The UK is said to have made the decision because it does not want to be complicit in what it believes are illegal strikes on boats, which the White House claim are ‘drug boats’ bound from Venezuela to the United States
Donald Trump is threatening to sue the BBC, because why wouldn’t he? He’s repeatedly threatened American news organisations who refused to report his weird obsessions, lies and falsehoods as fact with court action. He threatened ABC for saying he’d been found “liable for rape”, when in fact he’d been found “liable for sexual abuse”, which has a specific definition in New York law. He threatened CBS over a perfectly normal edit in a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. And he’s got similarly frivolous suits pending with the Wall Street Journal and New York Times for pretty straightforward reporting of his flaws. Unfortunately, despite both the ABC and CBS suits being declared entirely meritless by legal experts, both corporate entities settled them out of court, fearing their business deals might get held up by regulators in retaliation. But in doing so, they handed him not only millions of dollars, but also a massive stick to beat them with until the end of time.
We started the week in the bizarre situation where the Director General of the BBC and the CEO of BBC News felt the need to resign over a year-old, entirely accurate but perhaps clumsily edited report of a speech by the former President of a foreign country. No complaints was made to the BBC about the Panorama programme at the time, not least because its assertion that Donald Trump encouraged violence in his backed up by countless legal authorities, including the Supreme Court of Colorado, the DC District Court and the House of Representatives. The US Supreme Court decided Trump couldn’t be prosecuted for crimes committed in his capacity as President, but did not quibble with rulings by other courts that he did, in fact, commit those crimes. Editing a speech is only a problem if it changes the character or meaning. In this case, it did not.
But by accepting on any level the premise of the complaint, outgoing Director General Tim Davie has handed Trump – and a bunch of prominent right-wingers in this country – an enormous stick with which to beat not only the BBC, but any journalist who dares question his false narrative of the 2020 election. It’s given credence to what amounts to international gaslighting, and it’s going to have disastrous repercussions. Watch out for allegedly serious people – (including many who have an ideological objection to the BBC license fee and no shame in putting the concepts of facts and journalism at risk to pursue it) – starting to suggest there’s some merit to Trump’s claim that the election was rigged in the coming days and weeks.
Meanwhile, in Trumpworld
- The UK gets edgy about Venezuela boat strikes
- Trump demands a billion from BBC
- He swore a new ambassador in on a $1,000 Trump bible, signed by him
- He floats 50 year mortgages to horror of economists
- He got booed and flipped off at a football game
- Eight Democrats caved on the shutdown and handed him a win
Here’s everything you need to know…
1. UK stops sharing intelligence with US over ‘illegal’ strikes on Venezuelan boats
The UK has stopped sharing intelligence with the US about suspected drug trafficking ships in the Caribbean – because it believes deadly air strikes on boats near Venezuela are illegal, it has been reported.
According to CNN, the UK made the decision because it does not want to be complicit in what it believes are illegal strikes on boats, which the White House claim are ‘drug boats’ bound from Venezuela to the United States.
No10 refused to comment on security matters but said the US remains the UK’s “closest partner”.
The UK has previously shared intelligence with the US to help the coast guard locate suspected drug boats – but previously that amounted to ships being stopped and boarded.
But in September the US started launching lethal strikes on boats, killing 76 people. The UK is said to believe the strikes violate international law.
2. Trump demands apology or ONE BILLION DOLLARS from BBC
A legal letter, from Trump’s lawyer Alejandro Brito, has demanded that “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements” made about Mr Trump be retracted immediately. The letter says if the BBC “does not comply” by Friday evening, Mr Trump will be “left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than 1,000,000,000 dollars in damages.”
For context, $1 billion dollars is roughly 50 years worth of Strictly Come Dancing,
3. UK Government set to respond to BBC nonsense
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, is due to give a ministerial statement in the Commons on “BBC Leadership” at about 5.30pm UK time. In remarks to BBC staff Tim Davie said: “We have to be very clear and stand up for our journalism. We are a unique and precious organisation, and I see the free press under pressure, I see the weaponisation. I think we’ve got to fight for our journalism. I’m really proud of our work, and the amazing work locally, globally, that we’re doing is utterly precious.” He added: “We have made some mistakes that have cost us, but we need to fight for that. And I’m fiercely proud of that, and don’t let anyone stop you from thinking that we are doing a fantastic job.” Mr Davie also alluded to “enemies” of the corporation, telling staff: “We will thrive and this narrative will not just be given by our enemies: It’s our narrative.”
King Donald
4. Trump floats 50 year mortgages because he got convinced by a flattering visual aid
Over the weekend Trump announced a new policy on Truth Social – one that hardly anyone in his administration knew was coming, and which has sparked an extraordinary backlash. According to Politico, Trump was convinced it was a great idea to extend the limit on mortgage terms from 30 years to 50 years by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte. Pulte is said to have turned up at Mar a Lago over the weekend with a poster board bearing Franklin D Roosevelt’s face alongside his own. Beneath FDR it read “30 year mortgages.” In 1934 FDR’s New Deal introduced long-term fixed-rate mortgages backed by federal loan guarantees. They were originally for 15 or 20 years, but the limit was increased to 30 in the 1950s, and that became the standard. And under Trump’s it said “50 year mortgages”. And there was a big headline along the lines of “Great American Presidents”.
Trump tweeted the major policy change the same day, blindsinding almost everyone in the administration and sending both the MAGA and finance and housing worlds into a tailspin. The main arguments against it are that it would only reduce mortgage payments by a nominal amount, while massively increasing the total to pay back. It would also cause all kinds of regulatory headaches and cause massive unpredictable upheaval in the housing market.
And when he was asked about it by Laura Ingraham on (where else?) Fox News last night, he appeared not to know anything about it – or even what the current limit was. Policymaking at its finest.
5. He “shushed” Laura Ingraham for asking about the cost of living
Trump is in a bit of a hole about the “affordability”, or as we would call it in this country, “cozzie lives”. For ages he’s been claiming that grocery prices are down, with the exception of beef – which he intends to resolve by dumping a bunch of cheap Argentinian beef in to the market.
And it’s only in the last couple of days that people have started whispering to him “actually, Mr President, we who actually shop for food know that’s not true.” (Seriously, I was talking to a friend who lives in DC the other day and they were absolutely furious over the price of a head of broccoli).
Anyway, when Laura Ingraham pointed this out to him, he literally shushed her.
6. He swore a new Ambassador in on a $1,000 Trump bible, signed by him
Donald Trump has sent Sergio Gor, who we’ve mentioned in previous roundups, to be the US Ambassador to India. He’s the latest in a long list of people being given a “soft landing” by Trump, to prevent him losing face by having to fire them. In his case, there has been a long running claim in the New York Post that Gor’s real last name is Gorokhovsky, that he was born not in Malta, but in Soviet Uzbekistan. There’s also been a bit of a kerfuffle over the vetting form White House staff all have to fill in. Gor, whose job was to vet hundreds of White House staff, reportedly failed to do so for months, but finally submitted his in August.
Anyway, he was sworn in as Ambassador last night, on a bible. But not just any bible. A “Donald J Trump 45th President of the United States of America Signature Edition”. And not only that, it was a signed copy, bearing the President’s signature in big thick marker pen on the cover.
This particular edition is one of twelve created and sold by Trump in association with patriotic country singer Lee Greenwood. They range in price from $59.99 for the standard “God Bless the USA” edition, through to this ultra premium version, which costs $1,000.
Other versions to collect include one commemorating the death of Charlie Kirk, yours for $64.99, a Red “First Lady” edition ($99.99) and editions in pink and gold and green camouflage ($74.99).
7. He got booed at a football game
Trump decided it would be a good idea, during the longest shutdown in history, to go to a Washington Commanders American football game….where many of the people in attendance will have been either government workers or contractors or other people who have lost work due to the shutdown. And that’s probably one of many reasons why he, “War Secretary” Pete Hegseth and House Speaker found themselves on the business end of a hail of boos and flipped birds as they took their seats.
The Shutdown (is over)
8. Eight Democrats cave and hand Trump an unearned win
The longest shutdown in history is almost over, after a small group of Democrats lost their nerve and – against the wishes of their party – agreed to vote with Republicans to re-open the government. The seven Democrats and one independent senator secured no commitment from Republicans to negotiate an extension to healthcare tax credits that expire in January, which was the whole point of forcing the government to shut down. That and doing damage to Donald Trump’s approval ratings, which was working. Americans on average continued to blame Republicans for the shutdown, and Trump was pretty much on the ropes.
But the group, which included former Hillary Clinton running mate Tim Kaine, New Hampshire Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, Democrat whip Dick Durban (who is about to retire) and John Fetterman (who is barely a Democrat at all these days). None of the senators who voted to end the shutdown are up for re-election in 2026.
9. Trump offers air traffic controllers a $10k bonus …from somewhere
Trump floated the idea of a $10,000 bonus for air traffic controllers who stayed on the job during the shutdown – during a furious rant at those who didn’t.
Asked by Ingraham where he’d get the money from, he replied, “I don’t know. I’ll get it from someplace. I’ll get it from -I always get the money from someplace. Regardless. It doesn’t matter.” Another one for the imagine if Biden had said that…” file.
Tariffs
10. Trump is slowly melting down about the Supreme Court tariff decision
The Supreme Court is currently deliberating on whether Trump was actually allowed to slap Tariffs on the entire world without consulting Congress. There is every chance they will decide that, legally, no he didn’t. And if that happens it’s possible the US will suddenly have to refund something like $3 trillion worth of tariffs – although as with all the numbers Trump uses, there’s every chance that number is just made up.
Still, Trump appears on Truth Social to be preparing the ground for such a decision – and the potentially devastating consequences for the US economy that could follow…
11. Trump seems to have got ‘rare earth minerals’ and ‘magnets’ confused
I have frequently struggled to explain the concept of rare earth minerals to people – not least to readers. They are metals that are quite rare but essential for the manufacture of high tech products from phones to drones. China has or controls most of the world’s supply. Unfortunately someone in the White House appears to have tried to use a pretty basic example to explain them to Trump and it has backfired spectacularly. Whenever he’s asked about them now, he gets stuck on “magnets”.
“President Xi was willing to do the rare Earth thing,” Trump said to Ingraham. “That’s magnets. Now nobody knows what a magnet is. If you don’t know what a magnet is, you don’t make a car. You don’t make a computer. You don’t make televisions and radios and all the other things. You don’t make anything.”
For the record, some rare earths are permanent magnets which are useful in manufacturing. But many of them are not. Also, with the exception of the Insane Clown Posse, people absolutely do know what a magnet is.