mercredi 11 février 2026

Counter-terror police investigate school stabbing

Europe’s doomed fighter jet dream | The 10 metros you must ride in your lifetime
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Wednesday, 11 February 2026

Issue No. 353

Good morning.

Counter-terror police are leading an investigation into a double stabbing at a school in north-west London. Two boys, aged 12 and 13, are in a serious condition after the “American-style” attack. Samuel Montgomery reports from the scene.

In more troubling news overnight, nine people have been killed in a school shooting in Canada by an assailant described as a “female in a dress”.

Elsewhere, Europe’s fighter jet project is in jeopardy and we reveal that Sir Keir Starmer was shown evidence of Lord Mandelson’s close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein in a Telegraph article published two years ago.

Chris Evans, Editor

P.S. Try four months of The Telegraph for £1, including all the articles in this newsletter. If you are already a subscriber, make sure you’re logged in to read today’s stories.


 

In today’s edition

The lawyer fighting to save death row inmates from execution

The best apprenticeships in the UK for earning a high salary

Meghan’s confidant has written a novel so bad, AI would disown it

Free thinkers wanted.

Discuss and debate today’s biggest talking points, directly with our journalists.

Four months for £1.

 

Counter-terror police lead investigation into school stabbing

Police at Kingsbury High School in north-west London

Samuel Montgomery

Samuel Montgomery

News Reporter

 

The fear and panic was palpable in Brent last night as the community tried to make sense of a double stabbing at Kingsbury High School.

Londoners may have become numb to the knife crime epidemic in the capital but, as one parent told me: “It is really scary. We send our children to school and we expect them to be safe.”

A 13-year-old boy, thought to have been a suspended pupil from the school, is understood to have scaled a wall and made his way into a classroom and launched an attack on a 12 and 13-year-old.

Armed with a weapon, he stabbed two boys inside what is believed to be a science classroom, with terrified pupils seen banging on the windows and calling for help.

Simon Theodorou, a martial arts teacher who has a child at the school, said: “Apparently one of the two pupils saw what was going on and pulled the fire alarm to get help. That boy is a hero.”

Shailesh Sayta, a delivery driver who is a parent of a pupil at the school said his son had heard that someone “stabbed a boy in the neck with a fork and he was bleeding”.

“My son said a guy came out holding his neck with blood all over his white shirt,” he said.

The attacker then fled and the school was locked down as police helicopters whirred overhead and police cars arrived in droves outside the school gates.

Children, many in tears, were sent home without their bags, coats and jackets.

Officers tracked down the suspect and arrested him on suspicion of attempted murder, but the incident was quickly handed over to the counter-terror unit. Detectives said the attack had not been declared a terrorist incident, but that the step was taken because of the “surrounding circumstances”.

Last night, both injured boys were in a “serious” condition and receiving “urgent care”. We’ll bring you the latest developments from this troubling story today.
Read the full story here

 

Death of Europe’s fighter jet dream deepens Franco-German rift

James Rothwell

James Rothwell

Berlin Correspondent

 

With Nato in crisis, you would be forgiven for thinking that now is the time for Europe to stand together – with cool heads and determination. You would be wrong.

This week, an extraordinarily vicious row has broken out between France and Germany over their long-delayed, and now possibly doomed, fighter jet project.

In 2017, the Future Combat Aircraft System (FCAS) was hailed as the future of aircraft battles: it consisted not only of an advanced jet, but also a swarm of drones and a data “cloud” linking them together.

The Future Combat Air System, unveiled by France and Germany in 2017

However, over the past 10 years, huge differences between the French and German defence companies in charge of delivering the project have been exposed. These include the basic fundamentals, such as who can be trusted to build the jet and the purpose it would actually serve.

It is a serious blow to Europe’s defences at a time when – as General Sir Nick Carter, the former head of the British Armed Forces, has warned – the Continent needs to become a military superpower.

To underline his sense of urgency, he said that Europe’s slowness to respond to global threats was “no longer merely inefficient, it is dangerous”.

He may well have been thinking of the FCAS when he uttered those gloomy remarks. Now Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has been forced to defend the project – but perhaps not even he has the political will to salvage it.
Read the full story here

Europe ‘must become military superpower’ to survive without US

The fallen King of Davos has a plan to save Europe from Trump

 

Opinion

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Headshot

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

The Starmer palace coup is a national disgrace

The destructive fools of Westminster are needlessly pushing Britain towards a gilts and sterling crisis

Continue reading

 
<span style="color:#DE0000;">Allison Pearson</span> Headshot

Allison Pearson

Anyone who thinks Rayner is the answer to Britain’s problems needs their head examined

Continue reading

 
<span style="color:#DE0000;">Gareth Roberts</span> Headshot

Gareth Roberts

Sorry Keir, giving in before a fight isn’t the same as winning

Continue reading

 
Matt Cartoon
 

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In other news

Flooding in Somerset, which has experienced 40 consecutive days of rain

Your essential reads

Elizabeth Vartkessian: ‘Each case I work on could be described as a life that’s fallen through a crack’

The lawyer fighting to save death row inmates from execution

Elizabeth Vartkessian’s clients are some of the most evil people on Earth. She is not trying to prove their innocence – “the murders my clients committed were often brutal, extreme and irrational”, she admits.

So why does she take their cases? As a mitigation specialist, her job is to collect evidence to prevent people from being sentenced to death, or to get their sentences commuted to life without parole. Her reason: “Why are we so desperate to kill people? It’s grotesque to me that this is how people spend their time, energy and money.” Could this specialist skill be a revolution for death row? Jessamy Calkin meets with the lawyer.

Continue reading

 

‘We are junior doctors and refusing to strike. The Left-wing BMA has lost the plot’

On the face of it, the British Medical Association vote last week was conclusive – 93 per cent in favour of further industrial action by junior doctors. Crucially, though, the turnout was only 52 per cent. Here, two dissenting voices explain why they won’t be joining the picket line and are calling for the union to compromise.

Continue reading

 

Michael Crawford, who played Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, helped choreograph Torvill and Dean’s Bolero

Frank Spencer became Torvill and Dean’s secret weapon in Bolero glory

As Britain misses a Winter Olympics medal yet again, cast your mind back 42 years to Torvill and Dean’s Bolero routine. Behind its success was the decision by the ice skaters to hire a theatrical consultant. Their choice was surprising: Michael Crawford, best known in Britain as the comedy wimp Frank Spencer. This is the story of an unlikely – and brilliant – collaboration.

Continue reading

 

The best apprenticeships in the UK for earning a high salary

As university graduates battle ballooning student debt and a difficult jobs market, apprenticeships look ever more appealing. Not only can you finish a placement without owing money, you’ll also get paid while you learn – and there can be promising earning opportunities. Try our tool to see which apprenticeships can lead to the highest-paying jobs.

Continue reading

 

Grey skies hang over Aberdeen’s city centre

‘I haven’t seen the sun since January’: Life beneath Aberdeen’s record-breaking gloom

For many in Aberdeen, there is an irony to strolling down Sunnyside Road. The city hasn’t seen a single ray of sunshine since January 21, prompting desperate locals to book tanning salons and Caribbean cruises. On the waterlogged links, golfers are resorting to neon-yellow hi-vis balls to combat the darkness. A freak meteorological quirk has turned the Silver City into a land of perpetual grey.

Continue reading

 

Seize the day

The 10 metros you must ride in your lifetime

Elektrozavodskaya station, a classic symbol of the Moscow Metro

They may be functional chunks of transport infrastructure, but metro networks also give you a revealing glimpse of the city you are visiting. We’ve chosen 10 systems that are the stuff of travel dreams, from Stockholm, where the bedrock has been left on show with dramatic effect, to Tokyo, known for its white-gloved railway staff who prod commuters through half-closed doors.

How many have you ridden? Read the full list

Below are two more helpful articles for you this morning:

 

Critic’s corner

Meghan’s confidant has written a novel so bad, AI would disown it
★☆☆☆☆

Jessa Crispin

Jessa Crispin

 

Omid Scobie is best known for his controversial book Endgame, a 2022 “exposé” of Royal family in-fighting that seemed astonishingly sympathetic to Team Sussex (he happens to be a confidant of the Duchess).

Now he has turned to fiction with a rom-com called Royal Spin, co-written with Robin Benway, a writer who specialises in novels for young adults. It revolves around a loveable but clumsy American woman (is there any other fictional kind?) who relocates to London to work at Buckingham Palace as a communications director and, in the process, teaches those stuffy British aristocrats about love – and diversity.

So, can Scobie write? Absolutely not. His novel reminded me of sitting in a dentist’s waiting room, forced to watch a reality television show in which people with too much cosmetic surgery sell luxury goods to the gullible. The publishing industry seems afraid that AI innovation will tear its heart out. If this is what passes for that heart, bring on the robots.
Read the full review here

 

Your say

Little rascals

In our Devil’s Advocate column on Sunday, Shauna Brown questioned the acceptance of children in all public spaces. Today, she’s standing in for Orlando Bird to pull out the best of your opinions and stories.

Shauna writes...
Thank you to everyone who responded to my column. I was prepared to be vilified as one of those childless cat ladies, so I was pleasantly surprised that many of you agreed with me.


 

It seems a number of readers have also fallen victim to restless little legs in the air. DS said: “I had a three-year-old start kicking the back of my seat on a plane, and that’s before we’d taken off. I politely asked them to stop and the father told me: ‘He’s only three.’

“Fortunately the mother took him onto her lap and stopped it. My parents didn’t impose me on strangers until I was old enough to know better, but then that was the 1950s when people knew how to behave!”


 

They’re not only attacking from behind, as John Hyslop discovered after giving his window seat to a first-time flyer. “He spent four hours looking out of the window while I spent four hours having his wife apologise for his young son climbing all over me to get to his dad. Never again – I always book the aisle seat now.”


 

While I disagree with little ones in galleries, Mary Birch shared a lovely anecdote about taking three children to an exhibition of French 19th-century painting. “While we were looking at a landscape, a Frenchman came over, asked if he could speak to the children, and explained that he lived where the picture had been painted. Are the French more tolerant or their children generally better behaved?”


 

I think the simple answer is that French children are not really children. They are small adults with better table manners and more sophisticated palates than most British adults. Isabel Wood was also impressed with les enfants en France: “Oh, how I agree! Anyone who has seen well-behaved children in a French restaurant, eating oysters or moules expertly, will agree, too.”


 

Of all the responses, Roy Terry put it best. “Modern parents refuse to behave as parents but insist on dragging their offspring with them, whilst continuing to behave like childless adults. This is the same culture which causes parents to take their children out of school for holidays.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself, Roy. Send your responses here, and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of From the Editor PM, for which you can sign up here.

Please confirm in your reply that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name.

 

Puzzles

Panagram

Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including PlusWord, Sorted, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.


 

Yesterday’s Panagram was NORTHWARD. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle.

 

Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow.

Chris Evans, Editor

P.S. I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback here.

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Telegraph Media Group Holdings Limited or its group companies - 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT. Registered in England under No 14551860.

mardi 10 février 2026

Streeting accused of No 10 coup

Why London is no longer the capital of cool for young professionals | ‘How I took control of my social drinking’
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Tuesday, 10 February 2026

Issue No. 352

Good morning.

Sir Keir Starmer is on the brink after yesterday’s drama in Westminster. It appears that one man was responsible for orchestrating the leadership coup, and one Labour source told us: “Everyone knows who was behind it, and his name rhymes with Les Weeting.” With bitter briefings flying in all directions, Ben Riley-Smith, our Political Editor, unpacks what really happened on a seismic day inside No 10.

Chris Evans, Editor

P.S. Try one year of The Telegraph for £30, including all the articles in this newsletter. If you are already a subscriber, make sure you’re logged in to read today’s stories.


 

In today’s edition

Why Miliband’s net zero revolution is a hacker’s dream

Why London is no longer the capital of cool for young professionals

‘I finally took control of my social drinking with this ‘magic’ pill’

Hard work should pay.

Unlock quality journalism that champions free enterprise.

One year for £30.

 

Streeting accused of No 10 coup

Ben Riley-Smith

Ben Riley-Smith

Political Editor

 

What an extraordinary day in Westminster. A bombshell call for Sir Keir Starmer to go, two No 10 departures, an orchestrated show of Cabinet support and a fiery fight-back speech.

For those nursing a political hangover this morning after the mother of all Westminster news-binges, there can be little doubt that the Prime Minister is on the brink, with the odds stacked against him remaining in No 10 for long.

Starmer certainly gave no sign he was willing to give up his premiership last night, telling Labour MPs he wanted to lead the “fight” against Reform. He said: “I’ll tell you this, as long as I have breath in my body, I’ll be in that fight, on behalf of the country that I love and I believe in, against those that want to tear it up.”

Sir Keir Starmer

An exhausted Starmer leaves Parliament after a bruising day

The message of unity publicly issued by every single member of the Cabinet after Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, called for Starmer to go does not tell the full story.

Behind the scenes, accusations are being made that Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, played a part in bringing the Prime Minister to his moment of crisis yesterday.

The Telegraph can reveal Streeting talked to Sarwar on Saturday, two days before the latter’s call for Starmer’s resignation. They are understood to have discussed the current political situation. One Left-wing Labour source told The Telegraph: “Everyone from the PM down to the most junior bag-carrier knows who was behind the McChicken Coup, and his name rhymes with Les Weeting.”

The McChicken Coup refers to apparent efforts to use the ousting of Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff, to force the Prime Minister to step aside.

A spokesman for Streeting denied he was behind Sarwar’s resignation call, in turn blaming No 10 insiders for the briefings. The spokesman said: “Wes did not ask Anas to do this, he did not co-ordinate with Anas on this. Anas is the leader of the Scottish Labour Party, he is his own man, and Wes has the highest respect for him.”

In another development last night, Streeting published his private messages with Lord Mandelson, which showed he had privately criticised Starmer’s Government.

The exchanges revealed that last March, Streeting said the Government had “no growth strategy at all”, despite growth being the Prime Minister’s self-declared “number one priority”.

Publishing the messages appeared to be an attempt by Streeting to address his relationship with Lord Mandelson ahead of any future leadership contest.

The Cabinet may have presented itself as a nest of birds singing in harmony yesterday afternoon. Listen closely, though, and there is plenty of discord.
Read the full story here

If not Rayner, then who? The unlikely candidates to replace the Prime Minister

Hans van Leeuwen: Only the bond markets still believe in Starmer

 

Opinion

James Kirkup Headshot

James Kirkup

A populist Left-wing Labour Party could be shockingly popular

Starmer and McSweeney have not transformed their party. Britain is poised to learn what a real socialist government looks like

Continue reading

 
<span style="color:#DE0000;">Kemi Badenoch</span> Headshot

Kemi Badenoch

Starmer should go for the good of the country

Continue reading

 
<span style="color:#DE0000;">Suzanne Moore</span> Headshot

Suzanne Moore

Labour’s toxic cult of masculinity has been Starmer’s undoing

Continue reading

 
Matt Cartoon
 

By the way, Google has introduced a new feature called “preferred sources”, so you can see more journalism that you know and trust in your search results. Add The Telegraph today and ensure you never miss the stories that matter.

In other news

Ebba Andersson shows off her Olympic silver medal after it fell off its lanyard

Your essential reads

After fleeing China for London in 1978, Jung Chang wrote a best-selling exposé of the Cultural Revolution

Jung Chang: ‘Starmer was openly humiliated by Xi on his visit to China’

Speaking on The Telegraph’s Daily T podcast, Jung Chang, the author of Wild Swans, does not mince her words. The vehement critic of Xi Jinping, China’s president, and his “Western apologists” tells hosts Camilla Tominey and Tim Stanley why the Chinese leader was sending a “deliberate signal” when he chose not to accompany Sir Keir Starmer on a tour of Beijing’s Forbidden City during his visit in January.

Continue reading

 

‘Prepare for blackouts’: Miliband’s net zero revolution is a hacker’s dream

Energy security is a guiding principle of Ed Miliband’s net zero agenda, underpinning his rush to ditch fossil fuels. However, some cybersecurity experts fear there is a major blind spot in his promise to keep Britain’s lights on. They say the complex energy grid he is building is no longer isolated and defensible but increasingly reliant on the internet – making it a tempting target for the UK’s enemies.

Continue reading

 

Bella Minns, 27, from Cambridgeshire, moved to Manchester after university and says the city ‘feels exciting, like it’s on the cusp of something’

Why London is no longer the capital of cool for young professionals

The capital has long served as a revolving door for young professionals hungry for higher wages and career opportunities. This trend appears to be stalling, though, with young people now questioning the economic case for living and working in London, opting instead for fresher, livelier and cheaper cities.

Continue reading

 

Robbie and Elordi’s chemistry is hot, and at times genuinely transgressive

Wuthering Heights: a bosom-heaving, gasp-inducing thrill ride

★★★★★
You could never accuse Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights of being a faithful adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, writes Robbie Collin. But as the love-struck Cathy and Heathcliff, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi have an electrifying chemistry that ensures this resplendently lewd and lurid film will leave audiences quivering.

Continue reading

 

Seize the day

‘I finally took control of my social drinking with this ‘magic’ pill’

Our writer Liz Hoggard had always understood the health implications of excessive alcohol consumption, but was nevertheless drinking far more than the recommended 14 units a week. When she heard about Naltrexone, a pill that removes the fun factor from drinking, she decided to see if it could improve her relationship with alcohol. Here’s how she got on – and the moment that her mindset finally shifted.

Continue reading

Below are two more helpful articles for you this morning:

 

The morning quiz


Sue Farthing’s pet cockerel, named Colonel, has angered neighbours in a Norfolk village with early morning crowing. With which punishment has Ms Farthing been threatened?

 

From the fashion desk

‘I’m a new mum at 50. These are my style essentials’

Lisa Oxenham, pictured with her son Wolfgang, says staying true to her style has helped her navigate motherhood at 50

When she became a mother 10 years ago, Lisa Oxenham suffered an identity crisis. She lost her sense of style and found herself stuck wearing a uniform of leggings and oversized fleeces.

Now, after having another baby at the age of 50, Lisa has cleared out her wardrobe and treated herself to a good haircut. She has put 80 per cent of her clothes into the attic, making her life simpler with fewer choices and keeping outfits that she feels confident in.

Successful clothing must have a soft structure, be practical and include one defining detail that says “this is me”. Here, Lisa shares her three favourite outfits.
Continue reading

 

Your say

E-bikes: scourge or saviour?

Every weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal reader correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories.

Orlando writes...
Have electric bikes become a menace? Richard Statham recently made the case for the prosecution: “Surely it is time for e-bikes to be forced to have licence plates, so they can be identified more easily in the event of an incident. I was nearly hit while on my mobility scooter, which would have been very serious for both of us had we collided. The silence of these bikes makes them even more dangerous. They should be subject to the same regulations as larger vehicles.”


 

The chorus of assent included a letter from James B Sinclair: “Any vehicle powered by any non-human source should be registered, plated and insured. They should be banned from pavements. This should apply to e-scooters too. They all should be treated as something akin to mopeds.”


 

I admit to taking a more lenient view. I am a fan of e-bikes, and Lime bikes in particular. Not so long ago, it felt as though the great experiment in London was going wrong, but these days I hear the telltale beep of stolen vehicles far less often, and find myself tripping over fewer discarded ones on the pavement. The bikes themselves have a lot going for them – it’s like cycling, but easier – and the riders (based on my entirely unscientific impressions, at least) seem to be improving.

Roger Middleton was a fellow defender: “I have some questions for Richard Statham. Where would you mount a clearly visible number plate on an e-bike? Who would pay for the attendant bureaucracy, and who would enforce it? There are already age requirements for riders, along with regulations limiting the maximum power output.

“In many hillier parts of the country, e-bikes are the difference between being able to cycle and not being able to cycle at all. They keep us out of our cars and physically fit, reducing our need to use the NHS. The last thing we need is for them to be regulated off the road.”

E-bikes: scourge or saviour? Send your responses here, and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of From the Editor PM, for which you can sign up here.

Please confirm in your reply that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name.

 

Puzzles

Panagram

Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including PlusWord, Sorted, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.


 

Yesterday’s Panagram was GLIMMERED. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle.

 

Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow.

Chris Evans, Editor

P.S. I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback here.

We have sent you this email because you have either asked us to or because we think it will interest you.

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Telegraph Media Group Holdings Limited or its group companies - 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT. Registered in England under No 14551860.