Mr Downer is Executive Chair of the International School for Government at King’s College London. From 2014 to 2018, Mr Downer was Australian High Commissioner to the UK. Prior to that, he was Australia’s longest-serving Minister for Foreign Affairs, a role he held from 1996 to 2007. Mr Downer also served as Opposition Leader and leader of the Liberal Party of Australia from 1994 to 1995 and was Member of the Australian Parliament for Mayo for over 20 years. In addition to a range of other political and diplomatic roles, he was Executive Director of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Advisor on Cyprus, in which he worked on peace talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. He is currently Chairman of the UK think tank Policy Exchange, the Chairman of the Royal Overseas League and is a trustee of the International Crisis Group. He is a non-executive director of Yellowcake PLC Mr Downer has a BA (Hons) in Politics and Economics and an honorary DCL from Newcastle University (UK) and has honorary doctorates from the University of Adelaide, the University of South Australia and Bar Ilan University.

Michael Holmes is an award-winning anchor and correspondent for CNN International based at the network's headquarters in Atlanta. Holmes, who has been in journalism for more than four decades, anchors CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes on Saturdays and Sundays at 12am, 2am and 3am ET, as well as CNN Newsroom alongside Natalie Allen on Mondays at 12am and 1am ET. Holmes, who joined CNNI in 1996 as the first Australian anchor for the network, has reported extensively from all corners of the globe including Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Mexico, India, Nepal, Africa, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Most recently he reported on the Central American migrant crisis from the Mexico-Guatemala border and on the drowning deaths of a man from El Salvador and his young daughter, whose bodies were found together on the banks of the Rio Grande after trying to cross into the United States. Other recent assignments have included covering the deadly protests on the Gaza-Israel border, the Israeli elections and the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. READ MORE...