Battle Lines

One of the darling's of the global populist movement, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, has recently been sentenced to over 27 years in prison in his native country. So what does that tell us about the possible fortunes for other political leaders of the same ilk across the globe, and where does the South American country go from here?

Roland hears from the Telegraph's senior foreign correspondent Adrian Blomfield, who ...

Is the UN still relevant? The organisation faces numerous unresolved conflicts, a cash crisis, deep polarisation among its members, a bloated bureaucracy and the waning interest of its biggest backer, the US.

Venetia Rainey speaks to Richard Gowan, veteran UN watcher and UN director for the US think tank International Crisis Group. He says the body is “rotting from the top” and questions if parts of it will survive another 10 ye...

What links Elon Musk, Steve Bannon and Tommy Robinson? They all believe England is on the cusp of civil war. As US President Donald Trump wraps up his second state visit to the UK, hosts Venetia Rainey and Roland Oliphant examine the darker side of the transatlantic “special relationship” — from American support for the British far-right to the spread of populist extremism across borders.

They’re joined by Rob Crilly, The T...

In a bombshell report, the UN has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza for the first time. Chris Sidoti, one of the report's authors and a human rights law expert, explains why on this bonus episode of Battle Lines. 

Speaking to host Venetia Rainey and Telegraph reporter Lilia Sebouai, he delves into the report's findings, how his team reached their conclusions, and concrete examples of Israeli genocidal acts and&n...

The assassination of Charlie Kirk marks more than a shocking act of political violence - it is a symptom of America’s accelerating era of violent populism, and it will continue to escalate without intervention.

That's according to Robert Pape, one of the world’s foremost experts on political violence, terrorism, and national security and director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats.Roland speaks to Pape about wh...

It's been a week of big developments, with Nato planes scrambled after Russia sent more than a dozen drones into Polish airspace, and Qatar on high alert after Israel bombed a Hamas negotiating team in the centre of Doha. Roland and Venetia unpack the significance of the events and what might happen next. 

Plus, the team spends a day at DSEI, one of the world's largest arms fairs, to look at how the UK is getting its armed ...

For three generations the Kim dynasty has ruled North Korea with ruthless precision. Now Kim Jong Un appears to be grooming his 12-year-old daughter, Kim Ju Ae, as his heir—a bold move in a country where women have never held power. At the same time, reports surface of a disastrous US Navy SEALs mission to bug Kim’s communications, ending in civilian deaths. So what does all this tell us about the Hermit Kingdom’s future, its ties ...

Andrew and Jihi Bustamante aren’t your average married couple — they met inside the CIA and their romance played out under the shadow of espionage. In this gripping conversation, they reveal how they fell in love during training, the reality of life inside America’s most secretive agency, and how a mole within the CIA blew their cover. Love, lies, and life on the frontline of the new spy war.

https://linktr.ee/BattleLines

Con...

China's biggest ever military parade boasted sophisticated new weapons, thousands of goose-stepping troops, and a guest list designed to put the West on notice. 

The footage of Chinese President Xi Jinping walking in between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in particular was a clear message to the US, Europe and its democratic allies: Beijing now officially heads up a new world order of a...

As the war for Sudan's Darfur region heats up, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are stepping up their brutal siege on the last remaining army stronghold of El Fasher, with new satellite pictures showing a wall being built around the northern city.

The RSF have been accused of genocide for conducting a campaign of violence, rape and murder against Darfur's non-Arab communities. Famine has been declared in the region and millions ha...

As the old cliché goes, the first casualty when war comes is truth.

In the past week, Israel has denied that it has caused a famine in Gaza, accusing the UN-backed body behind the report of a “blood libel”, and killed five more journalists in a widely condemned double-tap attack on a hospital. 

It is part of a wider trend that has made getting to the facts of the war in Gaza difficult.

To understand how a war on trut...

How can Nato make itself future-ready? What are the biggest threats facing Western democracy? And what black swan event helped change the course of the First World War?

To find out, Venetia chats to Dr Gabriele Rizzo, a defence futurist and foresight strategist whose job is to imagine different possibilities and help his clients prepare for them. 

He has years of experience working with the US Space Force, NATO, the Ital...

In his desperate attempt to win the Nobel Peace Prize, President Trump claims to have ended at least six wars around the world. But how does that stack up in reality? 

In this episode Roland Oliphant hears from Telegraph correspondents Adrian Blomfield and Sarah Newey alongside Caucasus expert James Kilner about Trump’s actual involvement, or not, in halting these conflicts and how likely it is that he’ll win the prize he s...

Eighty years on from Victory over Japan day in 1945, the contribution of British and Commonwealth soldiers in a brutal battle against the Imperial Japanese armed forces is often overlooked. The fact that the dropping of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved the lives of many in prisoner of war camps is even less discussed. 

Featuring voicenotes from readers whose family fought in Asia and the Pacific, Venetia and...

As US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin get ready to meet in Alaska, there has been lots of talk about what Washington, Moscow and even Europe want from the historic summit.

But what about Ukrainians? What do they want? To find out, Roland speaks to former Ukrainian defence minister and chairman of the Center for Defence Strategies Andriy Zagorodnyuk and veteran frontline soldier Max Kuzmenko.

Plus, Ukra...

Australia holds a unique position in global geopolitics - on the other side of the world but still very much a 'Western' country.

To that end, Roland Oliphant speaks with former Australian Defence Minister Christopher Pyne about the delicate balancing act his country faces in dealing with an increasingly sharp-elbowed China; and whether President Trump will stand by the AUKUS nuclear submarine pact with Australia.

Als...

Nuclear weapons are back. 

This week, Moscow announced that it would no longer abide by the once hugely significant Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Last week, President Donald Trump announced that he had moved nuclear submarines towards Russia.

From growing stockpiles in China and North Korea, to growing cooperation between the UK and France, the direction of travel is clear. 

As Japan marks the 8...

Amid growing international outrage over an unfolding famine in Gaza, lack of aid supplies and the high death toll in the ongoing war, Israel is increasingly isolated on the world stage. 

Last week, several of Israel's major Western allies - the UK, France and Canada - set out a timetable for recognising a Palestinian state. In the following days, an apparently emboldened Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad both released fre...

Will China invade Taiwan? If so, when and what signs should we look for that will show it is imminent? How exactly could Beijing seize the island? And what would the US do in response? These questions have been at the core of Indo-Pacific security concerns for decades, but in recent years, the threat has become more tangible - and the questions more urgent. 

In the final episode of this three-part series on China's military...