Roland Oliphant

It's not just a physical toll, it's a psychological one. I stayed in my apartment for 40 hours where it was -15. I didn't have electricity or water, you cannot flush the toilet, you cannot take a shower, you cannot make warm food. Everything is dark outside so it feels like the end of the world when you look out your window. You have to put a lot of effort into not going mad.

"You have to put a lot of effort into not going mad." - @rolandoliphant.bsky.social relaying a message from his friend in Kyiv

Explosion in Kharkiv ‼️ our city is under russian drone attack right now ‼️

What Europe must do to survive militarily without America Trump has turned an unthinkable question into an urgent one. Can Nato still deter Russia without a superpower ally?

D Blair and I spent the week trying to understand how Europe could defend itself without America. Here's our answer: www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...

Battle for the West: Trump, Greenland and Canada's fightback YouTube video by The Telegraph

New Battlelines on the Nato civil war, King Trump versus Carney Cromwell(?), James Rothwell on sunsets in Greenland, David Blair on how he saved the West www.youtube.com/watch?v=seHW...

Adam Dobby, former SAS man who helped journalists cover the wars in Syria and Ukraine In Syria he slept with an AK on the roof of a house recently abandoned by ISIS to protect reporters under siege

Rest easy old friend. Adam Dobby, former SAS man who helped journalists cover the wars in Syria and Ukraine

www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2...

America’s Drone Delusion Why the lessons of Ukraine don’t apply to a conflict with China.

I enjoyed writing this for Foreign Affairs on why the US Military’s most serious Chinese capability problems in the Indo-Pacific cannot be solved with “cheap massed drones”:
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

More Russia, less China and no Europe: Trump’s new security strategy unveiled YouTube video by The Telegraph

Former HMA Washington Kim Darroch on Trump's new national security strategy: a rejection of 70 years of foreign policy, but which should not surprise anyone. youtu.be/zXm8smIIrQw?...

"It's not a tank!"

Why can't Britain build a decent tank? Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

Very tank nerdy episode of Battlelines: if Britain can't fix Ajax, can it still fight. With the Tel's Dom Nicholls and Ben Barry of IISS. Yes I know I know when is a tank not a tank etc share.google/xrGNBbcExnNE...

Allies worry US demands Ukraine deal before security guarantees Secretary of State Marco Rubio told European allies that President Donald Trump will negotiate long-term assurances for Ukraine’s safety.

I've met estate agents like this. www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

Um..

❗️Russian drone struck a residential building in Zaporizhzhia.

"Europe’s problem is not that it lacks options. It is that it refuses to use them". Jade McGlynn skewers both the Dmitriev/Witkoff plan for Ukraine's destruction, & Europe's refusal to act decisively enough to prevent disaster. open.substack.com/pub/smalldee...

China bosses vanishing as Xi Jinping’s childhood traumas trigger Mao style purge YouTube video by The Telegraph

Xi Jinping is purging the CCP leadership. So we spoke to
@josephtorigian.bsky.social about how the Xi family's own purge-trauma informs how he runs China - and covets Taiwan. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLxa...

China bosses vanishing as Xi Jinping’s childhood traumas trigger Mao style purge Podcast Episode · Battle Lines · 24/11/2025 · 33m

For the @telegraph.co.uk podcast Battle Lines, I talked to
@rolandoliphant.bsky.social about my book "The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping"

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...

Army Secretary Driscoll meeting with Russians in UAE as Trump administration presses for Ukraine peace deal U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is in Abu Dhabi to meet with Russian officials, two U.S. officials and two diplomatic sources who were not authorized to speak publicly told CBS News.

U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is in Abu Dhabi to meet with Russian officials, who will presumably tell him that Europe's revised 28-point plan is a nonstarter and it's the original Dmitriev–Witkoff document to get things moving or nothing. www.cbsnews.com/news/army-se...

The Witkoff-Dmitriev peace plan was lunacy. But the European/Ukrainian counter offer is very sensible: here's why. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11...

Russia struck an apartment building in Ternopil with an X-101 missile, killing 16 people, including a child.

More than 60 people were injured, among them 14 children.

Rescuers are still searching through the debris.

The death toll from the russian missile attack on Ternopil has risen to 19.

More than 65 people were injured, including 16 children.

Trump and the ex-terrorist: why the West needs Syria to work YouTube video by The Telegraph

Donald Trump's admin is full of War on Terror vets - and this week he welcomed one from the other side. Friday's battlelines looks at Ahmed al Sharaa: Why the West is betting on a millenial ex-Al Qaeda commander to fix Syria. youtube.com/watch?v=xf0x...

Here's our piece on Iran's drought. Really fascinating - and a lesson for everyone about ignoring the creeping crisis of climate change. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11...

Society with no memory Editor-in-chief of Proekt Media in conclusion of genealogical study of Russian authorities 'Fathers and Grandfathers'

Great piece for Russia watchers, from Roman Badanin

www.proekt.media/en/guide-en/...

'Worse than war with Israel': Why Iran's regime is on edge YouTube video by The Telegraph

I've been lucky enough to report from Iran a couple of times over the years. Each time I was there, water was an issue on people's minds, including officials I spoke to. But if everyone knew there was a problem, how did Tehran end up on the brink of running dry? youtu.be/zlP2If9uzV4?...

How a Middle Eastern superpower is fuelling the Sudan war YouTube video by The Telegraph

Fridays battlelines on El Fasher youtu.be/uPWsrH5XdDg?...

The Telegraph cannot keep its credibility if it is not transparently independent

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11...

Verification asks: can we reliably establish what is true? Deliberation asks: can we debate and decide fairly together? Accountability asks: can we hold power to account? If one or more of those breaks down, democracy doesn’t just wobble, it hollows out.

This is Europe’s war now The continent’s future depends on outflanking America. British troops in Ukraine is the first step.

Reupping this article from February — because nothing has changed.

Putin is still being allowed to fight at the table for what he can’t win on the ground.

Trump is still pursuing normalisation at the expense of Ukraine.

Europe is still prostrate.

www.newstatesman.com/world/europe...

This old chestnut gets wheeled out every decade or so.
Might as well build a tunnel on the moon. Would be as useful/feasible/viable

Inside Russia - The Conduit Tue 14 Oct, 6pm - 7:30pm How do you understand a country where the truth itself is under siege?

Tomorrow evening: Giants of journalism @andreisoldatov.bsky.social, Irina Borogan and Catherine Belton on what Putin did to Russia. No one can tell the story better, so come along: www.theconduit.com/upcoming-eve...

🚨Almost nine in 10 clinics in war-ravaged DRC run low on medicines

@icrc.org warns that health centres in the eastern region face a dire situation amid a mass exodus of medical staff

@benfarmerdt.bsky.social has the latest
www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...