New Middle East correspondent Henry Bodkin talks to Venetia Rainey about his recent trip to Syria where he went out on the road with ruling party Hayat Tahrir al-Sham looking for former Assad regime loyalists. He also discusses the stories behind the biggest headlines from the Middle East, including what the latest hostage release tells us about Hamas’ remaining strength in Gaza and why one Israeli woman was left off the list. 

Plus, Roland Oliphant explains why Congo's foreign minister has accused its neighbour Rwanda of declaring war and the role 'blood minerals' are playing in the conflict.

Read:

'On the road with Syria’s new ‘terrorist’ leaders' by Henry Bodkin:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/01/23/syria-young-rebels-hayat-tahrir-al-sham-justice-purge-hts/

'The teeth and bones that hold the key to this century’s worst chemical weapons attack' by Henry Bodkin:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/01/11/teeth-bones-hold-key-centurys-worst-chemical-weapons-attack/

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

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

As Donald Trump returns to the White House, the world braces for what comes next. Every Friday, Battle Lines will turn its focus to the US and look at how Trump’s foreign policy decisions are reshaping the world.

On today’s episode, we look at Donald Trump's first week in office. Roland Oliphant is joined from Washington by The Telegraph's Katie O'Neill to get the latest, and speaks with the author and historian Robert Merry about the 19th century President William McKinley, who appears to be the inspiration for Trump's new American expansionism.

Plus: former soldier Chris Purdy tells us why many veterans are alarmed at Donald Trump's pick for Defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

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

As the Hamas-Israel ceasefire deal comes into effect, we speak with Jotam Confino to hear why he thinks the deal is unlikely to hold and why Israelis are angry with Netanyahu’s government. We also hear from Rosalia Bollen, UNICEF Communications Specialist, who describes the scale of the humanitarian challenge in the Gaza strip where 1. 8 million people are in urgent need of emergency shelter, food and essential household items. Plus: on Donald Trump's first day back in the White House, Brussels correspondent Joe Barnes examines just what he wants from the world, and whether he'll get it. 

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

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

Roland Oliphant and Venetia Rainey discuss the Gaza ceasefire, how the deal happened and what it means for Israel, Hamas, and the world. Plus: reactions from Ruwaida Amer on the ground in Gaza and from Gil Dickmann, the cousin of Carmel Gat, one of the hostages killed by Hamas.

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

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

The former British Army colonel and chemical weapons expert tells Venetia Rainey about his recent trip to Syria, his optimism about the country’s future, and the efforts to find the evidence of Assad’s use of chemical weapons. Plus: Can negotiators get a Gaza ceasefire deal over the line before Donald Trump’s inauguration next Monday? 

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

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

With no end in sight to conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and many more places, 2025 promises to be at least as tumultuous as last year. So what is the biggest threat to security for Britain, and its Western allies?

From complacency and our underfunded army to China and Russia, we get the views of Alicia Kearns MP, former chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and now Shadow Minister for National Security; General Lord Richard Dannatt, former head of the British army; and John Bolton, former foreign security advisor to Donald Trump and ambassador to the UN.

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

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

In late December Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, forcibly evacuating its wards of patients and medical staff and arresting the hospital’s prominent director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. Venetia Rainey catches up with The Telegraph’s Middle East correspondent Jotam Confino to find out more.

Plus: the inside track on a migrant smuggling network that reaches from Afghanistan’s Herat to the French port of Calais. Our foreign correspondent Akhtar Makoii infiltrated the network for The Telegraph. 

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

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

On another special episode of Battle Lines, Roland Oliphant and guests look at the war memoir. How have war memoirs shaped our understanding of wars? Has the art and the role of the memoir changed over time? And will the ones written today similarly influence how future generations will remember the wars of our time?

Contributors

Francis Dearnley (The Telegraph’s Assistant Comment Editor)

Dr. Matilda Greig (Historian at the National Army Museum in London, specialising in the Napoleonic period)

Colin Freeman (Journalist and author)

'Dead Men Telling Tales, Napoleonic War Veterans and the Military Memoir Industry, 1808-1914' by Matilda Greig, is available here:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/dead-men-telling-tales-9780192896025?cc=es&lang=en

'Curse of the Al Dulaimi Hotel : And Other Half-Truths from Baghdad', by Colin Freeman, is available here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Curse-Al-Dulaimi-Hotel-Half-Truths/dp/1906308020

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

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

In another special episode looking back at history, Venetia Rainey talks with the author of ‘Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs’, a book that came highly recommended by David Knowles. It’s a new look at how the Aztecs dealt with internal conflict, how they lost the war with the Spanish, and how history has misremembered them.

'Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs’, by Camilla Townsend, is available here:

https://global.oup.com/ukhe/product/fifth-sun-9780197577660 

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

On this special episode of Battle Lines, Roland Oliphant and guests tackle the late David Knowles’ favourite conversational gambit: Who is your favourite of Napoleon’s Marshals? As they ponder their own choice they look back at who the generals were, what made them ‘great’, and why they continue to capture the imagination.

Contributors

Francis Dearnley (The Telegraph’s Assistant Comment Editor)

Dr. Matilda Greig (Historian at the National Army Museum in London, specialising in the Napoleonic period.

Dr. Zack White (historian and host of 'The Napoleonic Wars Podcast')

The Napoleonic & Revolutionary War Graves Charity

To learn more about the charity that aims to provide similar care to the dead of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars to that we see from more recent conflicts, visit:

https://www.nrwgc.com/

'Napoleonic Objects and their Afterlives', edited by Matilda Greig, is available here:

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/napoleonic-objects-and-their-afterlives-9781350415072/ 

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