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 for a “coalition of the willing,” and even earlier this year in Donald Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan.

He is a low-profile figure who wields real influence. So can the man who some have called Britain’s Henry Kissinger guide the war in Ukraine to a peaceful and palatable conclusion? Is his philosophy of engagement suited to grappling with Putin’s Kremlin? And have the week’s acrobatics brought Ukraine and Russia any closer to peace?

David Blair, the Telegraph’s chief foreign affairs commentator, and Orysia Lutsevych, the head of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House, joins Roland Oliphant on this edition of Battle Lines.

David Blair on Jonathan Powell:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/25/jonathan-powell-britains-kissinger-ukraine/

For blow-by-blow coverage of the peace talks, follow Ukraine the Latest: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/02/russia-ukraine-war-listen-daily-podcast/

► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor

https://linktr.ee/BattleLines

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With conflicts raging around the world, aid budgets are being slashed in favour of defence spending. 

But experts are warning that cutting aid may not just hurt the world’s most vulnerable, it could make life in Britain more dangerous.

This week, Lord Dannatt, the former head of the British Army, tells Venetia and Arthur why cutting aid to boost defence actually makes us less safe. 

Plus we hear from the author of a new Chatham House report, Olivia O'Sullivan, about the risk of China filling the power gap and the impact on global health.

Producer: Sophie O'Sullivan

Executive Producer: Louisa Wells

Studio Operator: Meghan Searle

Read Lord Dannatt's Telegraph article here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/24/britain-invest-security-sudan-dangerous-world/

► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@ascottgeddes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Xi Jinping is the most authoritarian and longest serving Chinese leader since Mao - and probably the most powerful man on earth. But what makes him tick, and what does is upbringing tell us about his behaviour today?

Joseph Torigian spent nine years researching this question. The result is The Party's Interests Comes First - a biography of Xi's father, Xi Zhongxun. Torigan sat down with Roland Oliphant to discuss what he discovered about Xi's family history, and how it's shaping China and the world today.

► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor

https://linktr.ee/BattleLines

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TNT, the unglamorous but indispensable ingredient of modern warfare, is now in critically short supply and Britain is feeling the consequences. A new parliamentary report warns that the UK’s war-fighting readiness is being eroded not only by dwindling stockpiles but by its failure to meet Nato Article 3 obligations to maintain the capacity to resist armed attack.

The shortage of TNT is particularly alarming: Europe and the United States currently rely on a single Polish factory, a fragility that exposes the entire alliance to strategic risk. Ministers insist they are responding, with Defence Secretary John Healey outlining plans for up to 13 new British factories to produce munitions and explosives. But the pace remains slow.

In this episode, Venetia speaks to Joakim Sjöblom, CEO of Sweden Ballistics, about his bid to build Europe's next TNT plant and gets reaction from The Telegraph’s acting defence editor Tom Cotterill on how serious the crisis really is.

► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor

https://linktr.ee/BattleLines

Credit: Sgt Robert Weideman / MoD

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More children are being killed by explosive weapons than at any other time in history, according to a major new report by Save the Children and Imperial College London.

It’s clear there has been a shift in the way wars are being fought, and children are being caught in the crosshairs. 

In this exclusive interview, Arthur and Paul ask George Graham, Executive Director for Global Impact at Save the Children, and Shehan Hettiaratchy, from the Centre for Paediatric Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London why have wars become so much more deadly for civilians and children in particular? 

Producer: Sophie O'Sullivan

Executive Producer: Louisa Wells

Studio Operator: Meghan Searle

► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor

Picture credit: MAHMUD HAMS / AFP

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@ascottgeddes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

America is flexing its muscles in the Caribbean and the world is holding its breath. Washington has trained its sights on Socialist-run Venezuela, and the arrival of the colossal USS Gerald Ford has sparked the biggest military buildup since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Operation Southern Spear is now under way: a dozen warships, thousands of troops, and a barrage of so-called “anti-narco” strikes that have already left scores dead. The White House insists it’s about drug traffickers, but few believe that. With President Nicolás Maduro about to be officially labelled a terrorist and Trump accusing him of heading a major cartel, the scent of regime change is hard to ignore. Maduro says America is inventing a war. So what’s really happening? Venetia is joined by former British Royal Navy officer Tom Sharpe and RUSI Senior Research Fellow Carlos Solar.

Three possible scenarios: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/11/13/donald-trump-venezuela-nicolas-maduro-options/

Tom Sharpe on his time fighting drug smugglers in the Caribbean: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/08/ive-gone-up-against-drug-smugglers-in-the-caribbean/

► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor

https://linktr.ee/BattleLines

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Syrian civil war raged for years, wrecked a nation, and then quietly vanished from the headlines. Last December, a jihadist faction once aligned with Al-Qaeda toppled Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship. Their leader, al-Sharaa is now President of Syria and he met Donald Trump this week in the Oval Office, yes, really.

Al-Sharaa is calling it a “new era” for Syria, no enemies, just friends. He’s courting everyone: Russia, Israel, Iran, the Gulf, even Turkey. But can a man with blood on his hands truly change? Or is this a master of reinvention pulling off the biggest PR stunt in modern history?

So who really is Ahmed al-Sharaa? Joining Roland for Battle Lines we have Jerome Drevon, co-author of “Transformed by the People Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s Road to Power in Syria” and The Telegraph’s very own Adrian Blomfield.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/11/10/ahmed-al-sharaa-syrian-president-donald-trump-white-house/

► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor

https://linktr.ee/BattleLines

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For more than two years a vicious civil war has been raging in Sudan. It’s been defined by massacres, rapes, displacement, and starvation. 

As the UN has long said, it is one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 21st century.

Most media didn’t pay attention until Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab published satellite images of bodies and bloody sand. Suddenly, there was hard visual evidence of the scale of the slaughter.

This week, we speak to Nathaniel Raymond, Executive Director of Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab about how satellites are being used to track wars and war crimes from space.

We also hear from Shashwat Saraf, Norwegian Refugee Council's Country Director to get an on the ground update from near El Fasher.

Producer: Sophie O'Sullivan

Executive Producer: Louisa Wells

Studio Operator: Meghan Searle

► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor

Picture credit: AP / Airbus DS 2025

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@ascottgeddes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sanctions, nationwide protests, even Israeli airstrikes haven’t broken the Iranian regime. Could a drought finally bring the Islamic Republic to its knees?

Iran is running out of water and now the president has warned that if the rains don’t come, all of Tehran may have to be evacuated. This isn’t a war fought with bombs or bullets, it’s far more devastating. Roland Oliphant is joined by The Telegraph’s Iran correspondent, Akhtar Makoii and former Iranian politician Kaveh Madani to unpack how things got so bad and what it might mean for the regime.

Credit: Geoff Pugh/The Telegraph

► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor

https://linktr.ee/BattleLines

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Germany is rearming, and fast. A sentence that once sent shivers down Europe’s spine is now a shocking reality. This isn’t the Germany of old; it’s a nation powering up for a new era of danger. With Putin’s war machine grinding on, Berlin’s gone from pacifist to powerhouse, pledging a staggering 3.5% of GDP to defence by 2029, outpacing the UK. So what’s behind this dramatic transformation? And is it enough to protect Europe from another Russian rampage? Venetia is joined by The Telegraph’s Berlin correspondent James Rothwell and defence expert Ulrike Franke to find out about Germany’s great rearmament.

Read Matt Oliver's deep dive into Germany's rearmament: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/11/02/germany-wants-to-arm-itself-to-the-teeth-is-the-world-ready/

Credit: AFP/Genya Savilov

► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor

https://linktr.ee/BattleLines

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.