Brief. Me - December 23, 2025 6:49 pm
In today’s briefing update, the Sunday papers report on No 10 mocking the EU and the House of Lords expenses spiralling “out of control”. In other news, Prince Andrew’s alibi has been called into question and a Brit barmaid quizzed over Madeleine McCann disappearance.
In our special feature, we look into US President Donald Trump’s Middle East Peace Plan – ‘The plan ignores the fact Israel created this mess’
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House of Lords expenses spiral out of control
The Sunday Times says expenses for peers in the House of Lords are spiralling “out of control,” according to an analysis by the paper. They say the result is a “triple hit for taxpayers.”
Read the full story on the Times
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EU is ‘divided and distracted’
The Sunday Express leads with Downing Street’s apparent derision at the EU’s behaviour ahead of Brexit trade talks. A source tells the paper EU officials seem “divided and distracted” ahead of the talks – while the tabloid mocks what it calls the “chaos” of an EU budget summit which ended without agreement on Friday.
Read the full story on the Daily Express
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Royal Guard’s questions over Andrew alibi
The Mail on Sunday’s front splash calls into question Prince Andrew’s alibi on the night a teenage trafficking victim says he had sex with her. Andrew has firmly denied all allegations against him, but the paper says a former royal protection officer has contradicted his claim he was home all evening on the night in question.
Read the full story on the Daily Mail
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Starmer warns Labour: unite or face generation out of power
The Observer reports on the Labour leadership contest. Sir Keir Starmer urges the party to “pull together” and the paper says, in his “strongest personal attack to date” on the Prime Minister, Sir Keir says “dangerous” Boris Johnson should not be caricatured “as a clown.”
Read the full story on The Guardian
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Top civil servants on Tories’ ‘hit list’
The Sunday Telegraph’s front splash leads on claims the PM wants to replace several permanent secretaries because they are at odds with Conservative ministers and advisers. The paper also reports that former culture secretary Baroness Morgan of Cotes has warned that BBC reform is “unavoidable.”
Read the full story on The Telegraph
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Brit barmaid is quizzed by Maddie cops
The Sunday Mirror says police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have asked a British barmaid for information about her German ex-boyfriend. Maddie vanished from a holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007.
Read the full story on the Daily Mirror
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https://wtxnews.com/2020/02/22/deaf-survivors-of-clergy-sexual-abuse-protest-in-vatican/
UK Weather Forecast
Sunday 23 February 2020
Sunrise 07:02
Sunset 17:31
Today
Staying rather cloudy across the far south of England this afternoon, with a few further spots of rain. Sunny spells elsewhere, with wintry shower across Scotland and northern England slowly fading.
Tonight
Rain and hill snow will push in from the west giving significant snow accumulations to the high ground in the north, but snow is also possible to low levels for a time in Scotland and N England.
Financial Update
Exchange Rates
US Dollar $ $1.21 120.3
UAE Dirham 4.45 4.41
Euro 1.09 1.08
Swiss Franc 6.76 6.62
Tweet of the Day
THAT time of year for the right-wing press again. Some context:
— The Sun Apologies (@SunApology) February 23, 2020
1. UK spends 0.7% of its gross national income on foreign aid and development
2. The cost of Brexit as at the end of 2019 estimated at £130 BILLION
3. ££ to help UK towns is there. The Tories choose not to use it pic.twitter.com/kUa6PPeSOX
Treat of the week
20 Magical Ways to Use Your Instant Pot
Featured Story
In today’s special feature we look at President Trump’s Middle East “peace” plan
Brookings says there is a lot to be upset about regarding Trump’s peace plan if you’re Palestinian.
The publication says in the plan’s first few pages, no Palestinian could be reasonably expected to still be looking for a silver lining in its details.
The author Salam Fayyad writes the plan’s introduction citing Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s October 1995 speech before the Knesset had a profound impact on him.
The 1995 speech in which the PM sought in approval for the Oslo II Intermin Agreement by laying out a vision for future Palestinian entity that he described as “less than a state.”
IMEMC News says Trump’s Middle East plan ignores the fact Israel created this mess.
The Trump-Kushner “peace” plan is slick and businesslike, with an aura of objectivity and balance – but it is exactly the opposite and something about it stinks says author Kathryn Shihadah.
Shihadah says there is an elephant in the room regarding the peace plan but the Trump administration, the Netanyahu government and Israel partisans have decades of experience in ignoring whatever is inconvenient to their agendas.
The disenfranchisement and subjugation of the Palestinian people that has gone for a hundred years and is presently so obvious several human rights groups and experts have called it apartheid.
Shihadah says whilst the Trump administration says it wants a future of peace, this plan will not bring it.
Arab News reports the Pope has appeared to give a thumbs down to Trump’s middle east peace plan.
Pope Francis warned against “inequitable solutions” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying they would only be a prelude to new crises. His comments appear to be a reference to Trump’s peace plan.
Francis made his comments on a trip to the southern Italian port city of Bari.
“The Mediterranean region is currently threatened by outbreaks of instability and conflict, both in the Middle East and different countries of North Africa, as well as between various ethnic, religious or confessional groups,” Francis said.
“Nor can we overlook the still unresolved conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, with the danger of inequitable solutions and, hence, a prelude to new crises,” he said.
