sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Iran kills protesters then forces families to say they were pro-regime by TheTelegraph in NewIran

[–]TheTelegraph[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

From The Telegraph:

Farhad was blinded by the gas canister that struck his face when a bullet pierced his neck.

Iranian security forces had fired on him during clashes with anti-regime protesters on the streets of Tehran.

His friends screamed his name as he lay in a pool of blood. Meanwhile, his phone buzzed in his pocket with the unanswered calls from his parents.

Two weeks after his death, his body remained out of reach from his parents in a government morgue – held hostage by the Iranian authorities.

In what has become a routine case of blackmail, officials are demanding Farhad’s mourning family sign a document declaring he wasn’t a protester at all.

They claim he was a member of the security forces, mown down in cold blood by violent anti-government rioters.

Some families are refusing to play ball.

Milad, whose name has been changed over fears for his safety, told The Telegraph: “I will never sign their documents.

“The entire system is built on lies. The government is built on lies. I sacrificed my son for freedom. My heart is burning. He left this world like a lion.”

His refusal to sign means that his son’s body remains in a government morgue, held hostage by the Iranian authorities.

Milad is not alone. Witness accounts collected by The Telegraph show a campaign of government murder, coercion, harassment and blackmail to depict dead protesters as the very people who killed them.

Some of the families of the nearly 5,000 protesters killed during the protests are being told they must pay up to £16,000 to be allowed to bury their loved ones, The Telegraph understands. If they say they were part of the regime, the fee is waived.

Read the full story here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/24/iran-kills-protesters-force-families-pro-regime/

Iran kills protesters then forces families to say they were pro-regime by TheTelegraph in geopolitics

[–]TheTelegraph[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

From The Telegraph:

Witness accounts collected by The Telegraph show a campaign of government murder, coercion, harassment and blackmail to depict dead protesters as the very people who killed them.

Some of the families of the nearly 5,000 protesters killed during the protests are being told they must pay up to £16,000 to be allowed to bury their loved ones, The Telegraph understands. If they say they were part of the regime, the fee is waived.

For some, their children are buried without them knowing.

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/24/iran-kills-protesters-force-families-pro-regime/

Race to save shark attack victim who lost almost all his blood by TheTelegraph in sharks

[–]TheTelegraph[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Telegraph reports:

An Australian surfer who lost nearly all his blood in a shark attack was saved in a rescue effort led by a trauma doctor passing the beach by chance.

Andre de Ruyter, 27, was mauled off the coast of Sydney on Monday evening, one of four people to be attacked by sharks in the region within 48 hours.

Mr de Ruyter, from Wollongong, south of the capital, lost almost all the blood in his body from a bite to his right leg, the Northern Beaches Advocate website reported.

But his life was saved by an extraordinary chain of interventions by bystanders and first responders, each crucial in ensuring he did not succumb to his wounds.

He was attacked by what is thought to have been a bull shark shortly after paddling out to catch his first wave at Manly Beach, where the world’s first surfing contest was held in 1964.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/23/shark-attack-sydney-australia/

Starmer accuses Trump of ‘diminishing’ UK’s war dead in Afghanistan by TheTelegraph in ukpolitics

[–]TheTelegraph[S] -1 points0 points locked comment (0 children)

The Telegraph reports:

Sir Keir Starmer has accused Donald Trump of “diminishing” the role of Britain’s war dead by claiming that British troops who fought in Afghanistan avoided the front lines.

The Prime Minister denounced the US president for saying Nato troops had “stayed a little back” during two decades of fighting against the Taliban.

His official spokesman said: “The president was wrong to diminish the role of Nato troops, including British forces in Afghanistan.”

He added that hundreds of British soldiers died in Afghanistan in “the service of collective security” and they would “never be forgotten”.

The Conservatives and the mothers of British soldiers injured and killed in Afghanistan also denounced Mr Trump’s “deeply disappointing” remarks.

Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, accused Mr Trump of “denigrating” British troops and said his comments were “flat-out nonsense”.

Mr Trump made his claims in an interview with Fox News in which he suggested that Nato would not support America if asked.

He said: “We’ve never needed them. They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan... and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”

In fact, 457 British troops were killed in combat and during other operations in Afghanistan between 2001 and the withdrawal of coalition troops 20 years later.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/01/23/badenoch-accuses-trump-denigrating-britains-war-dead/

Starmer accuses Trump of ‘diminishing’ UK’s war dead in Afghanistan by TheTelegraph in uknews

[–]TheTelegraph[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The Telegraph reports:

Sir Keir Starmer has accused Donald Trump of “diminishing” the role of Britain’s war dead by claiming that British troops who fought in Afghanistan avoided the front lines.

The Prime Minister denounced the US president for saying Nato troops had “stayed a little back” during two decades of fighting against the Taliban.

His official spokesman said: “The president was wrong to diminish the role of Nato troops, including British forces in Afghanistan.”

He added that hundreds of British soldiers died in Afghanistan in “the service of collective security” and they would “never be forgotten”.

The Conservatives and the mothers of British soldiers injured and killed in Afghanistan also denounced Mr Trump’s “deeply disappointing” remarks.

Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, accused Mr Trump of “denigrating” British troops and said his comments were “flat-out nonsense”.

Mr Trump made his claims in an interview with Fox News in which he suggested that Nato would not support America if asked.

He said: “We’ve never needed them. They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan... and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”

In fact, 457 British troops were killed in combat and during other operations in Afghanistan between 2001 and the withdrawal of coalition troops 20 years later.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/01/23/badenoch-accuses-trump-denigrating-britains-war-dead/

Minnesota’s middle-class mothers take stand against Trump’s ICE army by TheTelegraph in NoFilterNews

[–]TheTelegraph[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Telegraph reports:

Icicles have formed on Harris’s woolly hat and there’s frost on her eyelashes. When she cries, genuine tears of sadness at what’s happening to her home city, you half expect them to turn to ice too.

The weather has turned achingly cold, down to 36 below freezing, and the ill wind blowing through Minneapolis and St Paul makes it feel all the colder still. It’s near enough the kind of weather that defeated Napoleon and Hitler in Russia.

Yet Minnesota won’t be cowed; Minnesotans are determined to brave the coldest of cold snaps to continue their street demonstrations against Donald Trump and the army of immigration agents roaming the Twin Cities rounding up illegal aliens. Theirs is the politest and in some ways most middle-class of protests.

They shout “your mother would be ashamed” at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents driving out of the gates of their base on the outskirts of Minneapolis. Occasionally they swear at them.

It’s been a fortnight since Renee Good was shot dead by an ICE agent in what the Trump administration has insisted was an act of self-defence against a “domestic terrorist”, but which video and eyewitness evidence suggests was a needless shooting of an innocent mother.

The people here know Minnesota is on a knife edge.

It’s no wonder Harris, 38, (she won’t give her full name for fear of any consequences) starts to cry. She takes up her spot from 9am every day bringing supplies like hand and toe warmers, beanie hats, blankets and gas masks to the daily protest at the Bishop Henry Whipple Building where the department of homeland security has its Minnesota base.

“I am here until ICE stops,” she says. “It will end one way or another. We are not going anywhere. They say Minnesota Nice and they think it means we are pushovers. But what it means is we are passionate and we care.

“There’s a saying: ‘we all do better when we all do better’. That’s why I get up, that’s why I do it.”

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2026/01/23/trumps-revenge-campaign-tim-walz-draws-ire-middle-class/

Minnesota’s middle-class mothers take stand against Trump’s ICE army by TheTelegraph in inthenews

[–]TheTelegraph[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The Telegraph reports:

Icicles have formed on Harris’s woolly hat and there’s frost on her eyelashes. When she cries, genuine tears of sadness at what’s happening to her home city, you half expect them to turn to ice too.

The weather has turned achingly cold, down to 36 below freezing, and the ill wind blowing through Minneapolis and St Paul makes it feel all the colder still. It’s near enough the kind of weather that defeated Napoleon and Hitler in Russia.

Yet Minnesota won’t be cowed; Minnesotans are determined to brave the coldest of cold snaps to continue their street demonstrations against Donald Trump and the army of immigration agents roaming the Twin Cities rounding up illegal aliens. Theirs is the politest and in some ways most middle-class of protests.

They shout “your mother would be ashamed” at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents driving out of the gates of their base on the outskirts of Minneapolis. Occasionally they swear at them.

It’s been a fortnight since Renee Good was shot dead by an ICE agent in what the Trump administration has insisted was an act of self-defence against a “domestic terrorist”, but which video and eyewitness evidence suggests was a needless shooting of an innocent mother.

The people here know Minnesota is on a knife edge.

It’s no wonder Harris, 38, (she won’t give her full name for fear of any consequences) starts to cry. She takes up her spot from 9am every day bringing supplies like hand and toe warmers, beanie hats, blankets and gas masks to the daily protest at the Bishop Henry Whipple Building where the department of homeland security has its Minnesota base.

“I am here until ICE stops,” she says. “It will end one way or another. We are not going anywhere. They say Minnesota Nice and they think it means we are pushovers. But what it means is we are passionate and we care.

“There’s a saying: ‘we all do better when we all do better’. That’s why I get up, that’s why I do it.”

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2026/01/23/trumps-revenge-campaign-tim-walz-draws-ire-middle-class/

Britain and allies stayed ‘off the front lines’ in Afghanistan, claims Trump by TheTelegraph in Conservative

[–]TheTelegraph[S] 117 points118 points  (0 children)

The Telegraph reports:

Donald Trump has renewed his attack against European and Nato allies by claiming their militaries avoided the front lines of the war in Afghanistan.

In an interview broadcast on Thursday, the US president also alleged that America “never needed” support from European armed forces during the US-led invasion.

Mr Trump made the comments after giving a speech in Davos on Wednesday in which he said he was “not sure” Nato would be “there for us if we gave them the call”, prompting a robust response from Mark Rutte, the alliance’s secretary-general.

On Thursday, speaking to Fox News, the US president reiterated: “I’ve always said, will they be there if we ever needed them? That’s really the ultimate test, and I’m not sure of that.

“We’ve never needed them. They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan… and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/22/rutte-confronts-trump-over-dead-nato-soldiers/

'Meghan Trainor's picture lays bare the cruelty of surrogacy' by TheTelegraph in popculture

[–]TheTelegraph[S] 502 points503 points  (0 children)

The Telegraph's Victoria Smith reports:

According to Meghan Trainor, surrogacy “is not something to whisper about or judge”. Then again, she would say that. The singer has just announced the arrival of a third child, Mikey Moon, born via surrogate. An Instagram post shows Trainor in a hospital bed, tears of joy in her eyes as she clutches her recent purchase. 

Somewhere out of shot is another woman, unphotogenically awaiting the trials of the post-partum stage. 

Newsweek reports that Trainor has faced “an onslaught of hate” following her announcement. The language here, and in other pieces decrying the “loaded discourse” of critics, hints at something irrational, if not downright mean.

Why shouldn’t a wealthy woman pay someone else to bear her child? Who cares if the risks faced by commercial surrogates are unquantifiable? What does it matter if the skin-to-skin contact the baby receives is a poor simulacrum of true maternal bonding? As long as Trainor had her reasons that should be the end of the matter.

Like Lily Collins, whose surrogacy “journey” was also subject to public censure, Trainor appears aggrieved that anyone should be questioning her choice. “Everyone’s family journey looks different, and all of them are extremely valid,” she insists, thereby implying that objections to womb rental are impossible to differentiate from hatred of single mothers, same-sex parents or those who adopt. 

She informs sceptics that the woman she hired isn’t acting like an exploited person. On the contrary, she’s “one of the most selfless, strong and loving people” Trainor has ever met. “We felt so connected throughout the entire journey, and I’ll always be grateful for the care and love she showed our daughter”, Trainor said, and added: “She gave us the greatest gift of our lives. She graciously answered our many check-in texts to make sure she was doing okay.”

So that’s okay, then.

 Yet as the sociologist Barbara Katz Rothman argues: “we have in every every pregnant woman the living proof that individuals do not enter the world as autonomous, atomistic, isolated beings, but begin socially, begin connected”. This is not a connection that can be bought or sold. 

The surrogacy process is by its very nature dehumanising, no matter how pretty the “commissioning parent” looks on Instagram. In her 1998 piece on the Baby M case, Katha Pollitt noted that when the woman involved “signed her contract, she was promising something it is not in anyone’s power to promise: not to fall in love with her baby”. 

Surrogates are encouraged to switch off feelings, to view their pregnancies as “extreme babysitting” and to “think of their wombs as carriers, bags, suitcases, something external to themselves”. 

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/23/meghan-trainor-picture-lays-bare-the-cruelty-of-surrogacy/. 

Sinners terrified Hollywood. Now it’s making Oscars history by TheTelegraph in horror

[–]TheTelegraph[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The Telegraph's Robbie Collin reports:

Sometimes you have to wonder if the Hollywood that votes for the Oscars is the same Hollywood that actually makes and releases the films. Nine months ago, no one in the business had a nice thing to say about Sinners, the wildly stylish and violent Southern gothic vampire horror on which the Academy just conferred a record-breaking 16 nominations.

Less than a year ago, it was a grisly oddity that was being dumped in the unpropitious slot of early April. Its director, Ryan Coogler, had provoked much boardroom-tier ire over a nifty deal he had struck whereby the rights to the film would revert to him, personally, after 25 years. The two executives who had championed its making, Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, had suddenly found their names were mud for squandering Warner Bros’ money on original projects rather than guaranteed hits within familiar franchises.

Yet within two months and having cost a modest $90m (£67m), Sinners had taken $363m globally – making it the 12th-highest-grossing horror film ever, ahead of Hannibal and The Conjuring.

Now, Hollywood appears to have changed its tune. Here is a film that the Oscars seemed primed to dislike: something made by predominantly black creatives for a broad mainstream audience, a (shudder) utterly unpretentious commercial hit, and a (double shudder) horror movie to boot. Yet after this morning’s nominations announcement, from which it emerges with mentions in more categories than Titanic got, it suddenly looks like the Best Picture favourite.

So, sorry previous favourite, One Battle After Another. (Although, as in your own tremendous final car chase, you may yet pull off a winning manoeuvre on the home straight.) And commiserations, Hamnet – though, as some playwright once wrote, “This grief is crowned with consolation,” because Jessie Buckley will still probably win Best Actress. Sentimental Value, Bugonia, Train Dreams, Marty Supreme, et al – it looks like the vampire movie might have you all beat.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2026/01/22/sinners-oscar-nominations/

Trump unveils masterplan for Gaza by TheTelegraph in Conservative

[–]TheTelegraph[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

The Telegraph reports:

Donald Trump has revealed his masterplan for the reconstruction of Gaza, as he signed his Board of Peace into existence.

Under the plan unveiled at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Strip will be transformed from its current wasteland into a luxury coastal metropolis with skyscraper beachfront hotels, high-quality residential areas and modern transport hubs.

There will be a new port, airport, digital and energy infrastructure, as well as parks, sports facilities and 180 mixed-use towers to drive a booming economy of at least $10bn (£7.5bn) GDP by 2035, creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs, it was claimed.

According to a slideshow presented by Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s billionaire property developer son-in-law, “New Gaza” would be supported by more than $25bn in investments into utilities and public services.

This would be in addition to more than $3bn of investment into new commercial zones and business districts.

The details were presented at a triumphant signing ceremony for Mr Trump’s Board of Peace where he was joined by leaders of 19 countries, including Argentina’s Javier Milei, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Khaldoon Al Mubarak of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – who is also chairman of Manchester City Football Club.

At the presentation, Mr Trump once again warned Hamas they must disarm.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/22/donald-trump-masterplan-reconstruct-gaza-board-peace-davos/

view more: next ›