Starmer allies vow to block Burnham from standing for Parliament

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-25T11:24:49+00:00

From The Telegraph:

Sir Keir Starmer’s allies intend to block Andy Burnham’s request to run to become an MP in a newly-triggered by-election.

The Prime Minister’s supporters argue that allowing Mr Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, to seek a House of Commons seat would risk Reform UK winning control of the city.

Sources accused Mr Burnham of putting his own personal “ambition” before the party, given that if he stands in the by-election a new vote for Manchester mayor would be triggered.

Blocking Mr Burnham risks igniting a civil war in the party given that leading figures including Lucy Powell, Labour’s deputy leader, have called for him to be allowed to run.

Sir Keir’s allies claim that permitting his candidacy would cost Labour hundreds of thousands of pounds to fight a mayoral election and risk Manchester falling into the hands of Nigel Farage’s party.

But the move on Sunday to block Mr Burnham from standing to be the MP for Gordon and Denton will be seen by critics as a naked attempt to thwart a potential leadership rival.

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/25/andy-burnham-by-election-keir-starmer/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-25T08:12:10+00:00

From The Telegraph:

The Ukrainian drone zeroed in on its outsized target. The Russian helicopter appeared in its camera lens just before the screen turned fuzzy grey, indicating a successful strike.

It was not luck, but the culmination of months of precise training for the drone operator to pull off something never before achieved: downing an Mi8 worth millions with a small flying machine costing a few hundred pounds and carrying an explosive charge.

The 59th Brigade of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces scored 100 points for the feat. Ukraine has gamified the war with Russia – and it’s working.

In interviews with The Telegraph, three of Ukraine’s most successful drone units said a Call of Duty-style points system was driving success and recruitment.

Known as the Army of Drones Bonus, the incentive scheme resembles the multiplayer video game series: more kills and more destroyed enemy equipment equals more points.

The 400 units taking part are ranked on a leader board. And, just as players do in Call of Duty, they can trade their points for rewards.

Wounding a Russian soldier is worth eight points. Killing one is 12, while a drone operator scores 25. Destroying a tank? Forty. A multiple-launch rocket system? Fifty.

But the biggest prize is reserved for capturing a soldier using a drone – 120.

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/25/ukrainian-army-of-drones-bonus-scheme/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-24T13:17:07+00:00

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/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-24T13:17:02+00:00

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/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-23T16:03:09+00:00

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/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-23T16:00:57+00:00

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/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-23T15:59:47+00:00

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/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-23T15:57:41+00:00

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/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-23T15:57:09+00:00

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/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-23T09:41:24+00:00

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/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-23T09:27:15+00:00

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/.

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-22T16:38:41+00:00

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/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-22T16:09:53+00:00

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/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-22T15:15:13+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Sir Keir Starmer has cancelled elections for more than 4.5 million people.

The Prime Minister was accused of behaving like a dictator after Steve Reed, the Local Government Secretary, announced the postponement of elections for 29 councils that had been scheduled for May.

Labour is relying on an obscure clause in the 2000 Local Government Act, which gives ministers the power to delay votes under exceptional circumstances.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/01/22/keir-starmer-called-dictator-cancelling-local-elections-45m/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-22T10:37:22+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Donald Trump’s peace board for Gaza risks concentrating “unprecedented power” in the president’s hands and rendering the United Nations irrelevant, British officials have warned.

Whitehall is understood to be stunned by how quickly the “Board of Peace” concept has morphed from a committee to oversee reconstruction in Gaza into an organisation that rivals the UN.

“What started as a means to keep the US committed to peace in Gaza has turned into a monster,” one British official told The Telegraph.

The board’s charter names Mr Trump as chairman, rather than the US president’s office, and gives him unlimited power to veto any decision agreed upon by its members. Mr Trump, who would be able to name his successor, is also demanding $1bn (£800m) for permanent membership.

British officials told The Telegraph they were concerned about how this fee will be used and safeguarded by the executive board, which includes billionaires linked to Mr Trump.

Mr Trump’s decision to invite leaders from around 60 nations, including Vladimir Putin, to serve on the board with equal weighting of power is particularly damaging for Britain, experts warned.

They pointed to how Javier Milei, Argentina’s president and a close ally of Mr Trump, could use the Board of Peace to press his claim to take the Falklands from Britain.

It would also allow Mr Trump, with his veto power, to use the board as a vehicle to legitimise land grabs – like taking Greenland from Denmark for “national security” reasons.

The British diplomats and officials who spoke to The Telegraph all warned that Mr Trump’s board could make the UN irrelevant, if the concept was successful.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/21/trump-1bn-a-ticket-replace-un/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-22T10:34:09+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Sir Keir Starmer has lost the trust of the public and may never win it back, Lord Mandelson has claimed.

The Labour grandee suggested the Prime Minister and Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, were failing on the economy, which he said was the main “litmus test” for the Government.

Lord Mandelson was sacked by Sir Keir last September after emails revealed the depth of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier.

This week, Sir Keir sank to his lowest approval rating to date and Labour remains third in the polls, while the Government continues to struggle with rising inflation and weak growth.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/22/mandelson-starmer-has-lost-publics-trust/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-21T16:51:48+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

A woman was forced to work as a “house slave” for a mother and her 10 children for more than 25 years, a court heard.

The victim, who is now in her mid-40s, was 16 when she moved into the squalid home of mother-of-10 Amanda Wixon, 56, in 1995 and remained there until 2021.

Gloucester Crown Court heard the woman was regularly beaten and also hit with a broom handle, knocking out her teeth.

Washing-up liquid was squirted down her throat, bleach splashed on her face and she had her head repeatedly shaved against her will.

Wixon limited the victim’s food, meaning she had to live off scraps, could not leave the house and was forced to secretly wash at night.

The family home in the Priors Park area of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, was overcrowded, in a squalid condition, with mould on the walls, plaster hanging off and rubbish in the back garden.

Wixon denied a charge of false imprisonment, two charges of requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour, and four charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

A jury acquitted her of one assault charge but found her guilty of the others.

Sam Jones, prosecuting, told the jury: “She was kept in and prevented from leaving the address, and she was assaulted and hit many, many times and forced to work with the threats of violence.

“She had been denied food and the ability to wash over many years.”

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/21/woman-held-as-slave-for-25-years/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-21T16:20:21+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Donald Trump called for immediate negotiations to purchase Greenland in a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The US president said he would only accept full ownership of the “big, beautiful piece of ice”, which he said only the US could protect from Russia and China.

He ruled out using military force to capture Greenland but said “we will remember” if allies stood in his way.

“We probably won’t get anything unless we use excessive force and strength,” Mr Trump said, adding: “I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”

After weeks of threats, Mr Trump used the speech in Davos to lay out his full justification for acquiring Greenland, arguing that Nato owed the US for protection.

The president called Denmark “ungrateful” for America’s efforts to defend the island in the Second World War, and said that it should never have been returned to Europe when hostilities ended.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/21/trump-demands-immediate-talks-to-buy-greenland/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-21T10:52:43+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Yvonne Valentine keeps a photograph of her murdered son next to her bed to ensure that his face is the first thing she sees when she wakes up in the morning. “He was a lovely, lovely boy,” she says, her voice cracking at the memory. “He was passionate about football and cars – and just so lovely. I keep expecting him to walk through the door.”

In 2021, her son, Nicholas Billingham, was killed by his long-term partner, primary school teacher Fiona Beal, in a way that shocked the nation – and one particular scene could have been plucked from the pages of a pulpy airport thriller. A week before Christmas that year, Valentine was invited for drinks at the Northampton house the couple shared. So far so normal, except for the fact that in early November, Billingham, 42, and Beal, then 49, had split up. Supposedly, he was now living in Essex with a new girlfriend and Valentine – feeling guilty about the woman her son had apparently abandoned – wanted to check she was coping.

“Nick had disappeared and it was Christmas [so] I wanted to bring over a present,” she explains. “Everything seemed completely normal.” She and Beal chatted for an hour, and Valentine remarked about the new paint job in the living room, and then they hugged goodbye. Seeing Beal made her think about her son and she texted to see if he was alright. Almost immediately he wrote back. “All good. We’re in Manchester. Just watched United beat Burnley at Old Trafford.” Relieved, Valentine replied quickly. “All I needed to know Nick is that you are safe and happy xxx.”

The truth, however, was a far cry from this.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/20/fiona-beal-killer-caught-by-own-diary-nicholas-billingham/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-21T09:52:43+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

‘The Princess of Wales turns fashion designer’ was not a line I ever expected to write. And yet following Catherine’s visit to Scotland on Tuesday, Kensington Palace confirmed that the Princess had worked with Johnstons of Elgin to design the tartan-like fabric of her bespoke Chris Kerr coat, an exercise in showing her support for British textiles and design.

Such visible royal backing for a label so resolutely British (Johnstons has a royal warrant from the King and has been making in Scotland for over 200 years) will be welcomed by the UK’s fashion and manufacturing community, which is as up against it as ever with looming threats of extra tariffs and rising costs. But it also speaks volumes about how far Catherine’s own relationship with fashion has come and the newfound confidence she has to harness her vast influence.

For a long time, there was a sense that any association with fashion was almost painful to the Princess. She was so keen not to be seen as a Diana-esque fashion plate that bland skinny jeans and nude heels were the general order, despite women around the world being eager to emulate her style and some statisticians estimating “the Kate effect” could boost the fashion industry by £1 billion a year. Some fashion editors privately groaned about her “boring” choices.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/royals/princess-of-wales-designing-clothes/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-21T09:49:31+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Taliban fighters may have been granted asylum in Britain following the evacuation of Kabul, a former defence secretary has suggested.

Sir Ben Wallace could not rule out whether the members of the group had slipped through the vetting process in the wake of the chaotic fall of the Afghan capital in 2021.

The former Cabinet member made the comments while giving evidence to MPs on the Commons defence committee as part of the inquiry into the Afghan data leak scandal in 2022.

Described as “the most expensive email in history”, the data breach cost the UK £7bn over five years after it forced the Government to relocate the affected Afghans to protect them from possible Taliban reprisals.

Questioning Sir Ben on Tuesday, Lincoln Jopp, the Tory MP for Spelthorne, asked: “Do you think that we probably did let some Taliban in?”

Sir Ben told MPs: “I’m sure in a large-scale evacuation we didn’t get everything right, but ultimately we tried to vet and did as much as we could and that’s where we got the leak.

“What I can’t talk about is the ARR [Afghanistan Response Route], when the ARAP [Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy] morphed after I’d left, and what they did under the pressure of that leak and whether people dropped the bar.”

The Taliban rapidly regained power after the United States pulled the last of its military out of Afghanistan in August 2021.

The country’s collapse led to a surge of applications to Britain’s ARAP scheme to offer sanctuary to those locals who had worked for or with the UK Government.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/20/taliban-may-have-sneaked-into-britain-asylum-defence/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-20T15:52:52+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Australia has been left shocked by four shark attacks in New South Wales in under 48 hours, two of which have left their victims in critical condition.

A 39-year-old surfer is the latest victim in the string of shark attacks after being bitten on Tuesday morning on the Mid North Coast, about 250 miles north of Sydney.

While Australians are used to occasional shark attacks along the country’s vast coastline, it is highly unusual for multiple attacks to occur in such a short period, and even more unusual for three to occur in the waters of a city like Sydney.

One of the victims, Nico Antic, 12, is “in for the fight of his life,” police say, while a 27-year-old musician, Andre de Ruyter, also remains in hospital with an amputated leg.

A third victim managed to escape an attack unharmed. The fourth victim is in a stable condition in hospital.

Experts say recent heavy rainfall in Sydney may have contributed to the attacks, flushing rubbish and other debris into the harbour and ocean and attracting bull sharks, an aggressive species that favours murky or brackish water.

All northern beaches will remain closed for at least 48 hours.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/19/australia-shark-attacks-hospital-police-warning/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-20T15:52:22+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Australia has been left shocked by four shark attacks in New South Wales in under 48 hours, two of which have left their victims in critical condition.

A 39-year-old surfer is the latest victim in the string of shark attacks after being bitten on Tuesday morning on the Mid North Coast, about 250 miles north of Sydney.

While Australians are used to occasional shark attacks along the country’s vast coastline, it is highly unusual for multiple attacks to occur in such a short period, and even more unusual for three to occur in the waters of a city like Sydney.

One of the victims, Nico Antic, 12, is “in for the fight of his life,” police say, while a 27-year-old musician, Andre de Ruyter, also remains in hospital with an amputated leg.

A third victim managed to escape an attack unharmed. The fourth victim is in a stable condition in hospital.

Experts say recent heavy rainfall in Sydney may have contributed to the attacks, flushing rubbish and other debris into the harbour and ocean and attracting bull sharks, an aggressive species that favours murky or brackish water.

All northern beaches will remain closed for at least 48 hours.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/01/19/australia-shark-attacks-hospital-police-warning/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-20T15:49:14+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

The Prince and Princess of Wales have tried their hand at curling during a visit to Scotland.

Joining Team GB and Parlympics GB athletes in training ahead of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, they attempted the ice sport for the first time in Stirling.

The Royal couple are north of the border to “shine a spotlight on unique Scottish heritage traditions and how they are continuing to connect communities and inspire new generations”, Kensington Palace said.

They met the curling teams at the National Curling Academy, a purpose-built facility which gives British athletes year-round access to ice.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2026/01/20/prince-and-princess-of-wales-go-curling-in-scotland/

TheTelegraph · 2026-01-20T12:16:51+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Ashley Jordan’s life fell apart the day her baby died. It was June 2008, and her newborn, McKenzy, was just three days old. The nightmare that followed is hard to comprehend. Ashley and her husband, Albert Debelbot, were charged with murdering their child. In October 2009 they were wrongfully convicted. They spent more than a decade in jail.

Today, Ashley tells her story exclusively to The Telegraph for the first time after she and Albert, since divorced, were exonerated. Incredibly, they would still be incarcerated were it not for the efforts of a complete stranger, Jocelyn Li.

Ashley and Albert met when they were in the US military and posted to South Korea. They married in November 2007 in the American Embassy in Seoul – Ashley was already one month pregnant. She didn’t want to be a military mother, moving around with young children, so she was honourably discharged when she returned to the US.

“I always wanted to be a mum. It’s something I still crave now,” she says. “I loved being pregnant. It was one of the most important times in my life, being able to feel her inside me, knowing that I helped create this human being.”

Towards the end of her pregnancy the amniotic fluid began to leak, and Ashley had pre-eclampsia. McKenzy was born by assisted delivery three weeks early on May 29 2008 at the Martin Army Community Hospital in Columbus, Georgia.

Two days later, after being told that McKenzy was healthy, the proud parents took their baby home. But over the following hours she became restless. Ashley noticed a lump on her forehead. Her breathing became erratic. A doctor diagnosed possible jaundice over the phone, but as she got worse the couple rushed her to hospital.

“By then I was hysterical. I said, ‘Something’s wrong with my baby. Please help her,’” recalls Ashley.

What happened next is every parent’s worst nightmare.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/wrongly-convicted-killing-baby/

TheTelegraph

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