| Unlock full access to our free-thinking journalism for less than 50p per week. | | Donald Trump points to the bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office as he criticises Sir Keir Starmer |  | Connor Stringer Washington Correspondent | Donald Trump has criticised the BBC over its “corrupt” and “fraudulent” coverage of the Iran war.
In a fresh attack on Britain’s state broadcaster, the US president said the BBC’s reporting was “unbelievable”, while also blaming Sir Keir Starmer for the decline of the special relationship.
Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters: “If you watch the BBC, it’s almost like they’re fighting us to a draw. They’re fighting us to a draw. It was very inaccurate news.”
The US president is embroiled in a legal battle with the broadcaster after The Telegraph revealed that a Panorama documentary had doctored his Jan 6 2021 speech to supporters, making it appear that he had encouraged the Capitol Hill riot.
Describing its coverage as “fake news”, he added: “It’s corrupt, fraudulent. It really is. It’s fraudulent. It’s not just fake. It’s beyond fake. It’s really criminal what they do.”
Amid the criticism of the BBC’s Iran coverage, John Simpson, the BBC’s world affairs editor, also provoked outrage after describing Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani, who was complicit in the mass murder of protesters and was assassinated overnight by Israel, as “reasonable”.
Trump’s comments underline a widening rift between Washington and London as the White House grows increasingly frustrated with the Prime Minister’s refusal to commit British forces to the Gulf.
Pointing to the bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office during his St Patrick’s Day press conference, Trump criticised Starmer’s leadership and his refusal to send warships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“We have a tremendous relationship with the UK,” he said, gesturing towards the bust as he spoke. “People would say it’s the best, I don’t want to get into that. It was the longest and oldest, it always was the best before Keir came along.”
Read the full story here ➤ | | Larijani taking part in the annual Quds Day rally in Tehran on Friday, the last time he was pictured |  | Memphis Barker Senior Foreign Correspondent | Ali Larijani was the ultimate regime insider, a former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander who had one of the longest – and most varied – careers within the Islamic Republic.
When Ayatollah Ali Khamenei retreated from public view following last year’s 12-day war, the supreme leader handed control to Larijani, his most trusted lieutenant. The 67-year-old prioritised the survival of the revolutionary government – at any cost. Earlier this year, he led the crackdown on protesters which resulted in more than 7,000 deaths.
Brutal though he was, Western analysts also viewed Larijani – who was yesterday killed in an Israeli air strike – as a potential interlocutor who might eventually strike a peace deal. The veteran commander had a reputation as a pragmatist who might lead Iran towards some kind of accommodation with the US and Israel, leaving him – or a suitable puppet – in charge of a military dictatorship.
However, Larijani became more bellicose when the US and Israel attacked, and trolled Donald Trump, the US president, with claims that the war was a cover-up for the Epstein Files.
Now he is gone, the latest casualty of a blitzkrieg that has left the IRGC a shadow of its former self. Whoever comes next may not play any more nicely.
For subscribers only ➤
Go deeper with our full coverage of the Iran war:
• Latest updates: Iran vows revenge for killing of security chief ➤
• ‘I met Ali Larijani. He would have made a deal to survive’ ➤
• Britain could send ships to Strait of Hormuz to police a ceasefire ➤ | | Ambrose Evans-Pritchard We are well on our way to an autonomous electricity system that is insulated from any Gulf crisis Continue reading ➤ Robert Dingwall The meningitis outbreak is exposing the new world of post-Covid anxiety Continue reading ➤ Allison Pearson Britain is about to make a sickening change to the abortion law Continue reading ➤ | | To make sure you don’t miss our newsletters when they land in your inbox, click here. | | Rowan Williams confesses there were moments where he thought ‘I really don’t want to do’ the job | | Rowan Williams has regrets. As the former Archbishop of Canterbury tells Peter Stanford, he still loses sleep over the 2003 Jeffrey John case, and he’s fearful about the future of the Church and Anglican Communion. Yet, he still has a wry sense of humour. That political turbulence “across the Atlantic”? It’s all down to “Satan”. Continue reading ➤ | |  | | Thieves drilled through a reinforced concrete wall to access the vault of the Sparkasse bank in Gelsenkirchen, Germany | | A once-prosperous city in Western Germany is reeling from a €100m (£86m) bank heist. For two days over Christmas, thieves used a construction drill to bore into the vault, then ransacked safe deposit boxes belonging to ordinary German savers. Revisiting the scene of the unsolved crime, Mark Smith finds a community bewildered and a police force determined to stay optimistic and catch the audacious gang. Continue reading ➤ | | | Kevin Lungu (centre), self-confessed perpetrator of SARV, with some of his gang (The Disciples): Jumbilee Daniel, Jackson David and Kelly Job | | An armed gang, known as The Disciples, rounded up, tortured and burned nine women alive in a frenzied witch hunt in Papua New Guinea. As this type of violence intensifies in the country, The Telegraph travels to the restless Highlands region to find out why. Continue reading ➤ | | | The fight-back has begun! A powerful group of restaurateurs and hoteliers in LA has called time on the me-me-me-ers turning their establishments into photographic studios, writes Celia Walden. Since we tend to follow what LA does six months down the line, it looks like salvation for the UK is close at hand. Might British diners soon be able to eat a meal without tripping over a tripod or being blinded by the flash of a camera? I really hope so... Continue reading ➤ | | | What is the greatest moment in British women’s sport since 2000? Denise Lewis in Sydney, Ellen MacArthur on the high seas, the Lionesses at Wembley? With the help of an expert panel, we have compiled a shortlist of 20 and there is already a runaway favourite among readers. Which moment gets your vote? Continue reading ➤ | | | Laura Deller photographed in her newly renovated home in Bedfordshire | An injured leg, an over-budget renovation and lockdown spurred Laura Deller, a 41-year-old science teacher, to become a DIY inspiration, amassing more than 380,000 followers since 2020. From jazzing up Ikea bookshelves to a scientific paint trick, she shares DIY hacks to improve any home, on any budget. Continue reading ➤ Below are two more helpful articles for you this morning: - High in fibre and naturally nutritious, Shredded Wheat is one of the healthiest options in the breakfast aisle. These are its health benefits (and how to make it taste delicious).
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| Smoking is back | Charli XCX (right) and a group of friends pose with a bouquet of cigarettes at the star’s birthday party in 2024 | It’s hard to keep track of what’s in and what’s out when it comes to Gen Z. In today’s edition, LA Robinson, our youthful Lifestyle Writer, investigates the return of smoking.  | LA Robinson Lifestyle Writer | I can still remember the comically large 30ft-long tube resembling a cigarette that my school created when I was eight. “Toxic tunnel” they called it. My classmates and I were forced to walk through and witness gruesome images of smokers on their deathbeds, frightening us out of ever starting. No Sandy from Grease bad-girl character arc here, no sir.
Fast forward and the cigarette was being usurped by the high-tech fruit-flavoured vape. Or so we thought. Mysterious and worrisome complications like “popcorn lung” are making clear that we just don’t have the long-term data to know what vapes do to our bodies. Manufactured cigarettes, on the other hand, have been around for well over a century, we know the damage they can do.
Young people are finding a perverse comfort in this, with a study published by Oxford University Press finding hand-rolled cigarette consumption in the UK shot up by over 20 per cent from 2008 to 2023, being most popular amongst the 18 to 25-year-old age groups. The nihilism is palpable. We’re inheriting a world mired in war, a cost-of-living crisis and depressing unemployment highs. Can you blame us for lusting after a nicotine rush? Pop culture is in on it too. Charli XCX, the singer and ringleader of grimy nightclub glamour, reliably has a cigarette wedged between her fingers, with Dua Lipa and Sabrina Carpenter photographed smoking too. Nostalgic images of Kate Moss and Johnny Depp taking nonchalant drags populate social media feeds, serving to make it all look painfully cool.
When I ventured to ask a famously chic cigarette smoker about this trend in an interview last week, her publicists cut it off. It wasn’t part of a “healthy lifestyle” they said. You can’t stub it out, though: smoking is making a comeback.
What are your thoughts on smoking’s return? Let me know here. | For what it’s worth While Orlando Bird, our loyal Reader Correspondent, is away, Kate Moore is on hand to share an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories. Kate writes...
It all started to go wrong ten years ago, when the Bank of England first introduced polymer banknotes to replace the paper fiver. The new note was too springy: it refused to sit comfortably in the wallet and had a sly habit of sticking to its fellows. Since then (and I like to think the two are connected) cash has been in steep decline. In the age of contactless payments, only a few people ever admire JMW Turner’s portrait on the back of the £20, while an even more select band will see Alan Turing on the £50.
The endangered status of the workaday note, rather like that of the red pillar box or the pocket handkerchief, has inclined many folk to feel protective of them. Hardly surprising, then, that news that the portrait of Winston Churchill on the £5 note will be replaced by a badger, with Jane Austen, Turner and Turing next in the Bank of England’s sights, has had readers up in arms.
Maggie Rayner was among the dissenters: “After a successful campaign to rectify the lack of women on banknotes, Jane Austen was put on the £10 note in 2017. Now we learn that future notes will not feature people at all. Women always seem to arrive too late to the party.”
Paul White had an animus against Mr Brock himself: “If the Bank of England chooses to put badgers on banknotes, it will be a real insult to farmers, who have had to have whole herds of cattle destroyed thanks to tuberculosis carried by these animals.”
Better choose a different animal, agreed Neil Ballard. For Churchill’s replacement, “surely a British bulldog would be fitting. Moreover, it would only require a small change in design.”
In fact, we were dealing with a false dichotomy, suggested Robert Eddison: “Why human or animal? Why Churchill or bulldog? Why not Churchill and bulldog? Elizabeth II and corgis? Our banknotes would thus better reflect the close relationship we have with our animals.” Who (or which) notable subjects do you think best represent the national character? Send us your suggestions 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. | | 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 NIGHTFALL. 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
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