Telegraph Front Page
Monday May 23 2022 12:34 PM
The Telegraph Front Page PM
By Chris Price
Good evening. Boris Johnson may have thought the publication of the Sue Gray report was the biggest headache he faced this week, but leaked pictures of him raising a glass under Covid restrictions may prove worse.
PM pictured at No 10 party ... Photographs obtained by ITV News cast fresh doubt on the Prime Minister’s claims that he was unaware of rule-breaking in Downing Street during the pandemic
Partygate pictures | Boris Johnson drank alcohol with aides at a leaving party in November 2020 while Britain was under Covid lockdown, leaked photographs show. ITV News obtained four pictures showing the Prime Minister with a glass in his hand as he stood by a table littered with bottles of wine. The second national lockdown had been imposed on the nation eight days before the gathering. Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the Labour Party, said the images mean there is 'no doubt' that he lied when he said he was unaware of rule-breaking in No 10 during the pandemic. Our live blog has the latest reaction and the pictures.
Today's question: On this day in 1533, Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon, so that he could marry whom? See the answer below.
Evening briefing: Today's essential headlines
- Imran Ahmad Khan | Ex-Tory MP jailed for sexually assaulting boy
- Infant death | Nurse arrested on suspicion of poisoning
- Monkeypox outbreak | First case detected in Scotland
- Suppliers collapse | Households brace for internet blackouts
- Noel Gallagher | Stitches needed after 'headbutt' by Ruben Dias' dad
The big story: Russian war criminal sentenced to life
In a conflict where technology has made the horrors of war more observable than ever, could the fate of Vadim Shishimarin be the first of many? The Russian tank commander has been sentenced to life in prison for killing an unarmed civilian, in the first war crimes trial of the conflict in Ukraine. The 21-year-old Russian soldier had pleaded guilty to killing Oleksandr Shelipov, 62, in the northeastern Ukrainian village of Chupakhivka on February 28 after being ordered to shoot. A Russian diplomat has quit his post in a daring anti-Kremlin walkout today as he condemned Vladimir Putin for trying to stay in power by unleashing an 'aggressive war in Ukraine'. Boris Bondarev, a councillor at the Russian permanent mission to the UN in Geneva, told the Telegraph he felt it was his moral duty to take a stand against the Russian leader's regime.
It comes as a Ukrainian intelligence chief has revealed Putin survived an assassination attempt at the start of the war in Ukraine. Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukrainian military intelligence, said in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda that Russian authorities thwarted a plot to kill the Russian president two months earlier. Russian troop deaths in the first three months of the war in Ukraine are the same as Soviet losses during nine years of conflict in Afghanistan, Britain's Ministry of Defence has said. This graph shows British and Ukrainian estimates of Russian casualties, which have not been publicly confirmed by Moscow for several weeks. In its last update in March, the Kremlin confirmed it had lost some 1,300 troops since the invasion began a month earlier.
Brink of starvation
The extent of the human suffering caused by the war is set to reach further across the world. Catastrophic wheat shortages risk sending millions to the brink of starvation and setting off a wave of migration as the world's poor take to the road in search of food, the International Monetary Fund has warned. The crunch caused by Covid and the Russian invasion of Ukraine risks being compounded by misplaced protectionism as dozens of governments around the world impose restrictions on the trade of essentials including energy and food, the economic watchdog said. David Beasley, head of the UN's World Food Programme, said Putin's blockade of Ukrainian ports 'is a declaration of war on global food security,' as 43 million people are 'knocking on starvation's door' without exports from Europe's breadbasket.
'F-ck the war!'
It appears growing numbers of Russia's people have had enough of the pain the conflict in Ukraine is causing. Thousands of people chanted anti-war slogans at a rock concert in Russia in a growing sign of public discontent with the Kremlin's invasion. Concert-goers at a popular girl band show in St Petersburg were chanting 'F–ck the war!' in unison in a video that was widely circulated online. One member of the Kis Kis band has been vocal about her opposition to the war, posting criticism of the Kremlin and the invasion on her social media. Watch the chants here.
Comment and analysis
- Tom Harris | Salmond is exposing the cynical SNP tricks he pioneered
- Norman Tebbit | Gove hasn't a clue what 'Levelling-up' means
- David Davis | Windfall taxes are a betrayal of Conservatism
- Shane Watson | Ten unexpected dangers of working from home
- Matt Law | Conte has given Spurs a chance of glory - Levy must seize it
Around the world: Biden's military pledge on Taiwan
Joe Biden has said he would be willing to intervene militarily to defend Taiwan, warning that China was 'flirting with danger' if it tried to seize the democratic island by force. Asked in a Tokyo press conference if – following Russia's invasion of Ukraine – he would be 'willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?' he responded: 'Yes...that's a commitment we made.' Mr Biden is on the second leg of his first trip to Asia, visiting both South Korea and Japan in what has been widely viewed as an attempt to bolster cooperation with regional allies in opposition to China's growing assertiveness across the Indo-Pacific.
Monday interview
Andy Sturgeon: 'I have the chance to leave a legacy'
Gardening for health: Sturgeon and his partner Thea Thompson in the garden he has made for Mind
The star designer Andy Sturgeon is returning to the Chelsea Flower Show one last time for a cause close to his heart
Read the full interview
Sport briefing: Ten Hag backs himself at Man Utd
Erik ten Hag, the new Manchester United manager, believes he can break Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp’s stranglehold on English football. Read more from Ten Hag’s first press conference as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s long-term successor this lunchtime, less than 24 hours after Guardiola’s Manchester City clinched a fourth Premier League title in five seasons by a point from Klopp’s Liverpool. Our football writers deliver their verdicts on how all 20 Premier League clubs performed - and it makes painful reading for some. Mikel Arteta is pushing Arsenal to make an opening £25 million bid for Youri Tielemans, the Leicester midfielder.
In tennis, Naomi Osaka is 'leaning towards' skipping Wimbledon due to the removal of ranking points from next month's championships, in what would be a huge blow for organisers.
Editor's choice
Stranger Things, season 4, review | This 1980s Americana sci-fi is irresistible
Paul Ryall-Friend, 51, also wants to know how he can pay off his mortgage by his 60th birthday
Money Makeover | 'I'm 51 and have a £927,000 pension – how do I avoid a devastating tax bill?'
'What I can’t get him to accept is that our lives aren’t his to regale his friends with'
Dear Richard Madeley | 'My father won't stop bragging about me, and I find it mortifying'
Business briefing: Lehman guru's financial warning
If anybody knows where the points of maximum stress lie as monetary tightening collides with epic levels of global debt, it is the man who wrote the definitive opus on the crash of 2008. Columbia professor Adam Tooze is the rising star of the Davos circuit. His book Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World is a superb forensic analysis of the political and economic brew that led to the meltdown of the western banking system. Read why he is warning that the world's financial system is entering dangerous waters again. It comes as HSBC has reportedly suspended a senior executive ahead of an internal investigation into a presentation he made that accused central bankers of overstating the financial risks of climate change and attacking 'nut jobs'.
From Northern Ireland to Portland - why Emma McIlroy loves her city
Tonight starts now
Chelsea Flower Show | Chelsea is back! Not with a 'bang' exactly, but more of a 'big hug.' There is a calming, caring, reflective feel to most of the 13 show gardens on Main Avenue. Garden historian and critic Tim Richardson gives his verdict on who will win the show while our gardening columnist Bunny Guinness was given an exclusive look behind the scenes - and shares what makes the annual show so special. If you want to see what's happening, here is your full guide to visiting.
Three things for you
Watch | Silent Witness, BBC One, 9pm, and tonight's TV listings
Streaming | Prehistoric Planet: Sir David Attenborough's Jurassic Park
And finally... for this evening's downtime
The mad life of DJ Fat Tony | Coke with Freddie Mercury, telling Madonna to eff off: DJ Fat Tony's life has been a litany of drugs, childhood abuse and celebrity mates. Ian Winwood reviews the memoir of a man with an appetite for self-sabotage.
Answer: Anne Boleyn.
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