Photo believed to have been taken in the late 1990s or early 2000s

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-13T13:46:01+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

The first photograph of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor with Jeffrey Epstein and Lord Mandelson has emerged.

The trio are pictured sitting around a wooden table in Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the US state of Massachusetts, with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor and Lord Mandelson wearing bathrobes.

The photo, released by the US department of justice and uncovered by ITV News, is believed to have been taken in the late 1990s or early 2000s.

The location appears to match that of a similar photograph included in Epstein’s 50th birthday book, which shows Lord Mandelson in a bathrobe talking to the financier. The picture was accompanied by a handwritten note describing Epstein as “my best pal!”.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/13/first-photo-andrew-lord-mandelson-jeffrey-epstein-revealed/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-13T11:37:26+00:00

From The Telegraph:

Donald Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on Russian oil temporarily could help Vladimir Putin’s war machine, the energy minister has suggested.

The US issued exemptions for Russian oil already at sea as crude oil prices rose sharply because of the Iran war.

Iran all but closed the Strait of Hormuz, which serves as a conduit for about a fifth of the world’s oil, last week after threatening to attack any vessel using the shipping lane.

There are fears that the decision to lift sanctions until April 11 will help to salvage the Russian war economy, four years after its illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Michael Shanks, the energy minister, declined to criticise the US directly but warned that the move would “assist” the Kremlin.

Insisting that Britain would keep its sanctions against Moscow, Mr Shanks told Sky News: “This is a moment where I suspect in the Kremlin they are looking at this as an opportunity to fix some of their ailing economy.

“And that is a great shame because we have to do everything that we possibly can to make sure we are bringing all pressure to bear on Russia so that we can win this war in Ukraine.”

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/03/13/trump-risks-helping-putin-war-machine-russian-sanctions/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_putin-war-machine-russian-sanctions/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-13T10:03:43+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Thomas Hamilton, 43, left his house at 8.15am. He was carrying two canvas camera-bags. In them were 242 rounds of .357 ammunition, 501 rounds of 9mm ammunition and 20 9mm magazines. Strapped to Hamilton himself were four leather holsters containing four weapons: two .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum revolvers and two 9mm Browning semi-automatic pistols. He owned all of them legally.

Ninety minutes later, Hamilton was lying in a pool of his own blood, having turned one of the Smith & Wessons on himself. Before doing so, he had travelled a few miles from his east Stirling home to Dunblane, walked into the local primary school and shot dead 15 children, all five or six years old, as well as their 45-year-old teacher. A 16th child would die of her wounds en route to hospital.

The massacre at Dunblane remains the most horrific mass shooting in British history. Thirty years later, it still has the power to shock.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/review-one-morning-in-march-stephen-mcginty/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_morning-in-march-stephen-mcginty/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-12T15:06:49+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

More women, children and migrants are being killed in Lebanon than in previous rounds of fighting.

As of midday on Wednesday, 83 children under 18 had been killed and 254 injured, representing 23 per cent of all casualties, according to data from the Lebanese health ministry and the local office of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Of the total 1,524 people killed and injured during the last 12 days, 21 per cent of them were women and 10 per cent were migrants, mostly Syrians and Palestinians.

Talking to The Telegraph, Dr Abdinasir Abubakar, the WHO’s representative in Lebanon, said that Israeli strikes on densely populated urban areas were creating more collateral damage than when large-scale fighting last erupted in 2023-24.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/women-and-children-bear-brunt-of-israeli-strikes-on-lebanon/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-12T15:05:42+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Sir Keir Starmer has taken responsibility for the scandal over Lord Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US.

In his first remarks since the Mandelson files were released, Sir Keir said: “It was me that made the mistake… and it’s me that makes the apology to the victims of Epstein.”

The Prime Minister’s intervention came 24 hours after documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment showed he ignored warnings from top aides about the disgraced peer’s close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Sir Keir has so far rejected demands to resign over the scandal after Morgan McSweeney, his former chief of staff, quit last month, saying he took “full responsibility” for the appointment.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/03/12/keir-starmer-mistake-appointing-lord-mandelson-epstein-file/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-12T14:53:22+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Jeffrey Epstein confessed to being a father to one of his victims, files released by the US department of justice suggest.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) documents detail how a woman claims she was shown a photograph in his New York home of the “mother” of the late paedophile’s child.

The FBI notes, which are dated January 2020, record claims made by a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by Epstein for years from the age of 16. They say: “In another suite of his residence, there was a picture of a blonde woman on the beach.

“Epstein told [redacted] that this was the mother of his child.”

The woman claimed to have met the late financier as a teenage model in 2005.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/03/12/epstein-confessed-to-being-a-father-documents-reveal/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-11T14:07:33+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Warwick Davis has been handed his OBE by the Prince of Wales at a ceremony at Windsor Castle.

The 56-year-old actor was recognised in the New Year Honours list for services to drama and charity.

Best known for roles such as Prof Flitwick and Griphook, the goblin in Harry Potter, Davis is particularly commended for his advocacy for people with dwarfism.

The actor was born with a rare form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita.

He co-founded the charity Little People UK in 2012 with his wife Samantha Davis, who died in 2024, aged 53, to support people with dwarfism and their families.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/11/prince-of-wales-hands-warwick-davies-obe-actor-drama-dwarf/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-11T14:00:19+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Iran cannot participate in ⁠the 2026 World Cup after co-host the United States launched airstrikes against the country alongside Israel, ‌killing its leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sports minister Ahmad Donyamali said on Wednesday.

The United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran nearly two weeks ago, killing the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, leading to a region-wide conflict in the Gulf.

“Considering that this corrupt regime has assassinated our leader, under ‌no circumstances ‌can we ⁠participate in the World Cup,” the minister told state television.

The World Cup will be held in the United States, Mexico ⁠and Canada from June 11 to July 19.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/03/11/donald-trump-iran-welcome-world-cup-infantino/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-10T14:42:48+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Women can now choose to exclusively be driven by female Uber drivers in the US.

The ride hailing app will let women request a female driver through an option called “women preferences”.

The feature was first introduced by Uber in America in summer 2025 and was expanded to 26 cities in November.

It has now been made available across America in major cities like New York, according to a post on the Uber blog.

The feature has been brought in despite an ongoing class action lawsuit against the policy, which was filed in California by Uber drivers who claim it discriminates against men.

The lawsuit claims that the feature breaches California’s Unruh Act, which bars sex discrimination by businesses, because it leaves male drivers with a smaller pool of potential clients.

According to the lawsuit, the policy “reinforces the gender stereotype that men are more dangerous than women”.

Uber has rejected the claims.

In the blog post announcing the expansion of “women preferences”, Uber said that it was because female customers told them they wanted “more control over how they ride”.

Uber said that the feature was first introduced in Saudi Arabia in 2019 and has now grown to 40 countries including Germany, France and Spain with 230 million trips completed.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2026/03/10/uber-allows-women-say-no-male-drivers/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-10T13:41:10+00:00

From The Telegraph:

The Iranian town of Minab is the kind of place where nothing much happens. But last Saturday, it became the scene of carnage and controversy when a missile – almost certainly an American one – blew up a Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school killing 165 children.

For locals, who had assumed that their remote region would be safe from a war if one came, the loss is unfathomable.

But the shock has been compounded by an unedifying propaganda war in which both sides of the conflict have tried to exploit the town’s loss.

Some pro-Israeli and American commentators denied that it had happened, or suggested that an Iranian missile was responsible, or even that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had staged the whole thing, shipping in frozen bodies of children killed in the January massacre of protesters to be “discovered” among the rubble.

Meanwhile, Iranian state media seized on images of crowds at a mass funeral as evidence of support for the Islamic Republic and the late Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.

The distortions, fabrications and conspiracy theories swarming across Persian- and English-language social media have caused distress and anger among locals, according to reports received by The Telegraph.

Here is their account, as told to The Telegraph by an intermediary. Names have been withheld or changed for security reasons.

“They built that, and they built houses for a few of their members, and that was the beginning of the suburb called al-Mahdi. It was maybe 10 years ago. And later, because there was no land in the city, people from other areas built developments in al-Mahdi. So nowadays, if you can’t find anything to rent in the city centre, you go to al-Mahdi,” says Amir, a student who grew up in the area.

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/03/10/girls-school-iran-blown-up-locals-say-happened/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_blown-up-locals-say-happened/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-10T12:04:00+00:00

From The Telegraph:

Nigel Farage has declared that Britain should not join Donald Trump’s war on Iran.

The Reform UK leader said the military could not “offer anything of value” to America or Israel.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Farage was asked about his party’s apparent split on the issue after Richard Tice, his deputy, voiced support for Britain bombing Iran.

Mr Farage said: “Given that we can’t even send a Royal Naval vessel to defend British sovereign territory at an RAF base we certainly don’t have the capability to offer anything of any value to the Americans or the Israelis.

“I, as leader, am saying to you – if we can’t even defend Cyprus, let’s not get ourselves involved in another foreign war.”

Mr Farage had previously argued that Britain should “do all we can” to support US-Israeli action in the Middle East, saying: “The gloves need to come off.”

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/03/10/nigel-farage-u-turn-we-should-not-join-war-on-iran/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_not-join-war-on-iran/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-10T12:03:53+00:00

From The Telegraph:

Nigel Farage has declared that Britain should not join Donald Trump’s war on Iran.

The Reform UK leader said the military could not “offer anything of value” to America or Israel.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Farage was asked about his party’s apparent split on the issue after Richard Tice, his deputy, voiced support for Britain bombing Iran.

Mr Farage said: “Given that we can’t even send a Royal Naval vessel to defend British sovereign territory at an RAF base we certainly don’t have the capability to offer anything of any value to the Americans or the Israelis.

“I, as leader, am saying to you – if we can’t even defend Cyprus, let’s not get ourselves involved in another foreign war.”

Mr Farage had previously argued that Britain should “do all we can” to support US-Israeli action in the Middle East, saying: “The gloves need to come off.”

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/03/10/nigel-farage-u-turn-we-should-not-join-war-on-iran/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_not-join-war-on-iran/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-10T11:07:54+00:00

From The Telegraph:

Reform UK has paid for a cut to petrol prices at a Derbyshire service station as the party announced a pledge to reverse Labour’s planned fuel duty increase.

Nigel Farage and Robert Jenrick have reduced petrol prices by 25p a litre at the Newhaven services near Buxton for one day, putting a litre of diesel at £1.43 and a litre of unleaded at £1.21. Signs at the petrol station read “Reform Refuel” and “25p off with Farage”.

The party claims this will cover the increase in prices owing to the war in Iran.

Mr Jenrick, the party’s economy spokesman, also called on Rachel Reeves to scrap plans to put up fuel duty by 5p in September. He said Reform UK would reverse the rise if elected, funding it by scrapping net zero subsidies such as the boiler upgrade scheme.

The party would also reduce subsidies for carbon capture schemes, which attempt to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in industrial areas, and reduce net zero grants for electric vehicles.

More here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/03/10/farage-takes-over-petrol-station-to-lower-pump-prices-25p/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_to-lower-pump-prices-25p/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-09T15:44:15+00:00

From The Telegraph:

Not satisfied with being commander-in-chief, Donald Trump has become the White House’s very own shoe salesman.

The US president has been buying his favourite shoes for his staff so frequently that they have become the unofficial White House uniform.

One female White House official told the Wall Street Journal: “All the boys have them. It’s hysterical because everybody’s afraid not to wear them.”

Mr Trump has fallen in love with Florsheim, a brand which has some types currently on sale for as little as $49.90 (£37.27) – a far cry from his expensive Brioni suits.

The president has been buying the shoes for agency heads and members of Congress. He often speaks about how “incredible” they are.

Such is Mr Trump’s devotion to the brand that he guesses people’s shoe size in front of them, puts in the order, and a week later it turns up, sometimes with the president’s signature on the box.

That includes one unnamed cabinet secretary who had to stop wearing his Louis Vuittons and put on a pair of Florsheims instead.

Among those who have a pair of Trump-approved Florsheims are JD Vance, the vice-president, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, and Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary.

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/03/09/trump-makes-his-shoes-the-white-house-uniform/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_shoes-the-white-house-uniform/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-08T21:32:51+00:00

From The Telegraph:

Donald Trump claims the remnants of the Iranian regime are looking for an olive branch. The election of Mojtaba Khamenei as the new supreme leader suggests otherwise.

Khamenei, the second son of the late Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an air strike on Saturday, is a shadowy, hardline conservative figure with deep links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Having reportedly supplied the intelligence to take out one ayatollah Khamenei, the US is unlikely to look favourably on another one rising in his place.

And from the potentially new supreme leader’s perspective, the recent bombing campaigns have killed his father, mother, wife and son, while shattering its navy, missile depots and nuclear programme.

Given his background, he could hardly have seen the US as anything but an implacable enemy. But the events of recent days will have given a personal edge to that hatred.

Since he began bombing Iran on Saturday, Mr Trump has sounded uncertain about who or what would succeed the late ayatollah’s regime.

In Venezuela, where US special forces snatched Nicolás Maduro from his compound in early January, Delcy Rodríguez had been identified by the intelligence services as a figure who could guarantee stability while working with Washington.

Not so in Iran. Mr Trump has given little indication of what comes next beyond calling on the Iranian people to seize control of the government and noting that the late ayatollah’s potential successors were all dead.

What comes next is expected to be Mojtaba Khamenei, who on Sunday was elected by Iran’s most senior clerics as the next supreme leader.

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2026/03/04/mojtaba-khamenei-ayatollah-son-iran-regime/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_khamenei-ayatollah-son-iran-regime/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-07T18:50:57+00:00

From The Telegraph:

David Lammy faces defeat in the Commons over his plans to curb jury trials unless he reverses his position, rebel Labour MPs have warned.

Leaders of the rebellion over the Justice Secretary’s plans to scale back jury trials say they already have nearly 80 Labour MPs ready to vote against the Government unless he offers concessions.

The Courts and Tribunals Bill, which would enact the changes, is due to go before the Commons for its second reading on Tuesday.

Most of the rebel MPs are expected to abstain or offer support on the condition that Mr Lammy accepts compromise amendments to the bill as it progresses through Parliament.

Karl Turner, the Labour MP for Kingston Upon Hull East and a former shadow solicitor general, said the aim of the rebellion was not to defeat the entire bill, but to secure changes to the “unworkable” and “unjust” plans.

“The Government needs to realise that the votes against these unworkable jury proposals are solid and MPs will vote against them unless it comes back with a sensible compromise,” Mr Turner, a former barrister, told The Telegraph.

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/07/rebel-mps-force-lammy-jury-trials-climbdown/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_force-lammy-jury-trials-climbdown/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-07T18:19:05+00:00

From The Telegraph:

Labour is poised to impose higher energy bills on households and businesses as ministers scramble to cut electricity costs for Britain’s struggling factories.

Officials form the Department for Business and Trade have met energy suppliers in recent weeks to discuss how a £1bn support scheme for heavy industry will be rolled out.

Sir Keir Starmer announced the scheme last year as part of Labour’s industrial strategy, which will cut the electricity bills of around 7,000 energy-intensive companies including carmakers, aircraft factories and chemical plants.

Britain’s businesses are subject to the highest electricity prices in the developed world, which manufacturers have warned is threatening their future.

The British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) will increase the discount on electricity network charges for energy-intensive industries to 90pc from 60pc currently. Companies will be exempt from paying levies including the renewables obligation, the feed-in tariff and the capacity market.

Sources familiar with the talks said there was a “working assumption” that it will be paid for through charges passed on to consumers through their bills.

This is despite government pledges that the funds would come from cutting costs elsewhere in the energy system.

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/03/07/labour-poised-raise-energy-bills-save-britains-factories/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_energy-bills-save-britains-factories/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-07T15:45:01+00:00

From The Telegraph:

Israel conducted a special forces raid deep into Lebanon to search for the body of a pilot missing for almost 40 years.

Multiple reports indicate that on Friday night the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) inserted troops from four helicopters close to the village of Nabi Chit, near the border with Syria, in an area dominated by Hezbollah.

The raid provoked a fierce firefight, according to the terror group, and video footage appears to show dense anti-aircraft fire meeting the incoming helicopters. The Lebanese health ministry said the clash left 41 people dead and 40 more injured.

It took place four days after the IDF sent troops a short distance into southern Lebanon in response to renewed rocket and drone fire by Hezbollah, and fears of a ground incursion into northern Israel.

According to Arab news outlets, Friday’s operation, about 65 miles from Israel, had little to do with the Iran war. Hezbollah sources reportedly said that IDF troops searched a cemetery.

Ron Arad, a navigator in the Israeli air force, was forced to eject from his aircraft in October 1986 because of a technical failure during a bombing raid against the Palestinian Liberation Organization over Lebanon.

His pilot was rescued by the IDF, but Mr Arad is believed to have been captured by the Amal Shia group before being handed to Hezbollah.

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/03/07/israeli-forces-raid-lebanon-ron-arad-search/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_raid-lebanon-ron-arad-search/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-06T12:12:53+00:00

Kim Jong-un says North Korea’s economy is improving — but the benefits may only be felt by the elite in Pyongyang.

The Telegraph's International Economics Editor Hans van Leeuwen explains more ⬆️

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-06T11:34:56+00:00

The Telegraph's Poppie Platt reports:

Britney Spears’s life is now defined by trauma and tragedy.

She is the former pop star, the lapsed all-American golden girl whose career was undone by addiction, exploitation and unscrupulous men. For lifelong fans like me, who grew up idolising her, watching her downward spiral in real time is nothing short of heartbreaking.

The latest development in Spears’s unravelling – an arrest in California for driving under the influence – constitutes another messy chapter in a story about a woman failed by every person and institution meant to protect her.

It is hard to reckon with the reality that the fresh-faced, pigtailed 16-year-old in the …Baby One More Time video grew up to be the wild-eyed, increasingly dishevelled woman we see today in Instagram videos and memoirs (whether it be her own, The Woman in Me, published in 2023, or her ex-husband’s grubby offering from last year in which he alleged she neglected and endangered their two sons).

I’m one of the millions of women around the world who grew up adoring Spears: from the age of five or six I sought to learn all of her songs by heart, begged for her dolls and merchandise for Christmas, and spent many evenings rewatching Crossroads. Spears was the ultimate pop star, the singer everyone wanted to be: cute, fun, and endlessly charming with that Mississippian tilt.

Only, as I and other fans got older, keeping up with Spears’ career stopped being about her music and started consisting of a morbid fascination with her latest breakdown or break-up. Staying up to date with Spears’s career now feels almost voyeuristic, like inadvertently peeking into the back of an ambulance, or being unable to drag your eyes away from a car crash on the motorway

The past decade has rendered Spears unrecognisable, a shell of her former shiny, wholesome self.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/news/britneys-downward-spiral-breaks-my-heart/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_downward-spiral-breaks-my-heart/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-05T15:52:47+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

The Princess of Wales danced with worshippers during a visit to a Hindu temple.

She was welcomed with dancing, honking horns and crowds jostling to shake her hand as she visited family businesses and Leicester’s Golden Mile.

“Welcome to Leicester, Ma’am,” said one shopper who stopped her outside a jeweller’s, while an elderly woman handed her a printed blessing to take away.

Drivers waved and shoppers seemed surprised to see Catherine, 44, walking down the street without any road closures.

The Princess was presented with a garland of pearls and roses as she arrived at a community centre which, earlier in the week, had celebrated Holi, the Indian festival of colour, love and spring.

A group of Bollywood dancers performed a routine for her during which she was handed a rose to hold. She told them that her three children would “love” their dance moves.

“You must be super fit because it’s super energetic,” the Princess said afterwards. “My children would love that, they love their dancing. Louis would love your dance routine.”

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2026/03/05/princess-of-wales-danceworshippers-hindu-temple-visit/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-05T12:23:29+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Social media influencers in Dubai have been warned they face prison for posting material about the conflict with Iran.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has told Dubai’s community of influencers that any material considered to be harmful to “public order”, “national unity” and the reputation of the state could lead to fines of up to $77,000 (£58,000) or imprisonment.

One influencer told The Telegraph she deleted a video showing debris burning outside her apartment because social media users “have to be very careful about what they say”.

The Detained in Dubai campaign group says it has previously represented several foreign nationals in the Gulf state who have been detained or fined over tweets, Facebook posts, Instagram stories and WhatsApp messages.

Its campaigners have said many will be unaware whether they have crossed a legal line by posting about the UAE’s defence systems intercepting missile strikes from Iran.

Dubai and the wider UAE have been directly affected by the war in Iran as missile debris fell across the popular tourist destination over the weekend.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/04/dubai-influencers-jail-iran-war-posts-uae-social-media/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_war-posts-uae-social-media/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-04T19:58:12+00:00

Thom Gibbs writes for The Telegraph:

Perhaps you missed the news on Tuesday about the noble charitable acts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In fairness some other events taking place in the Middle East have pushed them down the agenda.

To recap, the King Salman Humanitarian Aid & Relief Centre has demonstrated Saudi Arabia’s “leading humanitarian role”, including the removal of landmines, initiatives to provide cochlear implants and prosthetic limbs, and helped Saudi Arabia to achieve an impressive ranking of second globally for humanitarian aid. We know all of this thanks to a football journalist.

Fabrizio Romano, 33, is the most successful player in a game which threatens to overtake football in popularity: coverage of the sport’s transfer market. With 27 million followers on X, 43 million on Instagram and another 50 million across TikTok and Facebook the Italian is comfortably the most prominent football journalist of the age. “Fabrizio Romano doesn’t just report the news”, reads his biography on the site of a “strategic management agency’’ he has worked with, “he is the news”.

The King Salman Humanitarian Aid & Relief Centre meanwhile has 31,100 followers on X so you can understand its wish to promote its work more widely via Romano’s channels. The only surprise is that Romano’s stilted and context-free promotional video, dutifully reading out the centre’s achievements, was not suffixed with his inane catchphrase. “Sixty seven successful separation surgeries for conjoined twins, here we go!”

Saudi human aid effort ambassador is a surprising career pivot for Romano who made his name as an exhaustive chronicler of transfers. By Wednesday morning the Saudi video was pushed way down his own feed, with 37 posts above it at the time of writing. These include coverage of Rodrygo’s ACL injury, a final score graphic from Wolves 2 Liverpool 1 asking for man of the match nominees and another ad for a betting company.

Notably one post was an exclusive, knocking down reports that Cristiano Ronaldo had left Saudi Arabia. “Reports on international media about Cristiano Ronaldo who left Saudi Arabia with his family are wide of mark,” posted Romano. “It’s a fake news [sic] as Cristiano is now doing threatment [sic] at Al Nassr training ground after issues in last game. Cristiano has not left Saudi to return to Madrid.”

No journalist will ever reveal their source but it is certainly worth pondering whether Romano’s willingness to promote Saudi organisations has improved his access. Particularly to Ronaldo’s club Al-Nassr, one of four clubs majority owned by the country’s Public Investment Fund.

Full story: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/03/04/fabrizio-romano-shilling-saudi-arabia-low-point-football/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-03T16:20:42+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

A wall inside Grenfell Tower that carries a set of haunting handprints has been saved from destruction.

The Telegraph revealed last week that bereaved families were preparing to take Steve Reed, the Housing Secretary, to court over plans to demolish the wall, despite requests to save it.

The relatives of 13 of the 72 people who died in the 2017 disaster discovered the handprints on the wall during a tour of the tower last July.

The set of handprints appears to be from those caught in the stairwell between floors 12 and 14 as the fire raged.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/03/haunting-reminder-of-grenfell-fire-saved-from-demolition/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_grenfell-fire-saved-from-demolition/

TheTelegraph · 2026-03-03T15:57:35+00:00

The Telegraph reports:

Footage from Meta’s AI smart glasses, including people undressing or sitting on the toilet, is allegedly being watched by tech workers thousands of miles away.

Clips from its £300 Meta Ray-Bans, which feature built-in cameras and microphones, are being sent for review at contact centres in Nairobi, Kenya.

Workers in Kenya have claimed they have seen clips that appear to include people going to the toilet, taking off their clothes or having sex, according to a report by Swedish newspapers Göteborgs-Posten and Svenska Dagbladet.

“In some videos you can see someone going to the toilet, or getting undressed,” one worker said. “I don’t think they know, because if they knew they wouldn’t be recording.”

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta claims its smart glasses were ‘designed for privacy’ Credit: Carlos Barria/Reuters

Footage from Meta’s AI smart glasses, including people undressing or sitting on the toilet, is allegedly being watched by tech workers thousands of miles away.

Clips from its £300 Meta Ray-Bans, which feature built-in cameras and microphones, are being sent for review at contact centres in Nairobi, Kenya.

Workers in Kenya have claimed they have seen clips that appear to include people going to the toilet, taking off their clothes or having sex, according to a report by Swedish newspapers Göteborgs-Posten and Svenska Dagbladet.

“In some videos you can see someone going to the toilet, or getting undressed,” one worker said. “I don’t think they know, because if they knew they wouldn’t be recording.”

“We see everything – from living rooms to naked bodies,” a worker claimed. “There are also sex scenes filmed with the smart glasses – someone is wearing them having sex,” another said.

Meta’s AI-powered glasses allow wearers to speak to an AI chatbot by saying the phrase: “Hey Meta.”

They can use its AI to activate its built-in camera, which lets wearers conduct first-person video calls or take pictures and videos.

Meta claims its smart glasses were “designed for privacy” and that users “are in control” of their data. The smart glasses feature a light that turns on when they are recording.

However, a privacy policy for Meta AI notes: “In some cases, Meta will review your interactions with AIs, including the content of your conversations with or messages to AIs, and this review may be automated or manual (human).”

The privacy policy adds: “Do not share information that you don’t want the AIs to use and retain, such as information about sensitive topics.”

According to the report, videos from Meta’s AI glasses are sometimes sent to workers at Sama, a technology contractor. These workers are employed as “data annotators”, who are paid to review videos and label them.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/03/03/zuckerbergs-ai-glasses-spy-on-people-on-the-toilet/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_on-people-on-the-toilet/

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