Category Archives: Newspapers & magazines

Israeli unit tasked with smearing Gaza journalists as Hamas fighters – report

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Israeli-Palestinian magazine says IDF ‘legitimisation cell’ set up to blunt global outrage over killing of media staff

A special unit in Israel’s military was tasked with identifying reporters it could smear as undercover Hamas fighters, to target them and to blunt international outrage over the killing of media workers, the Israeli-Palestinian outlet +972 Magazine reports.

The “legitimisation cell” was set up after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack to gather information that could bolster Israel’s image and shore up diplomatic and military support from key allies, the report said, citing three intelligence sources.

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Angela Rayner: No 10 officials guilty of ‘self-harm’ by briefing against ministers

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Exclusive: Deputy PM hits out at targeting of herself and others – often women – with negative headlines

Angela Rayner has hit back at anonymous No 10 officials who have briefed against senior cabinet ministers in recent months, warning them they are committing “self-harm”.

The deputy prime minister launched an outspoken defence of herself and other colleagues – often women – who have found themselves the subject of negative headlines in recent months, with several being tipped for the sack at a future reshuffle.

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Bill Clinton reportedly sent Jeffrey Epstein note for birthday album

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Wall Street Journal reports ex-president’s letter, while New York Times reports Trump called Epstein ‘the greatest’

Donald Trump apparently isn’t the only president that sent a birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein. “The biggest name in the album” was Bill Clinton, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The ex-president’s letter appeared alongside nearly 50 others, including other prominent celebrities and executives.

Last week, the Journal reported that Trump had authored a “bawdy” letter to Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 after he was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges. The letter was included in an album Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell compiled on the occasion of his 50th birthday in 2003. Trump has sued Rupert Murdoch, two Wall Street Journal newspaper reporters and the newspaper’s publisher Dow Jones for libel and slander over the reporting.

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Trump sues Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over Epstein report

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President follows through on libel threat over report that said he sent Epstein ‘bawdy’ birthday note and sketch

Donald Trump has sued Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal newspaper reporters for libel and slander over claims that he sent the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a lewd letter and sketch of a naked woman.

Trump’s lawsuit on Friday, which also targets Dow Jones and News Corp, was filed in the southern district of Florida federal court in Miami.

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Oasis in row with photo agencies over pictures from reunion shows

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Exclusive: Band’s management tell agencies and publishers they can only use shots of first gig in Cardiff for a year

A row has broken out over restrictions imposed on how newspapers, magazines, TV broadcasters and digital publishers can use pictures taken at Oasis reunion gigs, as the band prepare to play the first night of what is expected to be the most profitable tour in UK history.

Photo agencies and publishers have been told they can use shots of the first concert, which takes place in Cardiff on Friday, for one year and then the rights revert back to the band and management.

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Austrian newspaper cuts ties with writer over Clint Eastwood ‘exclusive’

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Kurier editor says Q&A that was picked up by other outlets contained old quotes from round-table events

One of Austria’s leading newspapers has severed ties with a Hollywood reporter after admitting she repackaged old comments by Clint Eastwood and presented them as a supposedly exclusive interview.

In an apparent journalistic coup, the Vienna-based daily Kurier published a Q&A with Eastwood last Friday and it was picked up around the world over the weekend due to the Oscar-winning actor’s outspoken criticism of Hollywood’s “era of remakes and franchises”.

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Chicago Sun-Times confirms AI was used to create reading list of books that don’t exist

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Outlet calls story, created by freelancer working with one of the newpaper’s content partner, a ‘learning moment’

Illinois’ prominent Chicago Sun-Times newspaper has confirmed that a summer reading list, which included several recommendations for books that don’t exist, was created using artificial intelligence by a freelancer who worked with one of their content partners.

Social media posts began to circulate on Tuesday criticizing the paper for allegedly using the AI software ChatGPT to generate an article with book recommendations for the upcoming summer season called “Summer reading list for 2025”. As such chatbots are known to make up information, a phenomenon often referred to as “AI hallucination”, the article contains several fake titles attached to real authors.

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Prince Harry accused the Sun of printing story linking him to P Diddy out of revenge

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Exclusive: court documents reveal Harry claimed front page story and other articles had ‘hugely negative impact on his mental health and that of his wife and children’

Prince Harry has accused the Sun newspaper of being motivated by revenge when publishing a front page story reporting that he had been named in a lawsuit accusing Sean “Diddy” Combs of sex trafficking, according to claims in a newly disclosed court document.

The story was said by the Duke of Sussex to be among “a large number of false and highly derogatory articles” published by Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) “in retaliation” for his claims of phone hacking and unlawful information gathering.

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Decision on foreign state stakes in UK press could end Telegraph limbo

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Cap of 15% could allow US firm RedBird Capital to finalise deal to buy titles after two years of uncertainty

The government will allow foreign states to own stakes of up to 15% in British newspapers in a move that could finally end two years of uncertainty over the ownership of the Telegraph titles.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is to announce the limit on Thursday through the introduction of a new statutory instrument in parliament, ending a months-long consultation involving intensive lobbying by newspaper owners.

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Trump complains the US media aren’t bending to his will. Aren’t they?

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Despite owners and networks forsaking journalistic independence, Trump continues to threaten journalists

In the telling of Donald Trump and his Republican colleagues, the US media is fake news, stocked with “radical-left monsters” who are guilty of “illegal” reporting on the president.

The reality is different.

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Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha wins Pulitzer prize for commentary

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Renowned poet and author wins prize for series of New Yorker essays on suffering of Palestinians in Gaza

The renowned Palestinian poet and author, Mosab Abu Toha, is among this year’s Pulitzer prize winners.

Abu Toha was awarded for a series of essays in the New Yorker documenting the lives and suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, where he has lived nearly all his life.

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Lebedev promises to keep funding Standard after another £20m loss

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Following a rebrand and move to digital-first the total losses over eight years rise to nearly £125m

Evgeny Lebedev, the owner of the Standard, has pledged to provide funds to keep the newspaper company going after it lost nearly £20m in the year before it went weekly.

The paper, formerly the Evening Standard, which had been published daily in London for almost 200 years, was rebranded last autumn to make it a digital-first publication, supported by a weekly print edition, the London Standard.

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RedBird Capital confident of tabling a deal to take control of Telegraph

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Guardian understands plan from US private equity firm to form a consortium or self-fund could come as soon as next month

The US private equity firm RedBird Capital is confident of tabling a deal to take control of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph as soon as next month, in an attempt to end two years of “paralysis and unhappiness” at the 170-year-old titles.

The firm’s founder, Gerry Cardinale, is personally involved in drafting a plan to either form a consortium or self-fund a takeover at Telegraph Media Group, the Guardian understands.

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Journalists defend press freedom at muted White House correspondents’ dinner

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Event took place with no Trump, no comedian and notably fewer politicians or Hollywood stars than in past years

Journalists rallied in defence of press freedom on Saturday, insisting they “are not the enemy of the people” at a Washington media gala snubbed by Donald Trump.

The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner was a muted affair with no US president, no comedian and notably fewer politicians or Hollywood stars than in past years.

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Trump mega-donor’s paper savages his pardon of Las Vegas Republican

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Las Vegas Review-Journal, owned by billionaire Miriam Adelson, condemns pardon of ex-lawmaker Michele Fiore

A Nevada newspaper owned by a Donald Trump mega-donor has savaged the US president’s decision to pardon a Republican councilwoman who was convicted of using donations intended to fund a statue of a police officer to pay for cosmetic surgery.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal, owned by the billionaire Miriam Adelson, described the decision as a “debasement of presidential pardon power” in a scathing editorial published after Trump granted clemency to Michele Fiore, a former Las Vegas councilwoman and Nevada state lawmaker.

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Russia jails four journalists for links to Alexei Navalny anti-corruption group

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Court hands out sentences of over five years for extremism, accusing journalists of working for the late politician’s Anti-Corruption Foundation

A Russian court has convicted four journalists of extremism for working for an anti-corruption group founded by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny and sentenced them to five and a half years in prison each.

Antonina Favorskaya, Konstantin Gabov, Sergey Karelin and Artyom Kriger were found guilty of involvement with a group that had been labelled as extremist. All four had maintained their innocence, arguing they were being prosecuted for doing their jobs as journalists.

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‘War’ and ‘pain’: what the papers say about Donald Trump’s trade tariffs

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The US president has announced new taxes on imports to the US starting at a baseline of 10% – here is the front-page reaction in Britain

Donald Trump’s tariff “day of liberation” arrived with the US president imposing markups on imports while accusing other nations, including allies, of “looting, pillaging, raping and plundering” the US.

The UK got off relatively lightly with the basic 10%. Here is how major British newspapers see it.

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Trump has managed to spin Signalgate as a media lapse, not a major security breach | Andrew Roth

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The US administration believes it can divide public attention until there is a new scandal. It may be a winning strategy

When it comes to Trump-era scandals, the shameless responses to “Signalgate”, in which top administration officials discussing details of an impending strike in Yemen in a group chat without noticing the presence of a prominent journalist, should set alarm bells ringing for its brazenness and incompetence.

In a particularly jaw-dropping exchange, Tulsi Gabbard, the United States’ director of national intelligence, was forced to backtrack during a house hearing after she had said that there had been no specific information in the Signal chat about an impending military strike. Then, the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg published the chat in full, contradicting Gabbard’s remarks that no classified data or weapons systems had been mentioned in the chat.

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Farage reportedly met Cummings for ‘friendly chat about the general scene’

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Pair recently met to discuss Donald Trump, Elon Musk and other political matters, Sunday Times says

Nigel Farage has reportedly met Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s adviser turned nemesis, after the Vote Leave founder suggested voters should back Reform UK at the local elections.

Cummings, who was once a sworn enemy of Farage during the EU referendum as he battled to keep control of the leave campaign, is reported to have met the Reform leader to discuss Whitehall changes, which allies said was the strongest sign yet that Farage was taking seriously the idea of becoming prime minister.

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Actor said to have been groped by Noel Clarke tells court it did not happen

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Louise Dylan speaks at Clarke’s libel case against Guardian about wrap party for 2012 film The Knot

An actor who was said to have been groped by Noel Clarke has told the high court that the incident never happened.

In a witness statement for Guardian News and Media (GNM), which is being sued for libel by Clarke, his former creative partner Davie Fairbanks said he saw the former Doctor Who star inappropriately touch Louise Dylan at the wrap party for the 2012 film, The Knot.

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