianism and why Ukraine may be the biggest casualty of the result. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of 90 Seconds to Midnight, David Patrikarakos sits down with Iraqi political expert Lawk Ghafuri in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq to discuss the dangerous situation in the country. Ghafuri explains just how significant Iran's influence in the country is, what the incoming Trump administration may mean and why the planned US withdrawal of all remaining troops is a major geo-political flashpoint for 2025. Producer: Max Bower  Editor: Alex Graham  Executive Producer: Bella Soames  Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini  Host: David Patrikarakos  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode David is in Tbilisi, Georgia to speak with former Prime Minister and opposition leader Giorgi Gakharia about the country's recent heavily disputed election result. David and Gakharia discuss everything from intense Russian interference in the country, why Georgia is a key battleground State between Western and Russian influence and what the election of Donald Trump may mean for both sides. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

British-Lebanese journalist and film maker Oz Katerji speaks to David Patrikarakos from Damascus to explain the latest developments there.  Oz shares what the atmosphere is like just days after the fall of the Assad regime, how appalling the scale of the regime's torture is, what will happen with the ISIS prison camps dotted across Syria and just how serious a strategic defeat this is for Russia and Iran. Producer: Max Bower  Editor: Buddy Peace Executive Producer: Bella Soames  Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini  Host: David Patrikarakos  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Syrian rebels' advance in Aleppo and Hama has been nothing short of astonishing. But what does it mean for the conflicts and tensions around the world, and especially for Russia? In this episode of 90 Seconds to Midnight David talks to chemical weapons expert and long time visitor to Syria Hamish de Bretton Gordon to understand just what Putin's collapsing 'Southern Flank' in the country means for the war in Ukraine and his personal position. Producer: Max Bower  Editor: Izzy Bougeard  Executive Producer: Bella Soames  Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini  Host: David Patrikarakos  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of 90 Seconds to Midnight, David Patrikarakos talks to US investigative journalist Michael Weiss to discuss the huge escalation in the war in Ukraine over the last week. The pair unpack what Russia's launch of a hypersonic missile for the first time ever really means, if Putin may just be saving face and why the new Trump administration's appointment of the likes of Elon Musk is so dangerous for the conflict. Producer: Max Bower  Editor: Izzy Bougeard  Executive Producer: Bella Soames  Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini  Host: David Patrikarakos  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pakistan “won’t take long to settle the score” following India’s attack, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, the Pakistani defence minister, has said. But could this latest attack be the thing that could tip the world into another war?   In this latest episode we speak to voices on both sides of the divide - Sarjan Shah, a Security Analyst based in India, and award-winning Pakistani journalist Zia Ur Rehman – to explain how we got here, the decades long antagonism between both nations and the best and worst case scenarios for two powers who between them have some 350 nuclear weapons. Who’ll blink first as we ask, Apocalypse Now?   Follow us on Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram @apocalypsenowpod, and you can get in touch via email at apocalpysenowpod@dailymail.com    Take our show survey here:  https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=18   Presenter:  David Patrikarakos Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Alex Graham Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini   A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former White House Chief Strategist and host of the War Room, Steve Bannon has a lot to say. Not least about President Trump running for an unprecedented third term, but how to control the political narrative and discourse in America, what he really thinks of Elon Musk (it’s not what you’d call an endorsement), his loathing of the Chinese government and why his former boss needs to find way towards peace between Ukraine and Russia if we’re ever to avert WWIII. Plus, why he and those around him truly believes that the 2020 US election was stolen and why it was the driving factor that propelled President Trump back to the White House on November 5 and, if he and Bannon have their way, will keep Donald Trump there for years to come… Follow us on Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram @apocalypsenowpod, and you can get in touch via email at apocalpysenowpod@dailymail.com    Take our show survey here:  https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=18   Presenter:  David Patrikarakos Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Alex Graham Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini   A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Iran says it will brief China this week in advance of a third round of talks with the United States on its nuclear programme. This, as Iranian officials separately accused Israel of seeking to “undermine and disrupt the diplomatic process”.  And let’s not forget President Donald Trump’s take on things; threatening to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon. It’s been a long time since we imagined a mushroom cloud hovering over some far horizon, but given these latest clashes between agitated nuclear powers could we be staring down the barrel of WWIII? In this episode, we’ll gauge the latest threat level with Ali Ansari, Professor in Modern History with reference to Iran at the University of St Andrews, and then crossing the Atlantic to speak to Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who served on Iran's nuclear diplomacy team - he’s currently a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University to garner their thoughts. Follow us on Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram @apocalypsenowpod, and you can get in touch via email at apocalpysenowpod@dailymail.com  Take our show survey here:  https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=18   Presenter:  David Patrikarakos Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Chelsey Moore Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week’s episode comes with a warning: there are graphic and disturbing depictions of rape and sexual violence in today’s programme. Make no mistake, the so-called Russian Rape Machine turns sexual assault and violence into weapons of war. It’s as integral a part of their assault on Ukraine as boots on the ground, drones, and artillery. Conflict-related sexual violence is their stock in trade.   On this latest episode, we go on the ground to Ukraine to talk Alisa Kovalenko, a founding member of SEMA Ukraine about the testimonies she's received from victims of rape and sexual assault at the hands of the invading Russian forces.    Plus, we speak to Noble Peace Prize recipient Oleksandra Matviichuk - one of Ukraine's leading human rights lawyers and activists. She’s spent years highlighting Russia's use of rape, torture, and crimes against humanity as part of their arsenal when it comes to waging war. Follow us on Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram @apocalypsenowpod, and you can get in touch via email at apocalpysenowpod@dailymail.com  Take our show survey here:  https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=18   Presenter:  David Patrikarakos Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Chelsey Moore Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini   A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular  If you or anyone you know has been a victim of rape or sexual assault, you can get help at Rape Crisis England & Wales, go to: https://247sexualabusesupport.org.uk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What does tie China and America together, but pulls them both apart? Two superpowers irretrievably opposed, culturally, psychologically, politically, but both led by headstrong leaders with despotic tendencies. They get along – begrudgingly – but is this moment in history as much about the struggle for world dominance as it is about the financial implications for both countries? And let’s not forget the question of pride: not only are both sides refusing to back down, but Trump is delighting in nations now coming to him - or so he says - pleading for tariff deals. While a spokesman for the Chinese has made it clear that they’re in this fiscal fistfight until the end.  What to do? Who can possibly win? If anyone… In this week’s episode, we look both east and west as we get the American perspective from Edward Alden, economics guru and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the view from China from Professor Steve Tsang, Director of the China Institute at The School of Oriental and African Studies. Follow us on Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram @apocalypsenowpod, and you can get in touch via email at apocalpysenowpod@dailymail.com  Take our show survey here:  https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=18 Presenter:  David Patrikarakos Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Chelsey Moore Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Head high, clean hands” was once a slogan of the far-right, anti-immigration National Rally party to distance itself from what it called greedy traditional politicians’ crooked ways. But this week, a political earthquake has sent shockwaves that are almost certain to end Marine Le Pen’s ambitions for the 2027 presidential election and throws her far-right party into chaos just as it was setting its sights on taking power in France. The conviction of Le Pen and 24 other party members for embezzlement of European parliament funds is a huge blow to a far-right party that has long tried to present itself as the squeaky-clean alternative to old-school politicians with their hands in the till. In this week’s episode, we’re on the ground in Washington DC with Bernard-Henri Lévy, noted public intellectual and political commentator and in Paris with Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, a French journalist, writer and columnist to ask if this really is the end for Marine Le Pen. Follow us on Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram @apocalypsenowpod, and you can get in touch via email at apocalpysenowpod@dailymail.com  Take our show survey here:  https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=18 Presenter:  David Patrikarakos Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Chelsey Moore Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A week is a long time in politics, but for the Trump administration it only seems to take about 48 hours to set the world on its ear. In this week’s episode, we’re on the ground in Washington DC to talk to a former US Diplomat who served under President Obama and a defence expert about spilling military plans on Signal and ask the question; can Ukraine survive without America’s help?  Those guests in full: Brett Bruen, President, Global Situation Room Agency, and Ex-Global Engagement Director at the White House & former US diplomat, and Patrick Tucker is the Science and Technology Editor for Defense One. He’s also on Signal… Follow us on Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram @apocalypsenowpod, and you can get in touch via email at apocalpysenowpod@dailymail.com  Take our show survey here:  https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=18 Presenter:  David Patrikarakos Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Chelsey Moore Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini Executive Producer: Bella Soames A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It could be a conversation that will change the world as we know it. This week, President Trump and President Putin had a phone call to discuss “dividing up certain assets”, including land and power plants in Ukraine. So, where are we as drone attacks continue to rain down across Ukraine and Russia and the White House promises peace at any cost?  Dmytro Kuleba is the former Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs and member of the National Defense and Security Council of Ukraine. A man who was describing Putin as a ‘war criminal’ as far back as 2022, and at the heart of Ukrainian power for a number of years, what does he make of this latest twist in the power struggle for his homeland? And we speak to a soldier who has spent months in mortal combat with Russian and North Korean forces, telling us what life is really like on the bloody frontline. Follow us on Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram @apocalypsenowpod, and you can get in touch via email at apocalpysenowpod@dailymail.com  Presenter:  David Patrikarakos Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Chelsey Moore Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini Executive Producer: Bella Soames   A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Over 800 hundred lawyers have called on the UK government to use "all available means" to stop the fighting in Gaza, including reviewing trade ties with Israel and imposing travel bans on Israeli ministers.   This, as Amnesty International issues a statement condemning Hamas for its brutal crackdown on peaceful protests in Gaza.    And yet, the bloody war machine rolls on, with those on the ground in Gaza caught between a rock and a hard place, if the rock is a bombed-out hospital destroyed by Israeli missiles and the hard place is being punished by Hamas for only wanting to eat the aid you were sent.   On the latest episode, we talk to Alon Pinkas, former Israeli Ambassador and Consul General in New York, Chief of Staff to four Foreign Ministers, columnist for The Independent and Hamza Howidy, Palestinian Peace and Human Rights Advocate, two dissenting voices from either side of the conflict.   Follow us on Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram @apocalypsenowpod, and you can get in touch via email at apocalpysenowpod@dailymail.com    Take our show survey here:  https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=18   Presenter:  David Patrikarakos Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Alex Graham Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini Executive Producer: Bella Soames    A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can it really be almost ten years since former PM David Cameron called the referendum to stay in or leave the EU? The summer of 2016 saw a country fall in behind Sunderland and vote to exit the European Union. David Cameron exited too, ushering in an era of new premiership under Theresa May, but Brexit cast too long a shadow for even May to escape and so she too fell on the sword Cameron had so kindly left behind.    Which, ultimately, somehow, has led us here with Sir Keir Starmer heralding a “new era” in relations with Europe, plus the promise of cheaper food and reduced bills. And something about those pesky passport gates.   Kemi Badenoch has been calling it a sell-out, while Nigel Farage has deemed this the end of the fishing industry in the UK. But is it? Can it be? Let’s do what we do best and find out with the help of our guests Catherine Barnard, Professor of EU Law at University of Cambridge, and Senior Fellow at The UK in a Changing Europe and Alex Phillips, Broadcaster and former Brexit Party MEP for Southeast England.   Follow us on Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram @apocalypsenowpod, and you can get in touch via email at apocalpysenowpod@dailymail.com    Take our show survey here:  https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=18   Presenter:  David Patrikarakos Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Alex Graham Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini Executive Producer: Bella Soames    A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ask most people to point out Qatar on a map and they’d be hard pushed to find a place that has escalated in international news in a matter of weeks. And say what you like about Donald Trump, but who else gets gifted a $400million jet as a replacement for Air Force One because, and we quote, ‘Boeing were very late with the plane’.   For those that might have missed it, President Trump is currently on a whistle stop tour of the Middle East, brokering arms and tech deals worth millions of dollars and lifting sanctions on Syria after a meeting in Damascus with President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former al-Qaeda commander. There’s even talk of Syria getting their own Trump tower, so they too can look like a rundown boardwalk in Atlantic City.   But this is serious. Business and political protocols overturned; human rights records trodden on. Israel and China looking askance as the US buddies up to the Middle East. In this latest episode we speak to Majed Al-Ansari—Spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry and Adviser to the Prime Minister to find out what role Qatar is playing as it sits on this axis of power, conflict and wealth and promises to become a point of navigation between East and West?     Follow us on Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram @apocalypsenowpod, and you can get in touch via email at apocalpysenowpod@dailymail.com    Take our show survey here:  https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=18   Presenter:  David Patrikarakos Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Alex Graham Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini Executive Producer: Bella Soames    A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘Death from above’ isn’t just something painted on the side of Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore's helicopter in Apocalypse Now anymore. Now you can buy it off the shelf…   Over the weekend, Operation Spider Web used over 100 first-person view drones to hit four air bases in Russia.   And they’re cheap, you can buy them online (there will surely come a day when Amazon drones will deliver drones), arm them, and then drop them from the sky like a horde of locusts, all very Biblical, all very end of days.   Consider this: hoard technology, especially weapons technology, and you centralize power. Disperse it and watch that power dissipate alongside it.    So, what now for this new world of warfare where a $100 drone can sometimes make a $70m fighter jet look obsolete? On the latest episode, we talk to former Ukraine Minister of Defence, Andriy Zagorodnyuk and Tim Ripley, journalist, and Editor at Defence Eye to ask if the way we fight war is really changing and how those things might play out for Ukraine.    Follow us on Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram @apocalypsenowpod, and you can get in touch via email at apocalpysenowpod@dailymail.com    Presenter:  David Patrikarakos Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Alex Graham Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini Executive Producer: Bella Soames    A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices