Prologue – Circling Russia and the Nature of Evil Artificial Intelligence, appearing this year in what the Germans would call my Umfeld — my environment — in a multitude of ways is giving me the writing and thinking assistance for which I’ve always craved. This therefore is perhaps the address I wish I could have given to … Read more …
Thoughts on Ukraine/Gaza and climate/Gaia and the paradoxical power of AI. There is no shortage of noise about war in our world today. Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Venezuela, Taiwan — the names change, but the pattern doesn’t. Group upon group, tribe upon tribe, nation upon nation, we replay the same ancient theatre of violence, each side … Read more …
Rather good to be back in rainy November Berlin, visiting friends now old, like us, in every sense of the word (50 years history and more), standing once again at the literal line that divided Europe and massively shaped both our lives. This place connects directly to old friends. The pastor of the original Versöhnungskirche, … Read more …
It’s been extraordinarily good fun to talk to Ian Sanders of the Cold War Conversations podcast about my times as student and reporter in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe through the 70s and 80s, and here’s the final episode, focusing on Romania. As Ian writes on the shownotes, Mark Brayne worked as a Reuters … Read more …
As this website has been updated, in April 2025, I’m now making accessible literally ALL the raw cassettes I recorded first as BBC World Service Central Europe Correspondent based in Vienna (1981-84), then as BBC Radio China Correspondent (1984-1987), and on to BBC World Service Diplomatic Correspondent (1988-1992) as I covered the end of the … Read more …
It was tremendous fun discussing with Ian Sanders of Cold War Conversations my years first as student in East Germany and the Soviet Union in 1971/72, and then covering the communist world for the next 20 years for Reuters and the BBC. Click the screenshots below for the recordings – first covering my student days … Read more …
I’m not quite sure how this post will unfold, other than to know that a) like my despatches from Beijing or the Cold War’s diplomatic frontline it will probably be too long, and that b) some old BBC friends and colleagues may already be sighing, “Oh dear, there he goes again.” Prompted by Fergal Keane … Read more …
To say that Russia and the ex-Soviet space is complicated (think war journalist Arkady Babchenko, whose back-from-the-dead story unfolded during our spring 2018 trip here) is something of an understatement. As we’ve travelled (not by bike this time), we’ve of course been aware and on occasion reminded of unpleasant undercurrents that remain, both Soviet and … Read more …
Rather than posting the full story on Facebook, here’s the concluding exchange BBC’s response to my complaint last month over John Humphrys’ interview with Tony Blair over Brexit. First their response, then my response to their response, then my original (3rd in this series) complaint. 9 February 2018 Dear Mr Brayne, Today, Radio 4, 4 … Read more …
Three thoughts – one positive, one neutral and one apocalyptic – as Jutta and I prepare for a month’s tandeming through Central Europe from the Baltics to Bavaria. To start with apocalypse (but please read on for two alternative views), listening to Farage and his kind I’m afraid I can’t help thinking of the late 1980s … Read more …