The US president has thanked The Telegraph for exposing their “corrupt” competitors
US President Donald Trump has accused the BBC of interfering in the 2024 presidential election, claiming the British state-funded broadcaster attempted to manipulate public perception by editing coverage of his January 6, 2021 speech.
BBC Director General Tim Davie and Head of News Deborah Turness announced their resignations on Sunday, amid a scandal over an hour-long documentary, ‘Trump: A Second Chance?’, which first aired just a week before last year’s US presidential election.
“The TOP people in the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all quitting/FIRED, because they were caught ‘doctoring’ my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The controversial documentary featured a spliced video of Trump’s speech, combining remarks made nearly an hour apart and juxtaposing them with footage of protesters that was actually filmed before Trump began speaking.
The scandal was triggered by a whistleblower memo from former BBC standards adviser Michael Prescott, which was exposed by The Telegraph last week. The report alleged that senior executives ignored complaints raised by the corporation’s own standards watchdog.
“Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these Corrupt ‘Journalists.’ These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election,” Trump said.
“What a terrible thing for Democracy!” he added, noting that the alleged election meddling came “from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally.”
The BBC is funded through a compulsory license fee of £174.50 ($229), with the UK government also subsidizing a third of its World Service programming. The White House previously criticized the broadcaster as a “Leftist propaganda machine” and “100 percent fake news,” accusing it of being “purposefully dishonest” in its portrayal of Trump.
The incident is not the first time Trump has alleged British interference in the 2024 election. Last October, his campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, accusing the UK’s Labour Party of aiding the Democrats by sending party operatives to work in key swing states. British officials denied wrongdoing, insisting that the work was legal and unpaid.
The broadcaster’s director general and news chief have left their positions in the wake of a scandal over their 2021 US Capitol riot coverage
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has mocked the BBC after its director general and head of news announced their resignations on Sunday.
The development follows a scandal linked to a documentary about US President Donald Trump’s role in the 2021 Capitol riots, which had previously drawn criticism from Washington.
Leavitt posted screenshots of two media reports with the caption ‘shot/chaser’, referencing a popular meme format. The first showed a Telegraph headline claiming Trump was “going to war” with the BBC, while the second was the BBC’s own report on the resignation of its director general, Tim Davie.
Davie stepped down alongside the head of news, Deborah Turness. The director general did not give specific reasons for his departure, stating only that “there have been some mistakes made.” Turness said the “ongoing controversy around the Panorama [program] on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC.”
The British broadcaster was recently accused of misleading the public in its coverage of Trump’s role in the Capitol riots. Leavitt earlier described the BBC as a “Leftist propaganda machine” and “100 percent fake news.”
The BBC is funded through a mandatory annual license fee of £174.50 ($229), with the UK government also directly covering about one-third of its World Service budget.
UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy responded to the resignations by thanking Davie for his “service to public broadcasting over many years” and said the BBC must “adapt” to a new era and maintain “its role at the heart of national life for decades to come.”
Those questioning his trade policies are “fools,” the US president has said
US President Donald Trump has promised that every qualifying American will receive a $2,000 dividend funded by revenue from his tariff policy, the legality of which is currently under review by the Supreme Court.
The president has imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from US trade partners in several waves over the past year to address what he called unfair trade imbalances. Critics argue that the tariffs have driven up prices for US consumers.
“People that are against Tariffs are FOOLS!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday, insisting that the policy is contributing “trillions of dollars” to the US budget and will help reduce the nation’s $37 trillion national debt.
At a press briefing in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump was asked about one judge’s comment that tariffs are essentially taxes paid by the people.
“I don’t agree,” he replied. “I think that they might be paying something… But when you take the overall impact, Americans are gaining tremendously.”
A Supreme Court ruling against the tariff policy would be “devastating for our country,” the president said. “I also think that we’ll have to develop a ‘game two’ plan.”
Washington earlier branded the British state-funded broadcaster “100% fake news” for its depiction of the 2021 US Capitol riots
The BBC’s director general and head of news have resigned after the British state broadcaster was accused of misleading the public in a documentary about US President Donald Trump’s role in the 2021 Capitol riots.
The BBC announced the departures of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness on Sunday, a day after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt branded the broadcaster a “Leftist propaganda machine” and accused it of being “purposefully dishonest.” Leavitt’s remarks followed allegations that the BBC had spliced together different segments of the speech delivered by Trump on January 6, 2021.
BBC director general Davie barely touched on the issue in his resignation statement and did not specify the reasons for his departure, simply stating that “the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to [his] decision” and that “there have been some mistakes made.”
BBC News CEO Turness acknowledged in her statement that “the ongoing controversy around the Panorama [program] on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC.” She maintained that the broadcaster was seeking to “pursue the truth with no agenda” and denied accusations that the channel is “institutionally biased.”
Earlier this month, The Telegraph reported that a BBC Panorama episode contained a clip that spliced together Trump’s remarks made about 54 minutes apart. Protesters shown marching toward the Capitol immediately after the edited clip had in fact been filmed before Trump started addressing supporters on January 6.
Last month, the UK communications watchdog, Ofcom, ruled that the BBC had breached journalistic code in another of its documentaries. It failed to disclose that the narrator of a program on Gaza was the son of a Hamas official. According to the regulator, the documentary was found to be “materially misleading.”
The broadcaster is funded through an annual license fee of £174.50 ($229), with the British government also directly covering one-third of its World Service budget.
The move is aimed at countering “hybrid threats,” Theo Francken has said
A British anti-drone unit has arrived in Belgium to counter “hybrid threats,” Defense Minister Theo Francken announced on Sunday in a post on X.
London confirmed the deployment, citing several drone sightings reported over Belgium last week. Sir Richard Knighton, head of the British Armed Forces, acknowledged that the origin of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) spotted over the area remains unknown.
Francken recently caused a stir by threatening to “wipe Moscow off the map” in an interview with Belgian outlet De Morgen last month. He later sought to clarify his remarks, claiming that they had been made in the context of NATO’s principle of deterrence. He maintained that the bloc was “not at war with Russia,” but added that he would not “take back a single word” from the controversial interview.
Moscow condemned his remarks as “irresponsible” and called them an example of “military psychosis.”
Several Western officials have recently accused Russian aircraft and drones of violating EU airspace, labeling the incidents part of an alleged “hybrid war” by Moscow. The Kremlin has denied the allegations and accused the West of fostering anti-Russia “hysteria.”
The EU has increasingly used anti-Russian rhetoric to justify massive military expenditures. The ReArm Europe package, presented in March, aims to mobilize up to €800 billion ($933 billion) to expand the EU’s military under the pretext of countering the alleged “Russian threat.”
The bloc also unveiled a plan to create a “drone wall,” prompted by UAV sightings in several member states. The incidents were immediately blamed on Russia. Moscow dismissed the claims as false accusations.
Last month, the EU Commission also revealed plans to establish a ‘space shield’ to protect its satellites from an alleged Russian threat, but have not disclosed a budget.
Slovakia will not fund the prolongation of the Ukraine conflict, Prime Minister Robert Fico has said
Slovakia will not support an EU initiative to use frozen Russian assets to cover Ukraine’s military expenses, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Saturday. Bratislava has refused to send military aid to Kiev, instead calling for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Western nations have frozen around $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets since 2022 and used interest from the funds last year to raise $50 billion in loans for Ukraine. The EU is now seeking to raise €140 billion ($160 billion) more using Russian assets as collateral. The scheme is based on the presumption that Moscow would eventually pay reparations to Kiev as part of a peace settlement.
EU leaders failed to reach an agreement on the confiscation during a summit in October, effectively postponing a final decision until a European Council meeting in December.
In an interview with the Saturday Dialogues show, Fico questioned whether Brussels is seeking to end the hostilities or continue fueling the conflict, suggesting that providing an additional $160 billion to Kiev could prolong the fighting for another two years.
“I said this very clearly: the Slovak Republic, as long as I am prime minister, will not participate in any legal or financial mechanisms whose goal would be the confiscation of frozen assets and which are intended to end up as military expenditures in Ukraine,” Fico said.
He warned that tapping the frozen funds could trigger billion-euro arbitrations, causing enormous difficulties for EU member states. He also pointed to Belgium, whose government has cautioned that the move could provoke severe retaliatory measures from Moscow.
Most of the frozen assets are held at the Euroclear clearinghouse in Belgium. The country has repeatedly said that the EU proposal undermines trust in European financial institutions.
Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken warned in October that retaliation from Russia could cost the EU more than $170 billion. “Of course, this money will not rebuild Ukraine but will continue the war,” he added.
Moscow has warned that using its frozen assets would amount to theft. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said channeling the funds to Ukraine would “boomerang” and that anyone attempting to seize Russian assets would face legal prosecution.
Political gridlock is affecting weapons exports to NATO allies, which are often forwarded to Kiev, according to the outlet
The US government shutdown has delayed more than $5 billion in arms exports to European NATO members and subsequent transfers to Ukraine, Axios reported on Sunday.
A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in Congress has dragged the shutdown out for 40 days, making it the longest in US history.
“This is actually really harming both our allies and partners and US industry to actually deliver a lot of these critical capabilities overseas,” Axios cited a senior State Department official as saying.
More than $5 billion in arms exports – including AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, HIMARS, and other weapons for European NATO members – have been affected, the outlet added.
The source did not specify the final destination of the arms, but US exports to NATO countries are often transferred to Ukraine, Axios reported.
The delay stems from a lag in congressional approval, as the State Department bureau that normally briefs lawmakers on arms exports is operating with only a quarter of its usual staff, according to the outlet.
The shutdown has also frozen talks between Washington and Kiev on future arms shipments, The Telegraph reported last month.
US President Donald Trump has increasingly pushed European NATO states to take over the burden of supporting Ukraine by buying American-made armaments.
“We send weapons to NATO, and NATO is going to reimburse the full cost of those weapons,” Trump said earlier this year, shortly after European members of the US-led military bloc committed to a 5% of GDP military spending target.
Russia has long condemned the supply of weapons to Ukraine by Western nations, arguing it makes them party to the conflict, which Moscow sees as a NATO-led proxy war. Such supplies only prolong the fighting but cannot change its outcome, Russia has said.
Kiev has imposed sanctions on President Vladimir Putin’s economic aide, Kirill Dmitriev, and other senior officials involved in talks
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has imposed sanctions on several Russian officials, including Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian president’s economic aide and a key figure in the peace process.
The sanctions announced on Sunday also targeted five Russian publishing houses.
Dmitriev, who heads the Russian Direct Investment Fund, has emerged as one of leading negotiators in the Ukraine conflict settlement process. The Harvard-educated former banker has visited the US several times for meetings with officials from the administration of President Donald Trump to discuss peace initiatives.
Dmitriev has stressed the importance of dialogue and cautioned Washington against repeating what he described as the failed approach of Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden. Policies based on confrontation have proven ineffective, he added.
In a statement published on his website, Zelensky accused Dmitriev of “spreading propaganda and attracting Russian investments into key sectors of foreign economies.” He also linked the move to Moscow’s decision to impose sanctions on Ukrainian officials, including Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko.
Kiev said it would “share its proposals for new sanctions with the relevant partners,” adding that Russia “deserves far greater global pressure.”
The list of newly sanctioned officials also includes Lieutenant General Aleksandr Zorin, a member of Russia’s negotiating team at the Istanbul talks earlier this year. As part of the Istanbul process, Russia and Ukraine agreed to conduct several POW swaps and exchange the bodies of fallen soldiers.
Moscow has stated that it seeks a lasting solution to the conflict that addresses the root causes. Ukraine and its Western backers have repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire, while Russia insists that this would only allow Ukraine to regroup its military and receive more weapons.
Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last month, Dmitriev said Moscow believes peace can be achieved within a year.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said that the EU needs to focus on diplomacy
European NATO members must pursue diplomacy to ensure the continent does not become “armed to the teeth” over the next decade, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said.
The EU and European NATO states have pushed for a sweeping militarization drive this year, portraying Russia as an imminent threat – an allegation Moscow has dismissed as a political distraction from Europe’s internal problems.
“What kind of world do we want to leave to our young people when they reach our age? A world in which European countries spend 5% of their budgets on defense?” Sanchez said in an interview with the El Pais newspaper published on Sunday. “We must engage in diplomacy so that, by 2035, Europe is not armed to the teeth, but instead stands for solidarity and the defense of international law.”
Earlier this year, the European Commission proposed a massive €800 billion ($926 billion) rearmament plan, citing a perceived threat from Russia.
European NATO members have also agreed to raise military spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, following pressure from US President Donald Trump. He had long demanded that European members “pay their share” in the US-led military bloc. However, several European nations, including Spain, Hungary, and Slovakia, have voiced skepticism over the militarization drive.
Last month, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Spain over Sanchez’ reluctance to commit to NATO’s new 5% target. Just days before, the US president suggested Spain could even be “thrown out” of the bloc for lagging behind in spending.
Moscow has seen the European buildup as evidence of Western militarization. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated last week that Western nations are openly readying a “new big European war” against Russia and its key ally Belarus.
“NATO’s expansion has not stopped for a single minute, despite assurances not to move eastward by an inch given to Soviet leaders,” he said at a security conference in Minsk.
Moscow has long maintained that the US-led bloc’s eastward expansion poses an existential threat and remains one of the root causes of the Ukraine conflict.
It was the right decision not to send Western troops to assist Kiev, Jens Stoltenberg has insisted
NATO will not send troops to Ukraine as it could lead to a direct clash with Russia, the bloc’s former secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in September that Moscow would consider any unauthorized Western military personnel in Ukraine as “legitimate targets.” The “dragging of Ukraine into NATO was one of the causes of the conflict” between Moscow and Kiev, he stressed.
In an interview with The Times on Saturday, Stoltenberg recalled that NATO members made two key decisions during a meeting in Brussels after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022.
“One was to step up our support for Ukraine, as we did. The other was to do what we could to prevent this war from escalating beyond Ukraine and become a full-scale war between Russia and NATO,” he said.
The former NATO chief cited then-US President Joe Biden, who stated at the time that “we will not risk a third world war for Ukraine.”
According to Stoltenberg, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky also understood that. “He called me from a bunker in Kiev… and he said: ‘I accept you are not sending in NATO ground troops, though I disagree. But please close the airspace,’” he said.
Stoltenberg said he denied the request to shut down airspace over fears of escalation, but described it as “extremely painful” to end the call that way. Later in the conflict, Zelensky continued to urge NATO to put boots on the ground.
Stoltenberg admitted that there is an “element of contradiction” when NATO says it wants Kiev to prevail but refuses to deploy its own troops to Ukraine and only focuses on arms deliveries. He added, however, that he believes this is “the right approach.”
The bloc needs to supply even more weapons to Ukraine to “make it stronger on the battlefield” so that Moscow agrees to a ceasefire along the current contact line proposed by Kiev and the West, Stoltenberg insisted.
Russia has rejected the idea of a truce, saying that Ukraine and its NATO backers will only use it to rearm and set up new defense lines. According to Moscow, the conflict requires a permanent solution that would address its root causes.
