Battle Lines

As Donald Trump reshapes global trade and cuts foreign aid, countries around the world are being forced to adapt fast - and some leaders are doing better than others.

Among them is Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema, who was voted No. 5 in The Telegraph's World Leaders 2025 for turning his country into a prize both Trump and Xi Jinping covet despite enormous economic headwinds.

The Telegraph's Ben Farmer visited Zambia t...

Two days on from Donald Trump’s extraordinary capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, the dust has barely begun to settle.

Maduro is appearing today in a New York court where he will be charged with “narco-terrorism” and conspiracy to import cocaine, which can carry life sentences under US law.

But Maduro is not the only loser in all of this. Iran, Russia and China have all lost a valuable client - one who sold them oil,...

In the early hours of this morning, US President Donald Trump gave the order for the Pentagon to bomb Venezuela’s capital Caracas and capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, along with his wife. 

Trump has just given a press conference in Mar-A Lago sharing fresh details. 

In this emergency bonus episode of Battle Lines, Venetia is joined by The Telegraph's Chief US Correspondent Rob Crilly to cover everything we ...

From Taiwan to Estonia and Latvia, the prospect of World War Three feels closer than ever - that is unless you're one of those people who thinks it's already begun.

Peter Apps, Reuters' Global Defence Commentator, is not one of those people, but he does think there is a 30-35% chance of it erupting in the next decade. He talks to Roland and Venetia about what it might look like, where it might start, when and how to prevent it.

Bird-flu, bombs and asteroids: are we heading for disaster in 2026? What are the biggest threats to global health security in 2026? Is it bird flu? Or the rising threat posed by nuclear weapons? Could we even be hit by an asteroid?

Dr Becky Alexis-Martin, a Lecturer in Peace Studies at the University of Bradford and an expert on nuclear weapons, argues that the threat they pose will continue to rise in the new year.

Paul Nuki...

This episode goes straight to the jugular of modern air power and asks a brutally simple question: has the last great manned fighter already been born?

Roland is joined by Tom Withington of Royal United Services Institute and Sophy Antrobus from King’s College London, two people who actually know what they’re talking about when it comes to fighter jets. They unpack the mystery and the hype surrounding the sixth generation fighte...

This has been a year when the world lurched from crisis to crisis at breakneck speed. Trump back in power. America wavering on Europe and Ukraine. China strutting with new confidence. Russia grinding on. Iran bombed. Gaza paused. If you feel dizzy you are not alone.

Venetia is joined by Adelie Pojzman-Pontay from Ukraine the Latest and Asia correspondent Allegra Mendelson to take a sharp eyed look back at the moments that matter...

On this week’s episode of Battle Lines Global Health Security, international photojournalist Simon Townsley joins Arthur Scott-Geddes and Sophie O’Sullivan to share his most memorable photographs of 2025. 

From visiting mpox quarantine zones in Sierra Leone, to bat caves infected with marburg virus, Simon explains the value and pitfalls of ‘parachute’ journalism.  

This year alone, Simon has traveled to Sierra...

In this special festive edition of Battle Lines, Roland Oliphant and Dominic Nicholls cut through the tinsel to tell a story that actually matters.

In aid of, The Not Forgotten, a charity born out of the carnage of the First World War, they are joined by Hari Budha Magar, a Gurkha veteran who lost both his legs while serving in Afghanistan. From a remote village in Nepal to the battlefields of Afghanistan, Harry r...

Former UK ambassador Laurie Bristow speaks to Roland and delivers a blunt and unsettling warning about the state of the world and Britain’s place in it. Drawing on more than three decades at the heart of the Foreign Office, including some of the most dangerous postings of modern times, he argues we are living through the most volatile and complex global moment of our lifetimes.

From war returning to Europe and the rise of China,...

Have you ever been scammed? If you have, the chances are that it happened somewhere in Asia. Often overseen by Chinese criminal gangs, the places where these scams are happening have become hubs for people trafficking, drugs trade, and prostitution.

On today's episode, Venetia speaks to Global Health Security Correspondent Sarah Newey, who has visited Sin City in Laos, a scam centre hotspot. She tells us about what happens insid...

Today, Britain’s MI6 chief delivered a chilling message: the frontline is now everywhere.

Look around the world and the evidence is overwhelming. From Ukraine to Gaza to Sudan, violence is spreading fast and growing more lethal by the month. New data from ACLED shows that Europe is now the most intense conflict zone on the planet - a fact that should shock anyone in the West still clinging to the idea that war happens elsewhere....

Britain's military has seen better days - that much everyone can agree on.

Enter ex-Royal Marine Commando Colonel Alistair Scott Carns, aka Wee Al, the UK's brand new Minister for Armed Forces. Part of the fresh batch of Labour MPs who entered Parliament in 2024, he has risen quickly through the Ministry of Defence and is considered "one to watch".

Carns sat down with The Telegraph's associated defence editor Dominic Nichol...

As global landmine casualties reach a four-year high, Venetia is joined by Major General James Cowan, former British Army commander in Iraq and Afghanistan and now CEO of The HALO Trust.He lays out why he believes foreign aid and defense are inseparable, how clearing weapons post-conflict shapes global health and security outcomes, and why Britain’s safety begins far beyond its own borders.

From minefields in Ukraine and Syria t...

Donald Trump has detonated a political earthquake with a National Security Strategy that doesn’t just tweak America’s global role, it torches seven decades of US foreign policy. In a move that’s left European allies stunned and scrambling, Trump’s new blueprint casts Europe as weak, directionless and on the brink of “civilisational erasure,” while pointedly avoiding calling Russia a threat.

And guess who’s absolutely thrilled? ...

Ajax was meant to be the British Army’s modern embodiment of the mighty Greek warrior, strong, unbreakable, unstoppable. Instead, it’s become a national embarrassment. This week the Army suspended the entire fleet after 31 soldiers fell ill inside vehicles that were supposed to protect them. We’re talking tingling hands, ringing ears and troops vomiting on Salisbury Plain.

It’s a £6.3 billion “world-beating” programme that’s be...

Nigeria is facing a security crisis. Extremist violence, mass kidnappings and deepening food insecurity has created what the UN has called the country’s worst emergency in a decade.

Recent weeks have seen a spate of high profile abductions, including 300 schoolgirls and teachers from Niger state.

Security officials now fear these pupils could be used as human shields to deter a military intervention being threatened by the ...

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced the return of military service in the country, 25 years after mandatory national service was phased out. And he's not alone, with the German parliament set to vote on similar measures, while Belgium and the Netherlands have already introduced voluntary military service.

But what do the measures entail exactly? How effective, or even necessary are they, and will the UK follow suit?

Donald Trump’s latest effort to end the war in Ukraine unleashed a week of diplomatic turmoil.

And some of the most dramatic diplomatic twists and turns bear the finger prints of one man: Jonathan Powell, the British national security advisor, not only led a diplomatic rescue mission to recast Donald Trump’s original Russian-inspired proposals in Ukraine and Europe’s favour. His influence can also be seen in Anglo-French plans f...