Kevin Cashman

And just when it comes to China, I think that that's a really interesting question because we've also done research.

My, my colleague and the co-author of the report, Kevin Cashman, wrote a very, um, interesting piece, uh, earlier this year on transatlantic energy relationships and basically looking at the, the energy investments taken by different countries after the invasion of Ukraine in, in 2022.

What he was able to show was that European countries pursued a very specific strategy at that point.

They didn't pursue sort of green investments.

In today's episode, we'll be looking at, first, should the UK really commit to an arbitrary 3.5% target for defence spending? Second, the IMF's World Economic Outlook report and what's missing from it? And third, the ongoing unrest and protests against conditions in the French education system.

Our first story this week looks at a brilliant and timely report from Kevin Cashman and Kem Rogali at the Transition Security Project that shreds the ridiculous non-debates we've been forced into over defence spending.

Under former Prime Minister Keir Starmer, if anyone remembers him, the UK signed up to NATO's 3.5% of GDP defence spending target in June 2025.

Since then, debate in this country has been dominated almost entirely by a fixation on achieving this absurdly round number in as quick a time as possible, with Starmer indicating it would be met by 2035.