Latest news with #PiersMorgan
Express Tribune
16 hours ago
- Sport
- Express Tribune
Imane Khelif is a man: Leaked medical report shows Olympic gold-medalist in women's division has male karyotype
A leaked medical report has triggered renewed scrutiny over Algerian Olympic gold medallist Imane Khelif, allegedly identifying her as biologically male. The report, said to originate from a New Delhi laboratory, reignites the debate around eligibility in women's sport, particularly in high-impact disciplines such as boxing. The document, reportedly dated March 2023, claims Khelif possesses a male karyotype. It surfaced days after World Boxing mandated that Khelif undergo genetic sex screening before returning to female competitions. The governing body stated she is barred from participating in events, including the upcoming Eindhoven Box Cup, unless the tests are completed in line with new eligibility standards. World Boxing will introduce mandatory sex testing, to determine the eligibility of male and female athletes that want to take part in its competitions. For full story, click here: #TimeForWorldBoxing — World Boxing (@RealWorldBoxing) May 30, 2025 Khelif won gold at the Paris Olympics in 2024, representing Algeria in the women's boxing category. Her participation followed a 2023 disqualification by the now-defunct International Boxing Association (IBA) over a failed gender eligibility test. At the time, questions around the legitimacy of those results were raised by then-International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach. The current report, first circulated by journalist Alan Abrahamson via 3 Wire Sports, claims to originate from Dr Lal PathLabs in India, a facility certified by international and American accreditation bodies. World Boxing said the testing aligns with its revised 'Sex, Age and Weight' policy, introduced in May 2025, designed to protect athlete safety and uphold fair competition in combat sports. Under the policy, athletes aged 18 or older must undergo polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to determine the presence of the SRY gene — a marker for the Y chromosome. The governing body explained that, while rule changes are typically approved by Congress, its executive board enacted emergency amendments due to evolving competitive risks. 'These new eligibility rules were developed with the express purpose of safeguarding athletes in combat sports,' the organisation said. Public figures including broadcaster Piers Morgan, former Olympian Sharron Davies and activist Riley Gaines reacted strongly to the alleged findings, with Morgan calling for an apology from critics of his past comments on the issue. The biology-denying woke brigade abused and shamed me for saying it was outrageous and dangerous for Khelif to be beating up women at the Olympics. I'm ready for their apology, but won't hold my breath. — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 2, 2025 Meanwhile, Davies lamented a perceived erosion of women's sport, and Gaines referred to Khelif using male pronouns. In response to previous accusations, Khelif has firmly denied claims about her gender identity and has continued public appearances following her Olympic triumph. She has previously declared her intent to defend her title at the Los Angeles Games in 2028. To all the people that insisted Imane Khelif was a woman because his passport said so, You were wrong. We were right. Sincerely, People with functioning eyes and a shred of honesty — Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) June 1, 2025 The Algerian Olympic Committee has rejected past reports as 'unsubstantiated allegations' designed to damage the reputation of an athlete who 'brought honour to our nation.' Khelif was not the only boxer under scrutiny in Paris. Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting also competed and won despite prior disqualification by the IBA over similar grounds. World Boxing has reiterated that athletes remain ineligible to compete if their sex certification is challenged and unresolved. The body said it aims to ensure a 'safe and competitive playing field' moving forward.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Israeli ambassador: The two-state solution is over. We are no longer willing to jeopardise our security
Contrary to her combative image, Tzipi Hotovely, Israel's ambassador to the UK, is softly spoken and seems slightly anxious. The night before this interview, she appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored, where the host shouted at her about the body count in Gaza. The embassy is wary of a rematch. So I put her at ease by calling Piers 'history's greatest monster', causing her to laugh and relax. The problem with coverage of Gaza is that emotions run so high, every discussion ends up feeling like an interrogation – and the Israelis push back with force. What outsiders often forget is that beneath the rhetorical fireworks lies a deep pain. Speaking at her embassy, flanked by UK and Israeli flags, with a bust of Golda Meir (the fourth prime minister of Israel) watching in the corner, Hotovely tells me 'everyone in Israel is traumatised' by the events of Oct 7 2023. On that date, Hamas – which controls Gaza – invaded southern Israel, murdering and kidnapping more than a thousand people. 'We, as Israelis, have been through terror attacks in our coffee shops, on our buses, on our streets, but never in the past did we feel like our houses were not safe.' This is their new 'vulnerability: the feeling that you cannot protect your own children'. But foreign governments – even allies like Britain – are concerned about the safety of Palestinian children too: used as human shields by Hamas, and some killed in Israeli airstrikes. How do you fight a terror group that rejects all the accepted rules of war? Hotovely, 46, wears regal purple and leans forward as she speaks, injecting urgency into the conversation. Her parents, Gabriel and Roziko, migrated to Israel from the former USSR and raised Tzipi in Rehovot, an attractive city south of Tel Aviv. Conservative and religious, she studied and practised law before gaining attention as a pundit. In 2009, she was elected to the Knesset – its youngest deputy at the time – as a member of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, and went on to serve as minister for transport, science, foreign affairs and settlements. She lives with her husband, Or Alon, and their three daughters. When she was appointed ambassador to London in 2020, some British Jews objected, labelling Hotovely too controversial for such a sensitive role. But perhaps that was the idea. Many states are shifting their diplomatic style from emollience to advocacy. Since October 7th, Hotovely has become a formidable presence in the media and on campuses , vigorously defending her government against accusations she often describes as 'a blood libel' – against Jews as well as Israelis. I begin by asking the mood of her citizens 19 months on from the Hamas pogrom. 'I think that October 7th was a watershed moment… all across Israel. No one can say in Israel that he's the same person after.' She sometimes finds 'less sympathy among people around the world' – some governments still live in the mentality of 'October 6th' – but Israelis have been shown 'that if you have a jihadi, Islamist terrorist group that wants to destroy you on your doorstep, at the end of the day, it'll end up in a massacre.' Think of it as living next-door to the 'Third Reich'. 'Just this morning, we heard about […] a 15-day-old baby who died in a terror attack': Israeli Ravid Haim, born by emergency C-section after his mother, Tzeela Fez, was shot and killed. Around 58 hostages remain in Hamas's hands. To recover them, the Israeli army has launched 'Operation Gideon's Chariots' – aiming to seize control of the Gaza Strip, push the population south and cripple the enemy's military. 'The aims of the war are very clear to Israel,' explains Hotovely, 'Hamas shouldn't exist as a political leadership and with military power after we finish.' Hamas 'doesn't care about human life […] doesn't care about their own people's life'. Hence it has embedded its fighters in a network of tunnels 'six floors down […] bigger than the London Tube', and deliberately located beneath civilian areas. 'They wanted to make sure Israel will be blamed' when civilians are killed during Israeli attacks. 'We don't call it collateral damage. We really care about human life. We don't want anyone who's innocent to get killed. That's why we make sure that all Palestinians can move to a safe zone.' But the UK Government has condemned the civilian impact of 'Gideon's Chariots'. Israel imposed a blockade on humanitarian aid and commercial supplies on March 2 – now lifted – that Foreign Secretary David Lammy called 'morally unjustifiable, wholly disproportionate and counterproductive'; he cancelled talks on a trade deal and summoned Hotovely to the ministry to explain her government's actions. Lammy, she says, was wrong: 'Israel's policy from the beginning of the war was to deliver aid to Gaza.' Some '25,000 trucks of aid got into Gaza. This is not a starvation programme, this is actually a flooding Gaza with aid programme […] The reason why it had to stop was because it was being looted only to feed the terrorists' or 'to sell the aid that people were supposed to get for free'. I ask whether this is an example of Israel alienating its friends with such brutal logic. Hamas steals food – that's bad; anyone would want to stop it. But if Israel cuts off food altogether, isn't the outcome even worse for innocent civilians? 'If there is lack of food,' Hotovely replies, 'I can understand your argument', but the Israelis calculated that there was enough aid already within the Gaza Strip to pause deliveries while they build a 'new mechanism' for distribution, not overseen by the UN. This would be the American-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, now operating in Gaza – accused of being partisan and insufficient, and there have been riots at its deliveries. 'That was just the first day,' she corrects, 'it's been improving and I keep on monitoring it as ambassador.' What about Labour's other charge – that 'Gideon's Chariots' has driven up the death toll? I cite the case of Dr Alaa al-Najjar, a Palestinian doctor whose home was hit in an Israeli strike, killing nine of her 10 children. 'How does that make you feel?' 'I'll tell you how it makes me feel. It makes me feel how tragic the situation is that Hamas built this infrastructure that is hurting his own children. I have a lot of sympathy to human life. As a Jew, as an Israeli, we value life very much. Unfortunately, our enemies don't […] I think it's a clash of civilisations [...] I find that Western people find it very hard to believe that on the other side, there are people who are using their own children as human shields,' but they do. Dr al-Najjar wasn't using her own children as a shield though, was she? 'No, I didn't say that, but I said Hamas built all its terrible infrastructure within the population, in the schools, in the hospitals... Are we doing our best to make sure that population civilians will be out of harm? Yes, we are. We give them messaging before we strike… Now, think about it. Do you think the UK would have continued living next to a terror organisation that is a threat to your children in Kent? Or in London or in Liverpool? I don't think so.' I point out that it isn't just non-Israelis who are turning against the war. Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister of Israel, and member of Likud, is now at odds with Netanyhu, writing that the conflict is one of 'devastation, indiscriminate, limitless, cruel, and criminal killing of civilians.' He has concluded that his country 'is committing war crimes'. What does Hotovely say to him? 'It is a lie. Yes, it is. It is a pure lie.' The Israeli Defence Forces 'work with all the mechanisms of our international law experts' and the country is 'fighting with one hand tied behind our back' because it always defers to lawyers. 'Olmert is completely doing a political statement to hurt the government… It's coming from very political reasons, not to do with what's happening on the ground.' So why are the families of hostages – and even a former hostage – protesting against Netanyahu? At a demonstration this week, Keith Siegel, who was once held prisoner by Hamas, declared: 'Our families have become the victims of cheap politics at the hands of the prime minister. Instead of ending the war and bringing everyone home, his allies prefer to occupy the Gaza Strip than to save the hostages.' Hotovely says: 'I have sympathy to every hostage family for being so worried about their loved ones, I cannot put myself in their shoes. At the same time, I must say, they need to remember Israel said yes to any framework offered by the Americans' for a ceasefire: 'This is the leverage on Hamas, the military pressure together with the American diplomatic pressure, and if Hamas is saying 'no' and saying 'no' again and again' to hostage release 'what else can we do? We can just carry on with the pressure.' Following our interview, it was reported on Friday that Hamas appears to have rejected a ceasefire deal orchestrated by the Americans and accepted by the Israelis. Lammy's condemnation of the embargo was, says Hotovely, 'the wrong timing' because it was issued 'the same day the [Netanyahu's] cabinet made the decision to let aid in'; plus the 'wrong message because, I'm sure you heard the head of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, saying: 'when Hamas is praising you'' – as Hamas praised the UK – ''then you need to check whether your politics is the right policy'.' 'We are expecting the international community, including the UK Government, to be very vocal about the fact that Hamas is holding our hostages and it must release them.' Britain and Israel are 'fighting mutual threats. I know how much the UK is concerned about Iran's influence in the region, and you need to remember that this war Israel has been fighting is a proxy war with Iran […] We've seen how most of the weapons being found are produced in Iran, how Iran was training the terrorists.' As for a French-Saudi initiative, scheduled for mid-June, to discuss the recognition of Palestine as an independent state: 'This is probably the worst timing ever to go this path [...] this is a pure word for terrorism and sends the wrong message to the region [...] What did October 7th prove? First of all, unfortunately what we've seen is big support among Palestinians towards the massacre.' One poll, she claims, found 86 per cent of West Bank residents sympathised with the pogrom. Gaza previously voted for Hamas, 'so recognition basically means Hamas' and would be a 'reward for terrorism'. I ask if this means the concept of a two-state solution is off the table and she replies in the affirmative. 'It was rejected by the Palestinians again and again. Israelis had hope [in it] in the 1990s and were willing to compromise, but […] every time there was some type of negotiation, there was more terrorism […] So Israelis are no longer willing to jeopardise their security any longer.' This is a critical point – one that many Britons don't grasp. Governments like Labour talk about the two-state solution as if it were genuinely on the table, but the two sides gave up on it years ago. In that case, what does the Israeli government see as the future of the Palestinian community? They must be re-educated. 'It's a good lesson to learn from the Second World War,' when Germany and Japan were beaten: fascism 'didn't end in one day, there was a whole process of denazification, a whole process of rebuilding the institutions to a democratic country. The Palestinians, when they were offered to have democratic elections' – in January 2006 – 'they ended up with having an even worse dictatorship that doesn't believe in any human rights.' She implies that if fresh elections were held again in Gaza, we'd see Hamas victorious again, so she says 'we need to build the path not just for peace as a formal peace but a real peace, people to people, like the one we have with the Gulf countries via the Abrahamic Accords', as negotiated by Donald Trump. Surely there must be some give and take between communities, I suggest? In that case, the Israelis must cease building settlements in the West Bank – 22 of which have just been recognised by Netanyahu. 'There is a myth about settlements I never understood,' says Hotovely, 'because when Israel [dismantled its] settlements in Gaza' – when it physically withdrew the strip in 2005 – 'we didn't see anything that has improved in the Palestinian attitude.' When Palestinians are asked 'what is the main problem,' she tells me, they never say the settlements but instead demand 'the right of return,' which means 'bringing people from all around the Arab world to move into small Israel.' I suggest that, on the contrary, they are protesting against Israelis settling on land that even Israel officially recognises as Palestinian – and Hotovely disagrees. 'Definitely not. I think that it's clear for Israelis when we're speaking about Judea and Samaria [better known as the West Bank], and we're speaking about Jerusalem, we're speaking about the Golan Heights, we're speaking about the Jewish historic land.' In conservative Israeli rhetoric, the term 'Judea and Samaria' implies that the West Bank is Israeli as bequeathed by the Bible. 'We're talking about some places that Jewish people have been connected to for thousands of years,' says Hotovely. Yes, I reply, and Palestinians have been connected to them for a very long time, too. 'We're not denying that. That's what's nice about our attitude,' she says, 'we never deny the rights of us to live next to our neighbours – they deny our rights.' We turn to the subject of anti-Semitism – on May 21, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, staffers at the Israeli embassy in Washington DC, were shot and murdered outside a Jewish museum. The killer cried 'free Palestine.' Can Hotovely see a line between anti-Israeli protest and a rising level of threat against Jews across the world? 'We had very difficult days right in the embassy here. I gave a talk to our embassy staff and we wanted them to feel very open with us about their concerns.' She is grateful for the protection of the British authorities but doesn't feel 'anti-Semitism is under control [… ] Let's speak about how the propaganda in the streets of London, New York and Berlin can influence a terrorist that is taking a weapon and killing two young, beautiful people […] This is the kind of madness we're dealing with, something totally irrational, and I think it's been fuelled by anti-Semitism and the fact that some of those marches that are calling for horrific things against Jews are allowed in Western main cities.' I bring up Gary Lineker, who infamously shared an anti-Semitic image of a rat – a genuine error, he insisted, for which he subsequently apologised – and wonder, to quote a friend, if we're seeing the revival of an 'oblivious anti-Semitism': old tropes being used in ignorance of the offence they cause. The winner of Eurovision, for example, has suggested that Israel be banned from next year's show in Vienna – without a shadow of irony or historical awareness. 'I agree, but I think that it's not the majority of the people in this country. I think the minority is vocal. And I think when the majority keeps silent about bad things, this is when we get to hear the radicals, raising their voice.' Anti-Jewish hate 'is dangerous to this country, just like it's dangerous to America and Australia and many other Western countries that used to feel very safe and they don't feel safe anymore.' Hotovely cites the success of Israel at Eurovision – top in popular vote, pushed into second by the juries – as a possible expression of 'sympathy' for October 7. 'I don't feel like we're isolated, but I do feel like people forget your own country's history' – Britain's fight against Hitler, what we endured and what we had to do to win. 'I was invited to a very beautiful event in Westminster Abbey, celebrating your VE Day, and I was moved by all the historic moments that you remember and cherish from your heroism. But then I'm asking myself why, when Israel stands in fighting a very different version of a very radical ideology, why [the British elite] don't understand it's exactly the time to have patience and resilience – to wait for Israel to really conclude the job, until this terror organisation will be defeated and not to urge Israel all the time to end the war, even if the consequences are to let Hamas control the Gaza Strip.' Watch the full Tzipi Hotovely interview on 'The Daily T' podcast. You can also listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
2 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
Israeli ambassador: The two-state solution is over. We are no longer willing to jeopardise our security
Contrary to her combative image, Tzipi Hotovely, Israel's ambassador to the UK, is softly spoken and seems slightly anxious. The night before this interview, she appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored, where the host shouted at her about the body count in Gaza. The embassy is wary of a rematch. So I put her at ease by calling Piers 'history's greatest monster', causing her to laugh and relax. The problem with coverage of Gaza is that emotions run so high, every discussion ends up feeling like an interrogation – and the Israelis push back with force. What outsiders often forget is that beneath the rhetorical fireworks lies a deep pain. Speaking at her embassy, flanked by UK and Israeli flags, with a bust of Golda Meir (the fourth prime minister of Israel) watching in the corner, Hotovely tells me 'everyone in Israel is traumatised' by the events of Oct 7 2023. On that date, Hamas – which controls Gaza – invaded southern Israel, murdering and kidnapping more than a thousand people. 'We, as Israelis, have been through terror attacks in our coffee shops, on our buses, on our streets, but never in the past did we feel like our houses were not safe.' This is their new 'vulnerability: the feeling that you cannot protect your own children'. But foreign governments – even allies like Britain – are concerned about the safety of Palestinian children too: used as human shields by Hamas, and some killed in Israeli airstrikes. How do you fight a terror group that rejects all the accepted rules of war? 'October 7 was a watershed moment' Hotovely, 46, wears regal purple and leans forward as she speaks, injecting urgency into the conversation. Her parents, Gabriel and Roziko, migrated to Israel from the former USSR and raised Tzipi in Rehovot, an attractive city south of Tel Aviv. Conservative and religious, she studied and practised law before gaining attention as a pundit. In 2009, she was elected to the Knesset – its youngest deputy at the time – as a member of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, and went on to serve as minister for transport, science, foreign affairs and settlements. She lives with her husband, Or Alon, and their three daughters. When she was appointed ambassador to London in 2020, some British Jews objected, labelling Hotovely too controversial for such a sensitive role. But perhaps that was the idea. Many states are shifting their diplomatic style from emollience to advocacy. Since October 7th, Hotovely has become a formidable presence in the media and on campuses , vigorously defending her government against accusations she often describes as 'a blood libel' – against Jews as well as Israelis. I begin by asking the mood of her citizens 19 months on from the Hamas pogrom. 'I think that October 7th was a watershed moment… all across Israel. No one can say in Israel that he's the same person after.' She sometimes finds 'less sympathy among people around the world' – some governments still live in the mentality of 'October 6th' – but Israelis have been shown 'that if you have a jihadi, Islamist terrorist group that wants to destroy you on your doorstep, at the end of the day, it'll end up in a massacre.' Think of it as living next-door to the 'Third Reich'. 'Just this morning, we heard about […] a 15-day-old baby who died in a terror attack': Israeli Ravid Haim, born by emergency C-section after his mother, Tzeela Fez, was shot and killed. Around 58 hostages remain in Hamas's hands. To recover them, the Israeli army has launched 'Operation Gideon's Chariots' – aiming to seize control of the Gaza Strip, push the population south and cripple the enemy's military. 'The aims of the war are very clear to Israel,' explains Hotovely, 'Hamas shouldn't exist as a political leadership and with military power after we finish.' Hamas 'doesn't care about human life […] doesn't care about their own people's life'. Hence it has embedded its fighters in a network of tunnels 'six floors down […] bigger than the London Tube', and deliberately located beneath civilian areas. 'They wanted to make sure Israel will be blamed' when civilians are killed during Israeli attacks. 'We don't call it collateral damage. We really care about human life. We don't want anyone who's innocent to get killed. That's why we make sure that all Palestinians can move to a safe zone.' But the UK Government has condemned the civilian impact of 'Gideon's Chariots'. Israel imposed a blockade on humanitarian aid and commercial supplies on March 2 – now lifted – that Foreign Secretary David Lammy called 'morally unjustifiable, wholly disproportionate and counterproductive'; he cancelled talks on a trade deal and summoned Hotovely to the ministry to explain her government's actions. Lammy, she says, was wrong: 'Israel's policy from the beginning of the war was to deliver aid to Gaza.' Some '25,000 trucks of aid got into Gaza. This is not a starvation programme, this is actually a flooding Gaza with aid programme […] The reason why it had to stop was because it was being looted only to feed the terrorists' or 'to sell the aid that people were supposed to get for free'. I ask whether this is an example of Israel alienating its friends with such brutal logic. Hamas steals food – that's bad; anyone would want to stop it. But if Israel cuts off food altogether, isn't the outcome even worse for innocent civilians? 'If there is lack of food,' Hotovely replies, 'I can understand your argument', but the Israelis calculated that there was enough aid already within the Gaza Strip to pause deliveries while they build a 'new mechanism' for distribution, not overseen by the UN. This would be the American-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, now operating in Gaza – accused of being partisan and insufficient, and there have been riots at its deliveries. 'That was just the first day,' she corrects, 'it's been improving and I keep on monitoring it as ambassador.' 'A clash of civilisations' What about Labour's other charge – that 'Gideon's Chariots' has driven up the death toll? I cite the case of Dr Alaa al-Najjar, a Palestinian doctor whose home was hit in an Israeli strike, killing nine of her 10 children. 'How does that make you feel?' 'I'll tell you how it makes me feel. It makes me feel how tragic the situation is that Hamas built this infrastructure that is hurting his own children. I have a lot of sympathy to human life. As a Jew, as an Israeli, we value life very much. Unfortunately, our enemies don't […] I think it's a clash of civilisations [...] I find that Western people find it very hard to believe that on the other side, there are people who are using their own children as human shields,' but they do. Dr al-Najjar wasn't using her own children as a shield though, was she? 'No, I didn't say that, but I said Hamas built all its terrible infrastructure within the population, in the schools, in the hospitals... Are we doing our best to make sure that population civilians will be out of harm? Yes, we are. We give them messaging before we strike… Now, think about it. Do you think the UK would have continued living next to a terror organisation that is a threat to your children in Kent? Or in London or in Liverpool? I don't think so.' I point out that it isn't just non-Israelis who are turning against the war. Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister of Israel, and member of Likud, is now at odds with Netanyhu, writing that the conflict is one of 'devastation, indiscriminate, limitless, cruel, and criminal killing of civilians.' He has concluded that his country 'is committing war crimes'. What does Hotovely say to him? 'It is a lie. Yes, it is. It is a pure lie.' The Israeli Defence Forces 'work with all the mechanisms of our international law experts' and the country is 'fighting with one hand tied behind our back' because it always defers to lawyers. 'Olmert is completely doing a political statement to hurt the government… It's coming from very political reasons, not to do with what's happening on the ground.' So why are the families of hostages – and even a former hostage – protesting against Netanyahu? At a demonstration this week, Keith Siegel, who was once held prisoner by Hamas, declared:'Our families have become the victims of cheap politics at the hands of the prime minister. Instead of ending the war and bringing everyone home, his allies prefer to occupy the Gaza Strip than to save the hostages.' Hotovely says: 'I have sympathy to every hostage family for being so worried about their loved ones, I cannot put myself in their shoes. At the same time, I must say, they need to remember Israel said yes to any framework offered by the Americans' for a ceasefire: 'This is the leverage on Hamas, the military pressure together with the American diplomatic pressure, and if Hamas is saying 'no' and saying 'no' again and again' to hostage release 'what else can we do? We can just carry on with the pressure.' Following our interview, it was reported on Friday that Hamas appears to have rejected a ceasefire deal orchestrated by the Americans and accepted by the Israelis. Recognition of Palestinian state 'a reward for terrorism' Lammy's condemnation of the embargo was, says Hotovely, 'the wrong timing' because it was issued 'the same day the [Netanyahu's] cabinet made the decision to let aid in'; plus the 'wrong message because, I'm sure you heard the head of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, saying: 'when Hamas is praising you'' – as Hamas praised the UK – ''then you need to check whether your politics is the right policy'.' 'We are expecting the international community, including the UK Government, to be very vocal about the fact that Hamas is holding our hostages and it must release them.' Britain and Israel are 'fighting mutual threats. I know how much the UK is concerned about Iran's influence in the region, and you need to remember that this war Israel has been fighting is a proxy war with Iran […] We've seen how most of the weapons being found are produced in Iran, how Iran was training the terrorists.' As for a French-Saudi initiative, scheduled for mid-June, to discuss the recognition of Palestine as an independent state: 'This is probably the worst timing ever to go this path [...] this is a pure word for terrorism and sends the wrong message to the region [...] What did October 7th prove? First of all, unfortunately what we've seen is big support among Palestinians towards the massacre.' One poll, she claims, found 86 per cent of West Bank residents sympathised with the pogrom. Gaza previously voted for Hamas, 'so recognition basically means Hamas' and would be a 'reward for terrorism'. I ask if this means the concept of a two-state solution is off the table and she replies in the affirmative. 'It was rejected by the Palestinians again and again. Israelis had hope [in it] in the 1990s and were willing to compromise, but […] every time there was some type of negotiation, there was more terrorism […] So Israelis are no longer willing to jeopardise their security any longer.' This is a critical point – one that many Britons don't grasp. Governments like Labour talk about the two-state solution as if it were genuinely on the table, but the two sides gave up on it years ago. In that case, what does the Israeli government see as the future of the Palestinian community? They must be re-educated. 'It's a good lesson to learn from the Second World War,' when Germany and Japan were beaten: fascism 'didn't end in one day, there was a whole process of denazification, a whole process of rebuilding the institutions to a democratic country. The Palestinians, when they were offered to have democratic elections' – in January 2006 – 'they ended up with having an even worse dictatorship that doesn't believe in any human rights.' She implies that if fresh elections were held again in Gaza, we'd see Hamas victorious again, so she says 'we need to build the path not just for peace as a formal peace but a real peace, people to people, like the one we have with the Gulf countries via the Abrahamic Accords', as negotiated by Donald Trump. 'We never deny the rights of us to live next to our neighbours – they deny our rights' Surely there must be some give and take between communities, I suggest? In that case, the Israelis must cease building settlements in the West Bank – 22 of which have just been recognised by Netanyahu. 'There is a myth about settlements I never understood,' says Hotovely, 'because when Israel [dismantled its] settlements in Gaza' – when it physically withdrew the strip in 2005 – 'we didn't see anything that has improved in the Palestinian attitude.' When Palestinians are asked 'what is the main problem,' she tells me, they never say the settlements but instead demand 'the right of return,' which means 'bringing people from all around the Arab world to move into small Israel.' I suggest that, on the contrary, they are protesting against Israelis settling on land that even Israel officially recognises as Palestinian – and Hotovely disagrees. 'Definitely not. I think that it's clear for Israelis when we're speaking about Judea and Samaria [better known as the West Bank], and we're speaking about Jerusalem, we're speaking about the Golan Heights, we're speaking about the Jewish historic land.' In conservative Israeli rhetoric, the term 'Judea and Samaria' implies that the West Bank is Israeli as bequeathed by the Bible. 'We're talking about some places that Jewish people have been connected to for thousands of years,' says Hotovely. Yes, I reply, and Palestinians have been connected to them for a very long time, too. 'We're not denying that. That's what's nice about our attitude,' she says, 'we never deny the rights of us to live next to our neighbours – they deny our rights.' We turn to the subject of anti-Semitism – on May 21, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, staffers at the Israeli embassy in Washington DC, were shot and murdered outside a Jewish museum. The killer cried 'free Palestine.' Can Hotovely see a line between anti-Israeli protest and a rising level of threat against Jews across the world? 'We had very difficult days right in the embassy here. I gave a talk to our embassy staff and we wanted them to feel very open with us about their concerns.' She is grateful for the protection of the British authorities but doesn't feel 'anti-Semitism is under control [… ] Let's speak about how the propaganda in the streets of London, New York and Berlin can influence a terrorist that is taking a weapon and killing two young, beautiful people […] This is the kind of madness we're dealing with, something totally irrational, and I think it's been fuelled by anti-Semitism and the fact that some of those marches that are calling for horrific things against Jews are allowed in Western main cities.' I bring up Gary Lineker, who infamously shared an anti-Semitic image of a rat – a genuine error, he insisted, for which he subsequently apologised – and wonder, to quote a friend, if we're seeing the revival of an 'oblivious anti-Semitism': old tropes being used in ignorance of the offence they cause. The winner of Eurovision, for example, has suggested that Israel be banned from next year's show in Vienna – without a shadow of irony or historical awareness. 'I agree, but I think that it's not the majority of the people in this country. I think the minority is vocal. And I think when the majority keeps silent about bad things, this is when we get to hear the radicals, raising their voice.' 'Many Western countries that used to feel safe don't feel safe anymore' Anti-Jewish hate 'is dangerous to this country, just like it's dangerous to America and Australia and many other Western countries that used to feel very safe and they don't feel safe anymore.' Hotovely cites the success of Israel at Eurovision – top in popular vote, pushed into second by the juries – as a possible expression of 'sympathy' for October 7. 'I don't feel like we're isolated, but I do feel like people forget your own country's history' – Britain's fight against Hitler, what we endured and what we had to do to win. 'I was invited to a very beautiful event in Westminster Abbey, celebrating your VE Day, and I was moved by all the historic moments that you remember and cherish from your heroism. But then I'm asking myself why, when Israel stands in fighting a very different version of a very radical ideology, why [the British elite] don't understand it's exactly the time to have patience and resilience – to wait for Israel to really conclude the job, until this terror organisation will be defeated and not to urge Israel all the time to end the war, even if the consequences are to let Hamas control the Gaza Strip.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Former Obama Aide Slams Jake Tapper for Resurrecting Hunter Biden Scandal: ‘All Of Us Knew'
It's almost June 2025 and Hunter Biden's scandal is back in the news, thanks in large part to CNN's Jake Tapper and his book 'Original Sin' — and former Obama aide Johanna Maska isn't having it. At least that's what Maska told fellow panelists in Friday's episode of 'Piers Morgan Uncensored.' The Biden story isn't new to anyone, she said, and 'Hunter was corrupt! All of us knew! Hunter was corrupt.' Instead of regurgitating a story that dominated news cycles throughout 2023 and 2024, she continued, Tapper should have focused on the Trump administration. 'I also want us talking about issues that are not some made-up Jake Tapper scandal,' Maska told Chuck Todd. 'I mean, Chuck, we traveled around the world with Jake Tapper and you, and I know that you guys care a lot about the story, but you also care about access. And Jake Tapper has done this multiple times where he has done whatever he can to get access. So now he's kissing up to the right-wing media because he wants access in the Trump White House.' While agreed that focusing on corruption in politics is important, Maska insisted Tapper just missed the mark. 'We are missing all of the stories that actually affect people,' she explained. 'Corruption, absolutely cover it, but also the 1,000 plus page bill that the House Republicans just passed, that will actually affect people in Galesburg, Illinois. And that's what's going to matter this next election. My point is, Chuck, we had an election and we lost.' In an interview with Bill Maher Friday night Tapper admitted he believes Dr. Jill Biden, President Biden, and Hunter Biden share the blame for the administration's downfall and the president's alleged mental decline. 'He had moments where he was non-functioning but he understood what was going on. We saw him earlier today: He can speak and talk. If he was here right now, he could talk for 10 to 15 minutes, he'd be fine,' he said. Watch the episode of 'Piers Morgan Uncensored' in the video above. The post Former Obama Aide Slams Jake Tapper for Resurrecting Hunter Biden Scandal: 'All Of Us Knew' | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Tapper's new book alleges Biden health cover-up 'worse than watergate'
CNN 's Jake Tapper admitted that the cover-up of Joe Biden's cognitive decline in the White House may have been 'worse than Watergate.' Tapper compared Biden's White House deception to President Richard Nixon and one of the greatest scandals in political history during an interview with Piers Morgan about his campaign tell-all Original Sin. 'This is an entirely separate scandal. Maybe even worse … maybe even worse,' Tapper ultimately admitted. 'It is without question – and maybe even worse than Watergate in some ways because Richard Nixon was in control of his faculties when he was not drinking.' Tapper's new book delves into the elaborate and painstaking efforts taken by Biden's inner circle to hide the true extent of the his health problems. Morgan challenged Tapper by asking him to justify his written conclusion that the 'hiding and cover-up of his deterioration is not Watergate.' That's when the CNN anchor actually admitted that he got it wrong. In fact, he told Morgan it 'may be worse' than the 1972 scandal, in which the Nixon administration attempted to cover up a burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Nixon was forced to resign and 'Watergate' is now synonymous with political corruption, becoming somewhat of a benchmark through which subsequent administrations are judged. Tapper went on to try to clarify the quote Morgan referenced in the book, which concluded: 'Joe Biden is not Richard Nixon (pictured), and the hiding and cover-up of his deterioration is not Watergate.' Morgan had argued: 'I am not entirely sure I agree, Jake, with that conclusion.' But Tapper said the only reason they included the caveat in the book was because they had spoken with a Watergate investigator who discussed 'how powerful the presidency is and how presidents get surrounded by people who have a vested interest in keeping that president propped up.' Tapper in particular has faced enormous backlash for his reporting in the book, with critics arguing he was part of the so-called 'cover-up' he is now trying to expose. But he maintains he trusted Biden and his aides and took them at their word when they assured him that all was well. Tapper in particular has faced enormous backlash for his reporting in the book, with critics arguing he was part of the so-called 'cover-up' he is now trying to expose. The turning point for him was the disastrous debate between Biden and Trump in June 2024, which he and fellow CNN star Dana Bash moderated. The duo had iPads which they used to communicate with their production team throughout the debate. Early on, Tapper sent a message to his crew backstage. He didn't know which staff were working, so he 'tried to keep it clean.' 'I wrote 'holy smokes,' he told Megyn Kelly. 'I wanted to write 'holy [expletive].' Around the same time, Bash slid him a piece of paper, with her own message on it. It read: 'He just lost the election.' Kelly was among the leading voices critical of Tapper's rol e in the cover-up, telling him: 'There is a way of pressing a man like that on the actual infirmities to bring it home to him and to the audience and you didn't do it.' After further criticism of a now-infamous 2020 exchange between Tapper and Lara Trump, during which Tapper shamed her for mentioning Biden's 'cognitive decline', Tapper accepted fault for his past reporting. 'Knowing what I know now, obviously I feel tremendous humility about my coverage,' Tapper told Kelly, while also admitting that 'conservative media was correct' in how it handled the story. 'There should be a lot of soul-searching not just among me but among the legacy media to begin with - all of us - for how this was covered or not covered sufficiently,' he said. 'I wish I could do differently.' Following the car-crash debate, Biden ultimately dropped out of the race and endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. But his antics following that decision continued to infuriate both Harris and fellow Democrats. During a 9/11 commemoration event, he was pictured wearing a MAGA hat at the behest of a member of the crowd, jovially signing the cap and laughing with his audience. Then, whispers from his camp revealed he genuinely believed he could have defeated Trump. 'What is he doing?' Harris asked her team, according to the book. 'This is completely unhelpful. And so unnecessary.' In October, Biden told supporters 'we got to lock him up,' when talking about former President Donald Trump, at a time when Trump and his supporters were accusing Biden and Harris of 'lawfare' to remove him from the presidential race. Later that month, Biden also referred to President Trump's supporters as 'garbage,' which the campaign famously branded as an insult to working class Americans. While the book is brimming with startling revelations, the authors have been on a PR blitz trying to legitimize it amid concerns that they failed to report the truth whilst it was happening. Tapper even enlisted the expertise of crisis PR maven Risa Heller, who has represented the likes of convicted Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes and Hollywood predator Harvey Weinstein. He said the PR guru has helped him with 'advice' as they make the book's 'rollout as smart as possible.' On Sunday, Thompson was asked by Fox News host Shannon Bream about an anecdote referenced in the book about advisors justifying 'undemocratic' actions in an effort to prevent Donald Trump from returning to the White House. Reading aloud from the book, Bream quoted an unnamed aide as saying: '[Biden] just had to win, and then he could disappear for four years. 'He'd only have to show proof of life every once in a while… His aides could pick up the slack.' Thompson revealed that the source 'went on to say that, when you're voting for a president, you're voting for the aides around him.' 'These aides were not even Senate-confirmed aides,' he said. 'These are White House aides, these were unelected people. 'And one of the things that really I think comes out in our reporting here is that if you believe - and I think a lot of these people do sincerely believe that Donald Trump was and is an existential threat to democracy - you can rationalize anything. 'Including sometimes doing undemocratic things, which I think is what this person is talking about.' And that revelation came on the back of a startling claim that a trio of senior political veterans who had known Biden for decades worked closely with his wife, Dr Jill Biden, and occasionally his troubled son, Hunter, to run the show. Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti and Bruce Reed were the core three decision-makers, the book claims, adding that former senior advisor to the president Annie Tomasini and former White House chief of staff Ron Klain were also 'at times' part of the group. 'Five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board,' one source told the authors. 'In practice, Bruce Reed was the real domestic policy adviser, Mike Donilon was the actual political director, Steve Ricchetti controlled Legislative Affairs, and Klain controlled a bit of everything.' According to the book, both Jill and Hunter Biden were prominent and permanent fixtures within Biden's circle of trust. This is despite aides and insiders partially blaming Hunter for the president's rapid deterioration. 'To understand Joe Biden's deterioration, top aides told us, one has to know Hunter's struggles,' the book stated. While promoting his book, Tapper was asked about Hunter's role in the administration and influence over his father. Fueled by information garnered through interviews with more than 200 people for the book, Tapper answered: 'I think Hunter was driving the decision-making for the family in a way that people - he was almost like a chief of staff of the family. It's bizarre because I think he is provably demonstrably unethical, sleazy, and prone to horrible decisions,' Tapper added. 'After his brother died, he cheated on his wife with his brother's widow and then got her addicted to crack.' The recent revelation that Biden has been diagnosed with late-stage prostate cancer also sparked rampant conspiracy theories about whether medical professionals were aware of his illness while he was president. Biden's team have maintained he was not tested for prostate cancer while he was president, and that the diagnosis is recent. That reassurance has not stopped MAGA loyalists from demanding his long-term physician Kevin O'Connor be subpoenaed to answer questions about Biden's health. O'Connor repeatedly assured the American public during Biden's term that he was healthy and could have served another four years. Simultaneously, several of Biden's closest aides are facing pressure to reveal how much control they had over his autopen after Trump raised questions about who was really in charge during the Biden administration. According to the book, which is based on hundreds of interviews, 'access' to Biden diminished significantly during his White House term, as his staff allegedly walled him off, even from cabinet members. One cabinet secretary told the authors that he didn't brief the president directly in 2024 but only spoke to the president's aides. Even still, insiders maintained they were not aware of how dire the situation had become until it was too late, despite Biden's repeated gaffes and tumbles on the public stage. One of the most shocking incidents took place in September 2022 incident Biden called out for Republican Congresswoman Jackie Walorski at a White House event. 'Jackie, are you here? Where's Jackie,' he said scanning the audience. 'She was going to be here.' Walorski had been killed in a car crash in August and Biden and the First Lady had issued a statement extended condolences to her family at the time. Another standout moment for Tapper was when Biden did not recognize actor George Clooney at a 2024 fundraising event, along with the revelation that White House aides were considering placing the president in a wheelchair if he were reelected.
