Boris
Express
Boris Johnson could still make a stunning return as Prime Minister before the next general election if Rishi Sunak doesn’t do enough to close the gap in the polls with the Labour Party, allies have claimed. Last Sunday, Mr Johnson pulled out of the Conservative Party leadership contest to replace the resigning Liz Truss after deciding it was too soon for him to unite the bickering MPs in the party that led to his downfall in July. This cleared the way for Mr Sunak to become the new Tory leader and Prime Minister, which was formally confirmed earlier this week.
Despite his decision to withdraw from the leadership contest, Mr Johnson’s campaign team had claimed he had reached the threshold of 100 MPs needed to get on the ballot paper.
Now allies of the Prime Minister fear Mr Sunak may struggle to beat Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in the polls.
They believe Tory MPs could turn to former Prime Minister Mr Johnson – who led the party to a huge 80-seat majority in the 2019 General Election – in the months leading up to the next national vote, which at the moment is scheduled for 2024.
Sunak
Mirror
Donors with fossil fuel links helped fund Rishi Sunak’s race for No 10. Over a quarter of the £530,000 donated to the new Prime Minister this year was from supporters with interests in oil, gas and aviation.
It raised fresh questions over Mr Sunak’s commitment to tackling climate change and put his refusal to attend COP27 next month under the spotlight.
Shadow Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband blasted: “ Rishi Sunak is on the side of the big oil and gas companies, not the British people. We’ve seen it time and again including him refusing a proper windfall tax on the rocketing profits of these energy giants.
“Now he’s missing in from the big international climate meeting. An absent PM choosing to protect the huge profits of big oil and gas firms will never tackle the energy bills and climate crises we face, and will never deliver the energy independence we need.”
Mr Sunak accepted donations totalling £141,000 this year from supporters with oil and gas ties. Many of the payments were for his failed Ready4Rishi summer leadership bid against Liz Truss.
He also accepted the use of carbon-spewing private jets for campaign meet-and-greets.
Truss
Mail
Liz Truss’s personal mobile phone was hacked by agents suspected of working for the Kremlin, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The cyber-spies are believed to have gained access to top-secret exchanges with key international partners as well as private conversations with her leading political ally, Kwasi Kwarteng.
One source said that the phone was so heavily compromised that it has now been placed in a locked safe inside a secure Government location.
The hack was discovered during the summer’s Tory leadership campaign, when Ms Truss was Foreign Secretary, but the details were suppressed by Boris Johnson, who was Prime Minister at the time, and the Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case.
It is understood that messages which fell into foreign hands included criticisms Ms Truss and her future Chancellor Mr Kwarteng made of Mr Johnson, leading to the potential risk of blackmail. Sources said that up to a year’s worth of messages were downloaded.
They are also believed to have included highly sensitive discussions with senior international foreign ministers about the war in Ukraine, including detailed discussions about arms shipments.
The astonishing incident, disclosed by security sources, solves the mystery of why Ms Truss was forced to change the mobile number she had used for over a decade shortly before becoming Prime Minister. The move caused anxiety among Cabinet Ministers and advisers who were suddenly unable to contact her.
Telegraph
Liz Truss’s personal phone was hacked for top-secret information by suspected Russian agents, according to the Mail on Sunday.
The attackers are said to have gained access to details of negotiations with international allies, as well as private messages exchanged with her close friend Kwasi Kwarteng.
The hack was uncovered during the Tory leadership campaign this summer, while Ms Truss was foreign secretary but the details were suppressed by then prime minister Boris Johnson and Simon Case, cabinet secretary.
The Mail on Sunday spoke to one source who said the phone had been compromised so severely it had now been placed in a locked safe in a secure location.
It is believed that around a year’s worth of messages were taken from the device.
GB News
The Government has been urged to launch an urgent investigation following reports that Liz Truss’s phone was hacked.
The breach was discovered when then-foreign secretary Ms Truss was running for the Tory leadership in the summer, but details were suppressed by then-prime minister Boris Johnson and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, The Mail on Sunday reported.
Spies suspected of working for Russian president Vladimir Putin gained access to sensitive information, including discussions about the Ukraine war with foreign officials, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.
It also claimed private conversations between Ms Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng criticising Mr Johnson fell into the hackers’ hands, potentially leaving them at risk of blackmail.
Sun
LIZ Truss’s phone was hacked by agents suspected of working for Russian President Vladimir Putin, it was reported last night.
The cyber spies gained access to top secret details of talks Britain was having with its key allies as war raged in Ukraine.
In an astonishing security breach, messages Ms Truss sent to foreign powers and other Cabinet ministers are understood to have fallen into enemy hands.
Her phone was so compromised it has been locked in a safe at a secret government location, it is claimed.
The hack was discovered during the Tory leadership race while Ms Truss was still Foreign Secretary.
But details were kept secret by then-PM Boris Johnson and civil service chief Simon Case.
A source said: “This caused absolute pandemonium. Boris was told immediately and it was agreed with the Cabinet Secretary that there should be a total news blackout.
“It is not a great look for the intelligence services if the Foreign Secretary’s phone can be so easily plundered for embarrassing personal messages by agents presumed to be working for Putin’s Russia.”
Express
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s phone was reportedly hacked by Vladimir Putin’s agents. The breach, revealed by the Mail on Sunday, is said to have included about a year’s worth of messages.
The hack was discovered during the Tory leadership campaign when Ms Truss was Foreign Secretary. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case reportedly wanted to keep the hack under wraps.
Private messages between the former Prime Minister and her close friend and political ally Kwasi Kwarteng are believed to have been lifted by Putin’s agents.
Messages critical of then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson are also said to have been stolen. There is thought to be concern that Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng could be subject to potential blackmail due to the critical nature of the messages.
Alarmingly, sensitive talks with foreign ministers about the war in Ukraine are said to have fallen into the Kremlin’s hands, including details about arms shipments.
Police
Telegraph
Rishi Sunak is preparing to launch a major offensive on crime as ministers seek to emulate the success of an “anti-woke” police chief who has turned around two forces.
Sources said the new Prime Minister had made it clear crime would be one of the Government’s top three priorities after next month’s Autumn Statement, which Oliver Dowden, the Prime Minister’s Cabinet enforcer, says will first restore “economic stability”.
Ministers are studying the example of Greater Manchester Police (GMP), where a “back-to-basics” chief overhauled the “failing force” and took it out of special measures in just 18 months.
Stephen Watson, Chief Constable of GMP, who has warned public tolerance of “woke” policing is at a “high water mark”, put more officers on the beat and required the force to pursue every crime lead – resulting in the official watchdog taking it out of special measures.
A government source said: “We want to get officers on to the front line doing what they are supposed to do which is preventing and solving crime. The chief constable of Greater Manchester has done a great job on that. We want to see what Greater Manchester have done replicated across other forces.”
During his summer leadership campaign, Mr Sunak alluded to the “woke” policing criticised by Mr Watson when he warned that “police forces must be fully focused on fighting actual crime in people’s neighbourhoods, and not policing bad jokes on Twitter”.
Forces have been criticised for sending officers to arrest social media users for offensive posts, as well as gestures such as “taking the knee” alongside Black Lives Matter protesters.
Nord Stream
Breitbart
Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has denied Russian allegations that the Royal Navy directed Ukrainian drone strikes against the Black Sea Fleet and facilitated the “terrorist attack” on the Nord Stream pipelines.
In a statement published on Telegram on Saturday, the Russian defence ministry claimed Black Sea Fleet and civilian vessels “involved in ensuring the security of the ‘grain corridor’ as part of an international initiative to export agricultural products from Ukrainian ports” had been targeted in a “terrorist attack” by aerial and maritime drones, resulting, they claimed, in “minor” damage to a minesweeper and a sea boom.
The Russians further alleged that the “preparation of this terrorist act and the training of military personnel of 73rd Marine Special Operations Centre were carried out under supervision of British specialists” based within Ukraine, and that “representatives of this unit from the British Navy” were also “involved in plotting, organising, and implementation of the terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on 26 September this year to blow up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines.”
Britain’s defence ministry has now responded to these claims, which Russia’s defence ministry did not substantiate with supporting evidence, accusing Moscow of “resorting to peddling false claims of an epic scale” in order to “detract from their disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine”.
“This invented story, says more about arguments going on inside the Russian Government than it does about the [W]est,” the MoD wrote on Twitter.
Tensions between Russia and Britain, which Moscow views as particularly belligerent, have been high in recent weeks, with Britain’s defence secretary claiming a Russian warplane had fired a missile in the vicinity of a Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft operating over the Black Sea earlier this month.
CoP27
Mail
Downing Street is ‘alarmed’ over reports that Boris Johnson plans to travel to Egypt for Cop27 next week – after Rishi Sunak provoked a row when he said he would not attend the event.
The former Prime Minister is understood to be intending to attend the meeting of world leaders to show solidarity with the fight against the climate crisis.
It comes as his Mr Sunak is facing accusations of a ‘massive failure of leadership’ and claims he will now be ‘missing in action’ on climate issues following his decision not to attend in order to focus on ‘other pressing domestic commitments’.
At the same time, Downing Street also confirmed that Mr Sunak had downgraded the status of climate minister Graham Stuart, who will no longer be attending Cabinet. Alok Sharma , the Cop-26 President, also lost his right to attend Cabinet meetings in the PM’s reshuffle this week.
Mr Sharma today said the PM risks undermining the UK’s position as a world leader on climate issues by not attending Cop27.
He told The Times: ‘I’m pretty disappointed that the prime minister is not going. I understand that he’s got a huge in tray of domestic issues that he has to deal with.
‘But I would say that going to Cop27 would allow for engagement with other world leaders.
‘And I think it does send a signal, if the Prime Minister was to go, about our renewed commitment on this issue.’
Guardian
A row over prime minister Rishi Sunak’s refusal to attend the Cop27 climate summit took an extraordinary twist on Saturday night as the Observer was informed that his predecessor but one – Boris Johnson – is planning to attend the event.
Several sources said they had been told that Johnson is intending to go to the crucial meeting of world leaders in Egypt to show his solidarity with the battle against the climate crisis.
Johnson’s attendance would be potentially explosive just days after Sunak took over as prime minister and decided he did not have time to attend.
Johnson’s involvement would be seen as both an implicit criticism of Sunak for not going and an attempt to maintain and bolster his profile just a week after he abandoned his own attempts at a dramatic comeback to No 10. Several sources close to Johnson did not deny that he was set to go.
On Saturday night there were signs of a row at the highest levels of government over Johnson’s intentions, and indications that efforts may be under way to get the former prime minister to change his mind.
Asked whether Johnson was attending Cop27, the Cabinet Office, which is in charge of Cop planning and preparations, said it could not answer directly.
Covid
Express
China is facing a major coronavirus outbreak with over 200 million people plunged back into lockdown following the emergence of two “highly contagious” variants. Some 28 cities across the country, including the capital Beijing and Wuhan, where the virus first originated, are currently in lockdown. Data shows nearly 208 million people are currently living under varying degrees of lockdown in China. These cities have become the latest victims of the Chinese government’s aggressive “zero-Covid” strategy, which it has followed since the virus first broke out. As cases spike across the country, health officials have pointed toward two highly contagious subvariant of Omicron – BF.7 and BA.5.1.7 as being responsible.
Chinese officials described the new strains of Omicron as “highly contagious”, adding that they can also infect people who had been previously immune.
Economic analysis firm Nomura told the Sun: “According to government statistics and our survey, 28 cities are currently implementing various levels of lockdown or some kind of district-based control measures.”
In their analysis, they found that the 210 million figure is actually much lower than the previous week’s figure of 225 million. However, the number the cities facing the strictest forms of lockdown have actually increased.
As a result, even though the seven-day-moving average of cases also dropped from 1,333 to 820, China’s economy has taken a hit, impacting 8.5 percent of the country’s GDP.
Telegraph
When Britain first locked down on March 23 2020, the average daily death rate from Covid was around 213, triggering understandable alarm and the ushering in of strict restrictions.
Now, a similar number of unexpected deaths are occurring each day, the majority of which are not primarily caused by coronavirus.
Yet there is largely silence from the Government and health service.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that in the past six months there have been more excess deaths from causes other than Covid, than deaths ‘due to’ coronavirus for the entire year.
Figures reveal there were 18,394 deaths ‘due to’ Covid recorded this year in England and Wales. But since May there have been 23,195 excess deaths where the primary cause was another condition.
Some of those people did die with a coronavirus infection, but it was not the main reason for the death.
Experts continue to argue over the reasons behind this recent uptick in unexpected deaths, which shows no sign of slowing.
But it is likely that collateral damage from the pandemic, coupled with long term NHS problems, have collided into a perfect, and deadly, storm.
HS2
Telegraph
The first phase of the HS2 project has already used more than a quarter of its contingency funding up to 11 years ahead of opening.
Mark Harper, the new Transport Secretary, said the London-to-Birmingham leg is likely to overshoot its latest “target cost” and is burning through money reserved for additional costs.
The Government has urged the company running the project, HS2 Ltd, to find savings because it is concerned about a number of unforeseen costs, including more than £100m of design work for a new station at London Euston that can no longer be used.
More than a quarter of HS2 Ltd’s £5.5 billion contingency fund for the first leg of the project has already been spent, even though the project has not yet reached “peak construction” and is not expected to be operational until between 2029 and 2033.
Unexpected construction and land costs have meant “the final delivery cost is likely to exceed its target cost of £40.3bn based upon its forecast of future spending”, Mr Harper said in a written statement to MPs this week.
As a result, in September, the Department commissioned HS2 Ltd to develop and implement actions to bring projected costs back in line with the target cost.”
Greg Smith, a Conservative MP whose Buckingham constituency contains a stretch of the line, said the whole project should be scrapped as a cost-saving measure for the Treasury
“We find ourselves in a position where incredibly difficult spending choices have to be made,” he told the Sunday Telegraph last night, as he suggested £147bn could be saved in total if HS2 was paused immediately.
Hallowe’en
Express
The Queen Mother’s childhood home is one of the most haunted places in Scotland and will be opening its doors this Halloween. With the Grampian mountains in the background and fairytale-like castle towers, Glamis Castle in Angus is an enchanting sight. However, the royal residence is thought is be the haunting grounds of at least nine ghosts, and is known for having many spooky stories.
Glamis Castle was the former childhood home of the Queen Mother and was the birthplace of Queen Elizabeth’s sister, Princess Margaret.
William Shakespeare is thought to have used the castle for the Scottish play, Macbeth, which is said to be one of the spookiest stories of the Bard.
It has been home to the Earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne and also to the Lyon family.
However, since the beginning, the castle has been rumoured to have supernatural occurrences.
It was originally meant to be built on top of a nearby hill and during its construction builders would arrive every day to discover their work destroyed as stones would be broken as well as scattered around the area.
The story goes that one day the builders heard a voice which said: “Build not on this enchanted spot, where man hath neither part nor lot, but build down in yonder bog, where it will neither shake nor shog!”
After that, a new site on flatter land was found to build the castle.
I think some of these stories about Truss’ mobile phone being hacked by agents of the Kremlin and Boris Johnson being involved in a plot to potentially oust Sunak prior to the next general election, are derived from the Express online news site. Not a day goes by without a few ludicrous stories being put out to alarm people. Most of the supposed news stories are total garbage in my view just like the annual Daily Express UK winter forecast of 15 feet snow drifts and minis 20 temperatures. All probably dreamt up by some wannabe failed journalist(s) trying to make the grade. Sometimes Farage has this chap from Express online news on his GB News programme who seems to have problems in stringing a few sentences together. Insofar as Johnson is concerned, he is yesterday’s man, and the sooner he disappears from the political scene altogether, the better it will be for all of us.
Headlines and elsewhere say it WAS the Russians hacking. First, we are not given any evidence that hacking even took place; second, it’s Russiagate all over again. The bogeyman for all ills; the external aggressor needed by all totalitarian states to keep the population cowed. It is only in the very last line that ‘a source’ says, ‘by agents presumed to be working for Putin’s Russia.’
PRESUMED! So no actual evidence presented of hacking followed by no evidence fingering the culprit. If presumption is allowed, then mine is that it’s just more to add from the mass fiction factory that used to be our MSM.
Virus
A very good article I the Exposè today explains the criminality that has and still is continuing. Jail is not enough for these maniacs. It is well worth saving if you haven’t got time to read it all straight away.
https://expose-news.com/2022/10/30/mhra-confirms-covid-19-is-man-made/
A snippet of news which may be overlooked. It’s good to know that taxpayers money is being put to good use. While many of us struggle to eat or heat, or find housing, the Government spends millions on Foreign Aid, paying hotel bills for the proxy invasion force from France, millions to Macron for doing nothing, and unlimited legal aid for various never ending appeals by various criminals, etc. etc. This long list is now to be extended. They are to send even more millions of taxpayers money to the Albanian Government, which accords with the GCM aims, but looks more like blackmail to me, “Give us money or we’ll flood your country with even more immigrants.” We are already paying out a fortune for the thousands of illegal Albanians, and others, already living here. Is there no end to this madness?
Millions to Albania
https://tittlepress.com/world/2059315
Whether BoJo returns as PM or continues to interfere behind the scenes he remains our enemy, working to the orders of his globalist mates. Will Sunak be any better? Available evidence suggests not; two peas in the same pod with a mission to destroy our country and people.