The Briefing Room

As parts of Europe struggle to contain Covid cases we ask what that means for them and us. The World Health Organisation has warned that another 500,000 people in Europe could die of Covid by March next year unless countries take urgent action to control the spread of the virus. Austria – the country with the lowest vaccination rate in western Europe - has become the first country to legally require people to have the vaccine from next February. The German health minister has said the country is in a national emergency that could result in another national lockdown. There have been riots in the Netherlands in response to new Covid restrictions. So why is the situation so dire, what’s being done about it and what risk does the crisis on the continent pose to the UK?Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are:Dr Louise Blair, Lead analyst in vaccines and covid variants at the health analytics firm, Airfinity. Dr Clemens Auer, Special Envoy for Health for the Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection of Austria. He was Austria’s Covid co-ordinator until March. Professor Martin McKee, Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Professor Sheena Cruickshank, Immunologist at the University of Manchester. Dr Raghib Ali, Senior Clinical Research Associate, University of CambridgeProducers: Ben Carter, John Murphy and Kirsteen Knight Editor: Richard Vadon Studio Engineer: Rod Farquhar Production Co-ordinator: Siobhan Reed

For years China has been perhaps the most important economic engine driving growth around the world. Earlier this year it bounced back from the Covid shutdowns with double-digit growth. Global demand for Chinese-made products has been booming. But this week growth figures have dropped dramatically. The country has been experiencing an energy and property crisis. So, is the bubble bursting? And should we be worried?Joining David Aaronovitch in the Briefing Room are:Celia Hatton, the BBC's Asia Pacific Editor Dr. Philip Andrews-Speed, Senior Principal Fellow at the Energy Studies Institute of the National University of Singapore George Magnus, Research Associate at the China Centre, Oxford University Tom Orlik, Chief Economist at Bloomberg Economics Dr. Keyu Jin, Associate Professor of Economics at the London School of EconomicsProducers: John Murphy, Soila Apparicio, Kirsteen Knight Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot Editor: Jasper CorbettImage: Chenzhou in China during a blackout Credit: Alamy

For decades the difficult problem of social care - how to fund it, how to provide it - has been kicked into the long grass by government after government. But last month the Prime Minister announced a policy which he said meant no-one would have to sell their house to fund their social care. He also promised more money for social care - though not immediately. A "health and social care levy" is to be created through an increase in National Insurance contributions. So is the problem of social care being fixed? Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are:Alison Holt, BBC Social Affairs Editor Peter Beresford, visiting Professor in the School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia Sally Warren, Director of Social Policy at the King's Fund Jill Manthorpe, Professor of Social Work and Director, NIHR Health & Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King's College London. Producers: John Murphy, Soila Apparicio, Kirsteen Knight Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot Editor: Jasper Corbett

According to campaigners, Britain has some of the dirtiest rivers in Europe. Sewage, slurry from farms and chemicals are all a problem, too often ending up in our rivers. The parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee estimates that the discharge of raw sewage accounts for 55% of rivers in England and Wales failing to reach good ecological status. Not one river has good chemical status. So what's going wrong and what can be done to fix it? Joining David Aaronovitch in the Briefing Room are:Olivia Rudgard, Environment Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph Peter Hammond, retired Professor of Computational Biology at University College London Rachel Salvidge, Deputy Editor of ENDS Report Steve Ormerod, Professor of Ecology and Co-Director of the Water Research Institute, Cardiff UniversityProducers: John Murphy, Kirsteen Knight, Soila Apparicio Sound Engineer: Neil Churchill Editor: Jasper CorbettPhoto: Chemical Pollution from Industrial Outfall Pouring into River Mersey UK. Credit: Avalon/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

When a collage of digital images was sold in New York earlier this year for £50 million, the art world was convulsed. The reason? The picture couldn't be hung on a wall and was only visible online. What had been bought and sold was the non-fungible token - or NFT - relating to the collage. David Aaronovitch and his guests discover how NFTs work for those who sell and those who buy them and also consider if NFTs are a passing fad or an aspect of our culture that is becoming increasingly common and might lead to the emergence of a future John Constable or Tracy Emin, eventually spreading to and influencing other art forms.Enter the Briefing Room and find out why collectors are investing in NFTs; how easy it is to spot a fake and what you can do about it; and whether non-fungibles will be an enduring part of the artistic - and investment - worlds in the years ahead.Those taking part include: Georgina Adam of The Art Newspaper; investor in NFTs and co-founder and chief executive of the Arts and culture portal Vastari, Bernardine Bröcker Wieder; and the art historian, former art dealer and presenter of the BBC FOUR series, Britain's Lost Masterpieces, Bendor Grosvenor.Producers Simon Coates and Bob Howard Editor Jasper CorbettImage: Visitors to "Machine Hallucinations - Space: Metaverse" by Refik Anadol, which will be auctioned online as an NFT at Sothebys, at the Digital Art Fair, Hong Kong Credit: REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

The Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, has said there is 'no question of the lights going out' this winter as a result of a huge rise in gas prices. But many smaller energy companies are struggling to stay afloat as they are unable to pass on the higher wholesale costs of gas to their customers because of the energy price cap. Labour has accused the government of complacency when it comes to energy supplies. Some Conservatives have warned of a tricky winter ahead. So what lies behind the current problems, and what can be done to stop it happening again? Joining David Aaronovitch are :David Sheppard, Energy Editor at the Financial Times Dr Sharon George, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science, University of Keele Michael Bradshaw Professor of Global Energy at the Warwick Business School Sir Dieter Helm, Professor of Economic Policy at the University of OxfordProducers: John Murphy, Kirsteen Knight, Soila Apparicio Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot Editor: Jasper Corbett

Government ministers have been blowing hot and cold about vaccine passports. Now the Westminster government says it is not planning to introduce them to England, though they're being kept as an option should things change. The Welsh government is thinking about them, while Northern Ireland has rejected them for now. In Scotland vaccine passports are coming in on October 1st for nightclubs and large venues. But booster jabs are coming across the UK. The roll-out for over-50s, frontline health workers and vulnerable groups will begin in days. Joining David Aaronovitch to ask if we need vaccine passports and boosters are:Laure Millet, head of the healthcare policy programme at the Institut Montaigne in Paris Melinda Mills, Professor of Demography at the University of Oxford and Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science Azra Ghani, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London Natasha Loder, Health Policy Editor at The EconomistProducers: John Murphy, Kirsteen Knight, Soila Apparicio Editor: Jasper Corbett

At the start of the first pandemic lockdown the government announced a £20 uplift for those receiving Universal Credit, the benefit designed to help those of working age with their living costs. It made clear at the time that the extra money was temporary and, in the coming weeks, payments will start to be reduced. But is a cliff-edge drop in the income of more than two-and-a-half million families the right step to be taking? And how best are the UK's poorest to be supported with the country still recovering from the pandemic?David Aaronovitch and his guests evaluate how well Universal Credit has been helping those in and out of work and what the uplift has achieved for families and single person households. Is giving more money to claimants the most effective way of helping them in the post-pandemic economy? Or, with prices rising for household essentials, should the government now be thinking about other measures to help those struggling to make ends meet?How do we help the least well-off while being fair to taxpayers and not subsidising employers paying low wages?Those taking part (in order of appearance): Fran Bennett of the Department for Social Policy & Intervention at Oxford University; Tom Waters, Senior Research Economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies; Gemma Tetlow, Chief Economist at the Institute for Government; and Deven Ghelani, founder of the social policy business, Policy in Practice.Producers Simon Coates, Jim Booth and Kirsteen Knight Editor Jasper Corbett

The Taliban takeover over of Afghanistan has left millions of people internally displaced and hundreds of thousands more hoping to leave the country soon. Where will these Afghan refugees try to go and how will they be received by different countries?Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are:Camille Le Coz, Policy Analyst with Migration Policy Institute.Michael Semple, Professor at the Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen's University Belfast and former UN co-ordinator for the Bamiyan region in Afghanistan.Peter Walsh, researcher in migration at the Migration Observatory.Dominic Casciani, BBC Home and Legal correspondentProducers: Ben Carter, Kirsteen Knight and Sharon Hemans Studio Manager: James Beard Production Co-ordinator: Iona Hammond Editors: Alison Gee and Jasper Corbett

HS2, a high-speed railway linking up London, the Midlands and the North of England has been in development for more than a decade. It was described by Boris Johnson as the ‘spine’ of a new network to deal with the ‘great musculoskeletal problem of UK transport’. The ‘spine’ is costing an arm and a leg. In 2012 the project was priced at £32.7bn. That was revised to £55bn in 2015. Last year a review by civil engineer Doug Oakervee said the final figure could top £100bn. The Chancellor Rishi Sunak has already warned that Covid has severely damaged public finances and that will likely impact decisions made in the comprehensive spending review taking place this autumn. So how is HS2 progressing and is its completion threatened by its rising costs?Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are -Nick Kingsley, Managing Editor of Railway Gazette International Bridget Rosewell, Commissioner, National Infrastructure Commission George Parker, political editor at the Financial Times Tony Travers, Professor in the School of Public Policy at the London School of EconomicsProducers: Ben Carter, Kirsteen Knight and Sharon Hemans Editor: Jasper Corbett Sound Engineer: Neil Churchill