lundi 17 août 2026

The far-Right conspiracy infiltrating Britain

Revealed: How Octopus funded struggling investments | Russian bases in striking distance of Nato
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Britain’s most popular daily newsletter, read by more than 850,000

Monday, 17 August 2026

Issue No. 540

Good morning.

The Ceuta migrant crisis provoked debate throughout Europe about borders. Then came Tucker Carlson. His verdict? Jewish people were responsible. Jake Wallis Simons examines how, once again, this far-Right conspiracy has reared its ugly head.

Elsewhere, thousands of pensioners who put money into an inheritance tax scheme run by Octopus Group bankrolled its failed investments, sometimes unknowingly. Tom Saunders has the story.

Chris Evans, Editor

P.S. We’re giving you a whole year of The Telegraph for less than £2.50 per month. If you’re already a subscriber make sure you’re logged in to read today’s stories.


 

In today’s edition

Russia builds secret drone bases in striking distance of Nato

The US soldiers seething at TV’s ‘lies and corruption’

Plus, ‘I got ripped in six weeks. Here’s how I kept the muscle’

How a far-Right conspiracy infiltrated British politics

Jake Wallis Simons

Jake Wallis Simons

 

When tens of thousands of migrants poured into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta a fortnight ago, the debate was all about borders, Schengen and the elastic limits of the West’s moral obligations.

Even Spain’s socialist leader Pedro Sánchez, of all people, began talking the language of territorial integrity.

Meanwhile, in the shadowlands of the internet, a simpler explanation was already circulating. Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News presenter turned YouTube firebrand, released a two-hour video promising to reveal “who’s behind the invasion and why”. His answer was simple: it woz the Jews wot done it.

Tucker Carlson (right) has featured Nick Fuentes, an open admirer of Hitler, on his show

Was Israel really behind the “invasion”? Of course not, but this is the Great Replacement Theory and it is gaining mass appeal. Its history can be traced from the eugenicists of early-20th-century New York, through the passage in Mein Kampf where Hitler supplied the crucial innovation, to a Berkshire campaigner who blames Israel for 9/11 (and whom Rupert Lowe hailed as a “good man”).

Along the way, we find a Restore Britain candidate calling rival parties “Zionist dog slaves”, a deleted Tommy Robinson essay, and the Jewish former immigration minister now abused online as “the Jewess”.

Oh, and one in three Britons now believes the conspiracy theory is “definitely or probably true”. So that’s encouraging.
For subscribers only

 

Octopus used pensioners’ cash to fund its struggling investments

Tom Saunders

Tom Saunders

Financial Correspondent

 

Thousands of pensioners who had put money into an inheritance tax scheme run by Octopus Group bankrolled failed hospitals and care homes owned by the company.

Octopus Inheritance Tax Service (OITS), a subsidiary of Octopus Group, raised money from 18,000 people with the promise of lowering their inheritance tax bills by investing in businesses to qualify for relief.

OITS customers were sold shares in Fern Trading, which owns about 300 energy, property and telecoms companies. These businesses were the main selling point for investors.

The Telegraph can reveal that Fern also ploughed investors’ cash into struggling businesses separately owned by Octopus Group without explicitly telling them where the money was going.

A number of these investments turned sour, with Fern and the pensioners that had backed it ultimately taking over the businesses.

This exclusive report is available only to subscribers.
Continue reading

 

Opinion

Matthew Lynn Headshot

Matthew Lynn

Labour’s deluded attempt to pick winners will end in disaster

Ministers should be deregulating the economy, not splashing cash on pet projects that won’t work

Continue reading

 
<span style="color:#DE0000;">Eleanor Mills</span> Headshot

Eleanor Mills

Over-anxious millennials are ruining grandparenting

Continue reading

 
<span style="color:#DE0000;">William Sitwell</span> Headshot

William Sitwell

The council killjoys have now come for the ice cream van

Continue reading

 

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In other news

Britain’s newest “super-prison”, built at a cost of £400m, has hundreds of empty cells because it cannot recruit staff. It has space for nearly 1,500 prisoners but is operationally restricted to just over 1,100.

Donald Trump has accused the BBC of harassing his family after the broadcaster tried to subpoena his children and son-in-law. Its lawyers want Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner to testify.

The head of a Cambridge college has called for an investigation into the “media onslaught” against Jason Arday. Lord Woolley said Arday had been subjected to the “most horrendous, toxic, vicious witch hunt”.

US actress Hayden Panettiere, best known for her roles in Heroes and Nashville, has died at the age of 36.

• “England’s prettiest village” has blocked a new shopping area in an attempt to curb over-tourism caused by TikTok influencers. Residents say there has been an influx of coaches along narrow lanes.

 

Your essential reads

Russia builds secret drone bases in striking distance of Nato

Satellite imagery and leaked documents reveal a network of secret launch bases capable of sending Moscow’s newest long-range attack drones deep inside Nato territory, with some placing Warsaw within range. As Richard Holmes, our Forensic Investigations Editor, reports, the Kremlin is reshaping the battlefield right under Europe’s nose.

Continue reading

 

The British cowboy using tough love to help despondent teenagers

Jock Hutchison is not what you’d call a wellness guru. The ex-Royal Marine wears a Stetson, swears a lot and is happiest roaming the hills on horseback, just like his boyhood heroes in the cowboy movies. Behind his bluff exterior, Colin Freeman writes, lies a man who’s had his own battles with mental health and now runs a charity in the Scottish Highlands that uses horse-riding as therapy. I visited him at his stables, where he told me about his life and work.

Continue reading

 

‘They twisted our history’: The US soldiers seething at TV’s lies and corruption

Hollywood has turned Team Lioness into a hit spy thriller. The women who inspired its name say their real story is far more remarkable. Thrust into front-line combat in Iraq despite an official ban on women fighting on the ground, they returned home traumatised, overlooked and forced to fight for recognition. More than two decades on, they argue that television has borrowed their legacy while leaving their history untold.

Continue reading

 

Paul Heaton: ‘I’ve sold tons of records, but I don’t get any respect’

If ever there was an unsung national treasure, it’s Paul Heaton. The former frontman of The Housemartins and The Beautiful South has made music that is adored by millions, and yet industry acclaim has been in short supply. Ahead of Heaton’s new album, Rob Fitzpatrick talks to Britain’s nicest curmudgeon about Andy Burnham, adoring fans and how to save Britain’s pubs.

Continue reading

 

Seize the day

‘I got ripped in six weeks in my 40s. Here’s how I’ve kept the muscle for a decade’

Patrick McAleenan in April 2017, June 2017 and July 2026

Nine years ago, I told you about my six-week body transformation, writes Patrick McAleenan. That was just the start of my story. The decade that followed was filled with busy years, changing work, ageing and a cancer diagnosis. Thankfully, despite the challenges, I’m still strong and healthy at 54. This is how I did it.

Continue reading

Here is another article that I hope you’ll find useful this morning:

 

CAPTION COMPETITION WITH...

Matt Cartoon
Matt Pritchett

Matt Pritchett

Cartoonist

 

Hello! This week’s cartoon depicts a crewmate questioning a pirate. What do you think he is saying? Good luck, and may the best man or woman win.
Submit your caption here

Congratulations Christine Turner, who is the winner of last week’s competition. This one gave me quite a laugh.

Matt cartoon

P.S. For an inside look at what inspires my weekly cartoons, you can sign up for my personal subscriber-exclusive newsletter here.

 

Your say

The mighty colander

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...
In her rollicking work of social history, Consider the Fork, the food writer Bee Wilson tells the story of the kitchen utensils that many of us take for granted. Readers may be surprised, as I was, to learn that the table fork itself is a fairly recent innovation, while the waffle-iron and the colander have a far longer history.

I mention this because colanders have been much on readers’ minds in the past few days, following a run on kitchen hardware shops by people anxious to view the solar eclipse in safety.


 

As Valerie Keeling pointed out in her letter to us: “This means that many people don’t possess one. How do they drain their pasta?”


 

The next day, Ramesh Nayak dared to suggest that the colander was in fact a pointless utensil. “Instead, use tongs or a fork to pull out long strands [of pasta], and a slotted spoon to lift out small pasta shapes, vegetables or beans, leaving the water behind.”


 

That was enough to get readers seriously riled up. “I have a colander and it is frequently used when harvesting home-grown fruit and vegetables from the garden or blackberries from nearby hedgerows,” retorted Janette Weekes.

“Currently it is sitting on my kitchen worktop full of freshly picked tomatoes.”


 

Sue Gaynor was similarly energised. “My colander comes into use for various tasks, such as rinsing fruit and vegetables and straining hot cooked food while retaining juice and vegetable water for making sauces and gravy.”


 

However, it was Sandy Pratt who took the prize for creativity. “I have a colander: it makes a wonderful flower pot. All those little holes in the bottom mean that excess watering runs away.”

Culinary saviour, or basic waste of space? Let us know what’s in your kitchen here.

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

 

On this day

1940 | Hitler orders a total blockade of Great Britain

1945 | George Orwell publishes Animal Farm

1998 | Bill Clinton admits on television his involvement with Monica Lewinsky

2014 | England win the Women’s Rugby World Cup (see our front page from the following day)

Birthdays: Thierry Henry (49), Sean Penn (66), Robert De Niro (83)

Telegraph front page

Plus, in the news today, a cyclist has set a world record for the longest continuous ride on a penny farthing. How long was he cycling for?

1. 2 hours
2. 9 hours
3. 14 hours
4. 17 hours

Click one of the options to reveal the answer...

 

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 The 1% Club, Cogs, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.


 

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

 

Please let me know what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback at fromtheeditor@telegraph.co.uk.

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

Chris Evans, Editor

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