Joe Taylor

Just compiling some twitter threads I've put together recently. x.com/TTTMediaXR/sta…

@docrussjackson @JulianPetley @PrivateEyeNews It’s nonsense to think we can adapt to climate breakdown. There is no adapting to the collapse of food systems, widespread drought and flooding, sea level rises and more intense storms.

🚨 Some of you may be labouring under the misapprehension that The Telegraph, under new ownership, might shift back from being an absurd right-wing propaganda comic to something resembling journalism. No chance. @JulianPetley and @PrivateEyeNews warn that the acquisition of the Telegraph Media Group (TMG) by German media giant Axel Springer SE for £575 million raises concerns over editorial independence under Axel Springer’s CEO, Mathias Döpfner. He is a highly interventionist figure with strong right-wing and MAGA/pro-transatlantic views that could even amplify The Telegraph’s increasingly populist stance rather than moderate it. Most coverage of German publisher Axel Springer’s last-minute swoop to take the Telegraph titles from under the nose of billionaire Mail owner Jonathan Harmsworth (Lord Rothermere) has largely concentrated on how the papers will fare under an avowedly pro-European owner. But Döpfner may be a better fit for the ever more reactionary broadsheet than many realise. In 2023, texts from Döpfner were leaked, detailing some of his personal political opinions. In one, he said: “I am all for climate change… We shouldn’t fight climate change but adjust to it”; and he summed up his foreign policy views as “Free west, fuck the intolerant Muslims and all the other riff-raff”, which is practically a summary of the Telegraph’s op-ed pages. Döpfner, like the Telegraph, is also more of a fan of the #MAGA movement than many in the UK. In 2020, he praised Donald Trump after the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, saying: “Nobel Peace Prize for Trump.” Last year, he called JD Vance’s speech to the Munich Security Conference “inspiring”, after the US Vice-President claimed restrictions on freedom of expression in Europe were a greater threat to the region than Russia or China. Döpfner is also pally with Elon Musk, having suggested to him in 2022 that he buy Twitter and let Axel Springer run it as a “true platform of free speech”. In late 2024, at least according to a contemporary report in the, er, Telegraph, it was Döpfner himself who encouraged Musk to write a column backing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the Axel Springer title Welt am Sonntag, which resulted in the resignation of the paper’s opinion editor. For a newspaper historically critical of German “thought police” on extremism (e.g., pieces defending AfD against bans or monitoring), running a critical exposé on the very CEO about to own it adds layers of irony and potential conflict-of-interest optics. The Telegraph, which has made much of its abhorrence of (foreign) proprietorial influence as it campaigned against other possible owners, backtracked on this episode in its coverage of the deal, adopting the careful line that Axel Springer “denied that Döpfner was responsible” for Musk’s pro-AfD article. But leaked texts sent during Germany’s 2021 federal election also show Döpfner asking the editor of his company’s title Bild whether he “could do any more for the FDP”, and instructing: “Please strengthen the FDP.” Pieces strongly backing the right-wing Free Democratic Party promptly appeared. Remember all that bullshit from right-wing figures about the importance of British media being controlled by British people? As of March 22, 2026, @lisanandy has not yet approved the Axel Springer acquisition of the Telegraph Media Group. The deal is not yet complete or finalised. On March 10, Lionel Barber, former editor at The Financial Times, shared his thoughts on on Axel Springer's buyout of the Telegraph. This is what he wrote for @breakermedianyc: “It took Axel Springer’s Mathias Döpfner three days and £575m in cash to achieve his dream of buying The Daily Telegraph - and take a step toward building a new conservative-leaning global media brand. How times have changed. In 2004, when Canada’s bon vivant Conrad Black was forced to sell the Telegraph Group, billionaire Döpfner ran into a wall of anti-German prejudice in London. Goose-stepping Daily Express owner Richard Desmond - who had dropped out of the Telegraph auction on price grounds - declared that Germans were “all Nazis” and ordered fellow executives to sing “Deutschland uber ales”, accompanied by “Sieg Heil” salutes. Late last week, I contacted Desmond, who has relocated to Dubai on tax grounds but now finds himself in the middle of Gulf War III. I asked him how he felt about one of Britain’s oldest newspapers falling to German ownership. Richard pronounced himself safe and well, and extended his congratulations to Döpfner, a good guy who will take the Telegraph “to the next level.” His anti-Nazi outburst in 2004, he explained, was aimed at Black’s “pompous, self-righteous emissaries” on the then-Telegraph board. Fast forward to 2026. Eminent journalists, led by ex-Spectator Editor Fraser Nelson, are paying tribute to Springer and Döpfner, with not a whiff of Germanophobia. They single out the group’s anti-Nazi past, iron-cast support of Israel and free speech. Nelson described the Springer bid as ‘The Great Escape’ from the clutches of Wall Street private equity firm RedBird and Abu Dhabi’s IMI. A campaign led by Telegraph Editor Chris Evans against foreign state ownership torpedoed two RedBird-IMI offers last year. Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail group then stepped in with a £500m bid, which was referred to the competition authorities. But rumours persisted that Rothermere had cold feet, mindful perhaps of the size of his cash outlay. Döpfner saw an opening and ditched his idea of a consortium bid with oddball partners, including the New York Sun’s Dovid Efune and British hedge fund steam-engine buff Jeremy Hosking. He financed the deal in three days. So what will Döpfner do? He wants to go big on digital and go global, particularly aiming at the US market, where he owns Politico and Business Insider. There is speculation that he may be looking for a new Telegraph editor. (He’s still to name a new Politico editor-in-chief) Coincidentally, a few self-promoting tweets have appeared from various quarters (no names, Anne, no packdrill). Some would like to see a cull of Brexiteer columnists like Alistair (“Mr Apocalypse") Heath to shift the Telegraph to the centre ground. But ex-Sunday Times Editor and Spectator Chair Andrew Neil has warned about Springer’s europhile tendencies. Döpfner was studiously diplomatic in his message to Telegraph staff late last week.  After his experience more than 20 years ago, he will be doubly aware of Perfidious Albion.” bylinesupplement.com/p/takeover-at-…

“Help me @billmckibben, you are my only hope” - a desperate plea on behalf of young people everywhere by @DrJamesEHansen 😱

‘The era of reliable harvests is over’ Professor Paul Behrens, British Academy Global Professor University of Oxford #climateChange

I am very worried about ISRAEL using a nuclear weapon Everyone should be, very much including UK politicians and media There needs to be far more attention given to this terrifying possibility

"Donald Trump has got so much domination within NATO that I don't believe it's possible to reform NATO from within." @ZackPolanski was right about NATO.

Fuck

Tony Benn died 12 years ago today. May his greatest and most prophetic speech one day cease to be relevant.

Ugh this is awful comms. “Unavoidable increase in risks”. WTAF? There will be millions, perhaps billions of deaths.

@HardlyTimes @alananewhouse made up quote

@alananewhouse Hello????

Years from now, it will be obvious why, in this specific moment in human history, as we faced high-powered technologies and political ideologies aimed at paving the way for their dominance over humans, what emerged—what had to emerge—was an intense, global debate about, of all things, Zionism. tabletmag.com/feature/zionis…

He later explained Trump's popularity by calling him the King of the Extrinsics. The point is we're not going to win the argument with cost benefit analyses - we need to bring back morality. Stop societal collapse because it is the right thing to do. monbiot.com/2024/01/31/kin…

as @GeorgeMonbiot explained in this classic piece monbiot.com/2010/10/11/the…

OK but the whole idea of arguing that we should act to prevent collapse because it will save us money is obviously total bollocks and also morally repulsive and also plays into the hands of the right...

@PhilipProudfoot They did mention this just now on Radio 4 to be fair, in a report otherwise very heavy on Israel’s perspective

The illegal forced displacement of 700,000+ people by Israel, as they INVADE LEBANON barely even features in Western news reports. Imagine the headlines if Iran had forcibly displaced 700,000 Israelis, forcing children to sleep rough by the sea.

🚨 EXCLUSIVE — Tucker Carlson claims that a sect of Judaism called Chabad is ultimately behind the military strikes on Iran. This might be Tucker's most absurd claim to date. And it's yet another shot at Trump. Why? Well, @jaredkushner & @IvankaTrump have belonged to Chabad in DC, and Kushner helped lead the U.S. negotiations before the strike began last week. As for Tucker's rant about Chabad — which he helpfully spelled for his viewers — it is beyond preposterous. It's also dangerous — Chabad buildings and events have repeatedly been targeted by terrorists. For example, the horrific massacre last December at Bondi Beach in Australia, where 15 were murdered, including Rabbi Eli Schlanger, was a Chabad event. Tucker explained in tonight's monologue that the "real" reason for the strikes on Iran — meaning why Israel, in his telling, is forcing the U.S. to help topple the Mullahs — is to launch a "holy war" for the purpose of destroying the Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock in the Old City of Jerusalem, in order to rebuild the Third Temple at the same site. And who does Tucker claim is behind this insidious plot — and thus the military campaign he called "evil"? Chabad. As anyone active in Jewish life knows, Chabad focuses on outreach to its own local Jewish community, particularly to more secular Jews who don't feel connected to a standing synagogue. But because Chabad is not known to almost anyone outside of the Jewish community, it makes for an easy target of dark conspiracy theories. That's why Candace Owens has made Chabad into a villain in her increasingly unhinged rants. But here is why this theory is as crazy as it is dangerous. Chabad is a loosely-knit collection of synagogues (and related community/educational centers), each run by a Rabbi and his wife, who stay in a given community or neighborhood typically for life. Far from being structured like, say, the Catholic Church, each Chabad House raises its own funds. Tucker's "logic" for his outrageous allegations is that Chabad wants to bring about the building of the Third Temple, known in Hebrew as the beit hamikdash. But... how does Chabad actually to bring about the building of the beit hamikdash? Through acts of kindness. Truly by doing good deeds in order to "merit" God rebuilding the Jewish holy site. In fact, Jews have for prayed for the rebuilding of the beit hamikdash — every single day — since shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple almost two thousand years ago. It is literally part of Jews' daily prayers. But it has nothing to do with tearing down an Islamic holy site, let alone starting a holy war. It's a prayer asking God to return us to the elevated state of spirituality that existed during the time of the Temple, and more importantly, for Him to send "Moshiac," or the Messiah. That Tucker would turn ancient Jewish prayers into some kind of sinister plot that is responsible for a very real and ongoing military campaign should be shocking. Sadly, though, it's not. But that doesn't mean that it isn't dangerous. Real people and actual families go to Chabad synagogues, and little kids across the U.S. and in other countries attend Chabad schools and preschools. It takes just one person already on the fringes to use this kind of rhetoric as justification for violence. That's not speculation. It has happened again and again — just in recent years. Yet Tucker is so blinded by his desire to take a swipe at Jared and Ivanka — because he knows he can't attack Trump directly — that he simply doesn't care.

Our dependency on fossil fuels makes us vulnerable. Wars across the world are pushing up prices for households in the UK. Why keep waiting for the next crisis? We need to transition to clean power as fast as we can to protect people and our economy. theguardian.com/environment/20…

Blair has learnt nothing from a million dead Iraqis.

⚠️ The insurance industry warns: 4 billion lives could be lost if we hit +3 °C in our lifetime – and up to 2 billion by 2035. 📢 Don’t miss our urgent call tomorrow at 6 PM UTC!

One of the greatest ever anti-war (Iraq) speeches by the late, great Tony Benn: “What fools we are to live in a generation for which war is a computer game for our children and just an interesting little channel for news item. Every Member of Parliament tonight who votes for the Government motion will be consciously and deliberately accepting responsibility for the deaths of innocent people if the war begins.”

The Spectator and @michaelgove are not telling the whole truth about North Sea oil and gas. • The UK oil and gas industry was privatised decades ago largely by the Conservatives. Oil and gas from the North Sea does not automatically belong to the British public. • It is extracted by private companies and sold on global markets at global prices, making companies billions. • That means drilling more in the North Sea does not automatically mean cheaper energy for the UK. We don’t get automatic or discounted access to it - that’s capitalism! • This was the political choice made when the industry was privatised. • Comparisons with Norway are misleading. Norway kept far more public control over its resources through its state energy company, Equinor, and direct state ownership of fields. • The profits helped build Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, now worth around $1.6 trillion. Britain largely privatised the profits and spent the revenue. • The UK North Sea is also a mature and declining basin. Production peaked in 1999 and has fallen by roughly 70% since then. • Many remaining reserves are smaller and more expensive to extract, which is one reason companies have already been reducing exploration investment. • Even if every remaining North Sea licence were approved, it would make only a small difference to UK gas imports. • Oil and gas prices in Britain are linked to global markets, so more drilling would not shield households from international price shocks. • At the same time the world is experiencing record temperatures, increasing extreme weather and growing risks to food systems. • 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded. • Extreme weather events are increasing, heat and rainfall records are falling globally. • Scientists warn of the collapse of civilisation without immediate reductions in global emissions. youtu.be/2Jq23mSDh9U?si… • Some media and journalists are funded directly or indirectly by the fossil fuel I fire to mislead the public about the facts and secure the industry : youtu.be/YhDacrl1aSA?si… • The real question is how to manage the transition to a secure energy system, not pretend that expanding fossil fuel extraction will solve Britain’s long-term energy challenges. #edmiliband #northsea #refo #restore #netzero #climatechange