Battle Lines

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:[email protected] @venetiarainey@ascottgeddes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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:[email protected] @venetiarainey@RolandOliphant Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, to artificial intelligence, pandemics and the collapse of old assumptions about power, nothing is stable and nothing is simple. Speaking candidly about Vladimir Putin, he explains why the west misread Moscow for years and why there are no easy deals or quick endings ahead.This is a forensic, unsparing account of a world in turmoil and a challenge to Britain to wake up before it is too late.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:[email protected] @venetiarainey@RolandOliphant Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 inside these compounds.We also hear from political analyst and Myanmar adviser to Crisis Group, Richard Horsey about why power vacuums are creating the perfect conditions for these criminal activities.Watch the visualised episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6nRBG037FT0Producer: 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:[email protected] @venetiarainey@ascottgeddes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Plus, with drone strikes now accounting for more than a quarter of all attacks worldwide, war is only a short flight away. This is not a bad patch, this is a dangerous new era. And next year will be even bloodier still. The warning signs are screaming at us. The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data organisation, known as ACLED, has been tracking all of this data and more. Venetia speaks to their CEO Clionadh Raleigh to find out more.Read ACLED's report: https://acleddata.com/conflict-index-2026-watchlistProducer: 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:[email protected] @venetiarainey@RolandOliphant Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.