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 to interview Hichilema about navigating Trump, China, aid cuts and debt. He tells Venetia and Arthur why Zambia has become a key battleground in the fight for resources such as copper. Read Ben Farmer's profile of Hichilema: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/12/27/telegraph-world-leader-2025-hakainde-hichilema-zambia/See the full Telegraph World Leaders 20205 list: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/01/telegraph-world-leaders-2025-readers-vs-the-panellists/Producer: Sophie O'SullivanExecutive Producer: Louisa WellsStudio 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/fromtheeditorContact us with feedback or ideas:battlelines@telegraph.co.uk @venetiarainey@ascottgeddes

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, bought their weapons, and provided them with a beachhead on America's doorstep. Venetia is joined by Dr Carlos Solar, a Latin American Security at RUSI, and Adrian Blomfield, The Telegraph's senior foreign correspondent, to discuss the downsides - and upsides - for America's enemies, the Monroe Doctrine's renewed relevance, and what will happen next. Pic credit: Marcelo GARCIA/AFPRead Adrian's analysis of what the capture of Maduro means for China and Russia: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/03/venezuela-regime-change-russia-china-impact/Venezuela becomes Trump’s energy superweapon against China: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/01/05/venezuela-becomes-trumps-energy-superweapon-against-china/Producer: Peter ShevlinExecutive Producer: Louisa Wells► 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/fromtheeditorContact us with feedback or ideas:battlelines@telegraph.co.uk @venetiarainey@RolandOliphant

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 know so far about how it all unfolded, why Trump has done this, and what might happen next. Producer: Peter ShevlinExecutive Producer: Louisa Wells► 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/fromtheeditorContact us with feedback or ideas:battlelines@telegraph.co.uk @venetiarainey@RolandOliphant

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.Peter is a British Army reservist and one of the most plugged in voices on modern warfare. He has reported from around the world, served in the British Army during the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine war, and has just written a new book, The Next World War: The New Age of Global Conflict and the Fight to Stop It.Peter will be speaking about his book at the 2026 Oxford Literary Festival in partnership with The Telegraph. Tickets: oxfordliteraryfestival.org; Telegraph readers can save 20% with the code 26TEL20Producer: Peter ShevlinExecutive Producer: Louisa Wells► 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/fromtheeditorContact us with feedback or ideas:battlelines@telegraph.co.uk @venetiarainey@RolandOliphant

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, the Telegraph’s Global Health Security Editor, warns that numerous diseases linked to conflict are likely to continue to spread in 2026 – in particular cholera and HIV.Meanwhile, the possibility of H5N1 bird flu making the jump to humans and causing a pandemic remains a primary threat, as does the continued spread of mpox around the world.Lord Martin Rees, the former Astronomer Royal and a founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, assesses the risk of space-based threats.Producer: Sophie O'SullivanExecutive Producer: Louisa WellsStudio 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/fromtheeditorContact us with feedback or ideas:battlelines@telegraph.co.uk @venetiarainey

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 fighters. These are not just faster jets with shinier wings. They are flying data centres, designed to hoover up information, evade the most lethal air defences on the planet, and command swarms of drones doing the truly dangerous work.We cut through the fog of acronyms to explain what sixth generation really means, how it differs from the F-35, and why programmes in the US, Britain, Europe and Asia are racing ahead despite eye watering costs. This is air dominance, power politics and future war rolled into one. Picture credit: United States Air ForceProducer: Peter ShevlinExecutive Producer: Louisa Wells► 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/fromtheeditorContact us with feedback or ideas:battlelines@telegraph.co.uk @venetiarainey@RolandOliphant

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 mattered and the ones you may have missed but cannot afford to ignore. We focus on the three powers shaping everything China, Russia and the United States.Producer: Peter ShevlinExecutive Producer: Louisa Wells► 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/fromtheeditorContact us with feedback or ideas:battlelines@telegraph.co.uk @venetiarainey@RolandOliphant@amendelson_@adeliepjz

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 Leone, Guyana, Sudan, Chad, Zambia, Honduras, Kazakhstan, and Burundi. He reflects on how the world has changed in his nearly 40 years of work, and why now people often mistake him as Chinese.Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/X5p4hvB_cSAView Simon's images:Guyana’s oil bonanza: Will the vast wealth it is generating ever trickle down?https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/guyana-oil-boom-wealth-inequality/‘It’s all dead now... nothing will grow’: Fish and hippos dissolve in polluted acid riverhttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/zambia-river-pollution-china-industrial-investment/Inside the Red Zone: Sierra Leone’s terrifying mpox outbreakhttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/inside-sierra-leones-terrifying-mpox-outbreak/Atomic bombs destroyed their lives – now they want Russia to payhttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/soviet-union-nuclear-testing-atomic-bomb-kazakhstan/‘I poured gasoline then set fire to my clothes – the flames shot up my body’https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/kurdistan-iraq-suicide-self-immolation-domestic-violence/‘My child is gone... life is empty’: agony of Ukrainian mother collecting her son from the morguehttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/child-gone-life-empty-agony-ukrainian-mother-collecting-son/Producer: Sophie O'SullivanExecutive Producer: Louisa WellsStudio 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/fromtheeditorContact us with feedback or ideas:battlelines@telegraph.co.uk @venetiarainey@ascottgeddes

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 recounts the moment an IED changed his life and how he rebuilt it again.Join Roland, Dom and Hari for dark humour, blunt honesty and genuine inspiration.Read Jack Rear's profile of Hari Budha Magar: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/christmas-charity-appeal/2025/12/02/first-double-amputee-to-summit-everest/The Not Forgotten is one of The Telegraph’s four Christmas charity appeal charities, the others are Motor Neurone Disease Association, Prostate Cancer Research and Canine Partners. You can donate by visiting telegraph.co.uk/appeal2025 or call 0151 317 5247.Producer: Peter ShevlinExecutive Producer: Louisa Wells► 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/fromtheeditorContact us with feedback or ideas:battlelines@telegraph.co.uk @venetiarainey@RolandOliphant