Battle Lines: Britain put on war footing - but can government afford it?
After nearly a year of waiting, the UK's Strategic Defence Review has been published. If that means nothing to you - don't worry, we explain it all on today's show. The SDR was intended to be a root-and-branch review of the UK Armed Forces that would provide a road map to keep the country safe for decades to come - especially in the face of the growing threat of Russia.But already there are questions over funding and how to boost recruitment. Venetia chats to Lord Richard Dannatt, former chief of the army, about what the review is missing, and Alistair Carns, minister for people and veterans at the Ministry of Defence, about what it gets right.
Plus Roland Oliphant goes through the report's highlights and the outstanding questions.
Listen to Battle Lines using the audio player in this article or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your favourite podcast app.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
BREAKING: Former EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland Sounds Alarm on China, Fentanyl and Putin in New Episode of We're Out of Time Podcast, Tuesday, June 10
Sondland Calls China 'Complicit' In The Fentanyl Crisis, Says President Trump's EU Tariff Threat 'Shut Them Down,' And Predicts Putin Will Gain Land, Unless The U.S. Floods Ukraine With Americans LOS ANGELES, June 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As We're Out of Time climbs the charts, reaching #3 in Apple Podcasts' Mental Health category and #6 in Health & Fitness, host Richard Taite, a nationally recognized addiction recovery expert and founder and executive chairman of Carrara Treatment and executive chairman of 1 Method, welcomes former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland. In a headline-making debut, Sondland delivers sharp, behind-the-scenes insight on global flashpoints—from China's role in the fentanyl crisis to Trump's proposed 50% EU tariff to the future of the Russia-Ukraine war. "Having Gordon on the show is a game-changer," said Richard Taite. "This episode gives Americans a rare window into how global decisions are shaping our addiction crisis here at home and what we need to do about it." Known for his raw and unflinching conversations with celebrities, musicians, recovering addicts, and rehabilitation experts, Taite doesn't shy away from hard truths, especially when it comes to fentanyl. He calls Donald Trump "The Fentanyl President" for making the crisis a top priority, and says China's role in supplying precursor chemicals must remain in the spotlight. Headline-making moments from the episode include: 'China Is Complicit': Former EU Ambassador Sondland Says Fentanyl Crisis Is StrategicFormer U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland says China isn't just looking the other way on fentanyl—"they're complicit." He adds, "I think they're assisting in the effort, not just saying go ahead… You get people hooked or killed on that substance… they don't have to shoot a bullet at an enemy. They let the enemy kill themselves with that drug." Host Richard Taite, calls it a national security issue, based on years of treating veterans unknowingly exposed to fentanyl. "I call him [Trump] the fentanyl president…he's moved fentanyl to the top of the list when he talks about China." Sondland agrees, "At the top of the list whenever he brings up our trade issues with China is fentanyl. He talks about it all the time. They're the number one producer of the precursors…I think he's bringing it out to the top of the agenda." Ex-Ambassador Sondland Warns: Trump's July 9 Tariff Deadline Is Real; 'Essentially Shuts Them Down'Gordon Sondland, former U.S. Ambassador to the EU, breaks down Trump's hardline trade strategy with Europe. "Every president for 40 years has asked the Europeans to drop some of these trade barriers…and they've just tapped the U.S. along and nothing happens. So, for the first time, Trump said 'okay fine, while you're thinking about it, it's a 50% tariff,' which essentially shuts them down. And all of a sudden, within hours…the phone rings — 'okay, okay, okay, we want to talk.'" Sondland says the July 9 deadline is real. "Trump and his team will figure out how to impose them if the Europeans do not relent on some of their protectionist policies. I really believe that." President Trump Insider Predicts Putin Will Take Land, But Says U.S. Needs to 'Flood Ukraine with Americans'Ex-Ambassador Gordon Sondland offers rare insight into President Trump's private diplomacy with Vladimir Putin and predicts how the war in Ukraine could end. "He praises them in public. In private he says things like, I'm paraphrasing, 'Vladimir, you're unbelievable, you live in beautiful palaces, you're worth hundreds of billions…I love it, and I love you. But just remember, if you hit Ukraine, I gotta bomb the sh*t outta you…I probably have to kill you.'" Sondland says the war escalated under Biden's inconsistent strategy and argues even moderate U.S. support could have changed the outcome. Host Richard Taite asks, "So how does this end?" Sondland replies, "Putin sadly is going to wind up with some Ukrainian real estate. But the deal has to be—we flood Ukraine with Americans. Not troops. Business people. Infrastructure builders. Miners. Bankers. And the message becomes: Next time you try it, you're hitting us, not just Ukrainians." Full Episode Drops Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 10 Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube under We're Out of Time. About We're Out of Time:Hosted by Richard Taite, a nationally recognized addiction recovery expert, entrepreneur, and founder of Carrara Treatment and executive chairman of 1 Method—We're Out of Time blends personal stories, policy insight, and cultural commentary to confront America's addiction crisis head-on. The show has reached millions and now ranks in the top 10 in two major Apple Podcast categories. Past guests include former NBA star Lamar Odom, actor and comedian Jay Mohr, HGTV's Izzy Battres, rapper Famous Dex, and award-winning journalist Kelly Wright. For National Fentanyl Awareness Day, the show featured Los Angeles D.A. Nathan Hochman and Matt Capelouto, the father behind Alexandra's Law, now part of California's Proposition 36. The podcast also regularly features a powerful mix of celebrities, comedians, musicians, influencers, recovery experts, and formerly homeless changemakers. Media Inquiries:Lisa SpallaArlene Howard Public Podcast Info:We're Out of Time with Richard TaiteAvailable on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major on YouTube: @RichardTaiteOfficialMore info: Social Media:TikTok: @RichardTaiteOfficialInstagram: @RichardTaiteOfficialFacebook: @RichardTaiteOfficial View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE We're Out of Time Podcast Sign in to access your portfolio

Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump may have to choose: Making trade deals or keeping his car tariffs
President Donald Trump is telling domestic audiences he won't cut his 25 percent tariffs on foreign cars as part of any trade deals he negotiates. But other countries — who collectively send millions of vehicles to the U.S. each year — haven't gotten that message. Trading partners like the EU, Japan and South Korea are laboring under the impression that the auto tariffs, which Trump imposed in April, are still on the table, according to two people familiar with the talks between Trump officials and those countries, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. If Trump is really unwilling to lower or eliminate his tariffs on foreign cars, it could prove to be a major hurdle to securing meaningful trade deals with some of the country's top trading partners. Japan, South Korea and Germany sold more than $121 billion in cars and car parts in the U.S. in 2024. The White House did not answer when asked if auto tariffs were on the table for negotiations and instead reiterated the goal of the tariffs. 'No president has taken a greater interest in reviving America's once-dominant auto industry than President Trump, and the auto industry is a key focus of the Trump administration's trade and economic policies,' said Kush Desai, a White House spokesperson. 'Discussions with our major trading partners continue, and the Trump administration continues to seek better trade deals for American industries and workers.' A decision to lift the tariffs for more countries, particularly those whose companies compete most fiercely with American carmakers, risks alienating a powerful manufacturing bloc and undercutting a central tenet of Trump's trade agenda — forcing companies to build more products in the U.S. The Trump administration has assured American automakers that when it comes to auto tariffs being used as a bargaining chip, they have 'nothing to worry about,' according to a person familiar with discussions between the administration and Detroit's 'Big Three' auto companies, granted anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the talks. Trump has said a deal to lower the tariff on a small number of British cars, announced last month, was an exception. 'I won't do that deal with cars' for other countries, Trump said when announcing the terms of negotiation with the U.K. on May 8. The British auto brand Rolls-Royce is 'a very special car and it's a very limited number too. It's not one of the monster car companies that makes millions of cars,' he noted. Even that agreement, which lowered the tariff on 100,000 cars, less than 1 percent of total U.S. annual car sales, drew a sharp rebuke from U.S. automakers. 'This hurts American automakers, suppliers, and auto workers,' the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, said at the time, saying they hoped it 'does not set a precedent for future negotiations with Asian and European competitors.' The tension between the two goals — boosting domestic auto production while also negotiating delicate agreements to lower trade barriers — highlights the challenge facing the administration as it races to secure deals with dozens of countries before the president's double-digit 'reciprocal' tariffs are slated to kick back in next month. 'To ease the sting of those tariffs on the auto sectors for Korea and Japan is of course a high priority for them,' said Michael Beeman, a former assistant U.S. trade representative who focused on Japan and South Korea. 'I think for those countries, to be able to declare success from the talks at home, they would expect some sort of consideration." The auto tariffs have already been a sticking point in negotiations with Japan and South Korea, both of which are invested in maintaining a high level of domestic auto manufacturing. Auto exports from South Korea to the U.S. have exploded over the past 20 years, from $8.7 billion in 2005 to $37.3 billion in 2024, according to data collected by the Census Bureau. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has said publicly that any trade deal with Japan would have to result in lower auto tariffs. Now, as the two countries are on their fifth round of talks, with a planned meeting between Ishiba and Trump at the G7 in Canada in two weekends, both countries are projecting optimism about a deal. "I think we'll also need to address, at a minimum, the auto [Section] 232 tariffs,' said Wendy Cutler, a former negotiator with the U.S. trade representative's office and the vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said when asked what it would take to get a deal with Japan. Cutler said any deal with Japan or South Korea could have a lower tariff for a certain number of vehicles, similar to the deal with the U.K. Or, 'they could also just be very vague and say that the U.S. notes Japan's concern on the auto tariffs, and both sides agree to negotiate possible lowering of the tariffs in this detailed negotiation to follow," she said. Trump has already agreed to lower tariffs on automobiles once. In his first trade agreement since imposing a global 10 percent tariff on nearly every U.S. trading partner and potentially higher rates on more than 60 countries, Trump struck an agreement with the U.K. that would allow the country to ship 100,000 vehicles into the country at a 10 percent tariff — lower than the current 25 percent tariff on automobiles and auto parts. The deal drew condemnation from American automakers, who noted that it meant a lower tariff on cars imported from the U.K. than on North American-made cars that include U.S.-made parts. They expressed concern that lowering tariffs with major auto manufacturing countries like Japan, South Korea and Germany would make it more expensive to build cars with parts from North America — creating an unfair playing field and effectively undercutting the administration's effort to boost domestic auto manufacturing. Vehicles made across the integrated North American supply chain still face a 25 percent tariff on non-U.S. made content, even if the vehicle is compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that Trump negotiated in his first term. The Trump administration has continued to press foreign automakers to move production to the U.S. Last week, Trump met with German automakers, who offered $100 billion in investment in the U.S., according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Trump — and Republicans on Capitol Hill — say those commitments are a sign that tariffs are working. "They make BMWs in South Carolina, Volvo. They make Mercedes in Alabama,' Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) pointed out during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday. Under Trump, 'They're talking about making the engine now in South Carolina. They're talking about more content in South Carolina.' There has yet to be an uptick in U.S. auto manufacturing, however, a reminder that the investment pledges will take years to fully develop. Auto manufacturing jobs held steady between April and May, though there were 2,240 fewer auto manufacturing jobs in May, compared to 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While welcoming the announcements, the Trump White House has given no indication the investment pledges will convince the president to lower auto tariffs on foreign countries. 'I mean, unless somebody shows me that there's another kind of a car that's comparable to a Rolls-Royce,' Trump said in May, 'and there aren't too many.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
British Netflix series Adolescence to be shown in French schools, says minister of education
Following UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcoming plans to air Netflix's hit show Adolescence in secondary schools, France is following suit, with French Minister of Education Élisabeth Borne stating yesterday that the mini-series will be screened from secondary school level upwards. In an interview for LCI news channel, Borne explained that the producer of the series 'gave us the rights' and that the Ministry of Education was therefore going to 'offer five educational sequences for young people based on this series'.These extracts from Adolescence, which have already been shown in British schools to stimulate debate and try to 'prevent young boys from being dragged into a whirlpool of hatred and misogyny,' are 'very representative of the violence that can exist among young people', according to Borne. The aim is to help raise awareness of the problem of 'overexposure to screens and the trivialisation of violence on these social networks,' as well as the spread of masculinist theories and misogyny, argues Borne. The four-part series follows how a father deals with the fallout of his 13-year-old son being suspected of stabbing one of his classmates to death. Beyond the spot-on acting, the show has felt like a cultural wake-up call, as it has prompted a wider discussion about toxic masculinity and the devastating influence of the so-called 'manosphere' on young minds who are faced with websites and online forums promoting misogyny and ultra-conservative models of masculinity that flirt with far-right ideologies. When it was confirmed that Netflix would be making the series available to all UK secondary schools, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote a column for the Daily Mail saying that he didn't see the good in the initiative, calling the show 'tosh'. He wrote: 'In making this announcement with full prime ministerial authority amid the ancient solemnity of the cabinet room, Keir Starmer has perfectly encapsulated the fundamental flatulence of the government, and its emetic finger-wagging mixture of humbug and wokery.' Johnson went on to say that he believes the move to show the series in school time demonstrates the government's 'cruel indifference to the real educational needs of children today,' adding: 'In case you haven't watched Adolescence I can save you the bother. It's tosh - well-acted tosh.' Predictably, Johnson also introduced race to his argument, saying that 'unlike the teenage couple in this drama, the victims and perpetrators are disproportionately young black males.' The show's co-creator Jack Thorne has already spoken out on this theory, saying, 'It's absurd to say that (knife crime) is only committed by black boys. It's not true and history shows a lot of cases of kids from all races committing these crimes.' Thorne also stated that the goal of the show was not about 'making a point about race' but to make a point 'about masculinity.' 'We're trying to get inside a problem,' he added. 'We're not saying this is one thing or another, we're saying that this is about boys.' The decision to show the series in French schools comes after Laëtitia Curetti, who has a 13-year-old son, wrote to Borne and launched an online petition to have the series shown in secondary schools across France. Curetti stated she believes the series could be an 'excellent educational tool' to raise awareness of the dangers of social networking, sexism, bullying and violence in schools. The discussion surrounding knife crime has increased since the success of the series in France. It has been further amplified after a 16-year-old stabbed a high school student to death and injured three other fellow students at the lycée Notre-Dame de Toutes Aides in Nantes on 24 April. "My thoughts go out first to the teenager who lost her life, to the three students who were injured, and I want to express all my support and solidarity to these victims, their families and their loved ones," declared Borne at the school, before paying tribute to the "establishment staff who intervened and neutralized the attacker." French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau spoke of "a tragedy that rocks us." He said he was "appalled" and "shocked" by "the violence that has been unleashed," before adding that the tragic incident was "not a mere news item but a societal issue."