In the headlines

Keir Starmer pushed ahead with the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite explicit warnings that it posed "reputational risks" to the government. A 147-page cache of documents released yesterday also showed that the PM was told Mandelson had reportedly stayed at the late paedophile's house while he was in jail for child sex offences, and that the New Labour veteran demanded more than £500,000 as a pay-off for being sacked from his ambassadorship. (He received £75,000.) The price of oil surged back to around $100 a barrel this morning after increased attacks on oil infrastructure and shipping in the Middle East overnight. Iranian forces struck two fuel tankers – one of them US-owned – in Iraqi waters, setting them ablaze and killing one crew member, and fired drones at key oil ports in Iraq and Oman. British wildlife will replace historical figures such as Winston Churchill and Jane Austen on the next series of Bank of England banknotes, after beating alternative categories including architecture and landmarks in a public vote. A second consultation will be launched this summer to decide which plants, landscapes and animals will feature.

Comment

Mojtaba in 2019: "shadowy but influential". Rouzbeh Fouladi/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty

Is Iran's new supreme leader even worse than his father?

The decision to choose Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran's new supreme leader was made in a "highly opaque manner", says Saeid Golkar in Foreign Policy. For Iranians, this is nothing new. The late Ayatollah's son has long been a "shadowy but influential" figure inside the Islamic Republic. He entered politics after his father was appointed in 1989 and has been gradually building power behind the scenes ever since. Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani's 2000 political memoir frequently mentions Mojtaba interfering; in 2005, top cleric Mehdi Karroubi accused him of fiddling the presidential election to bring the hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. During the 2009 Green Movement, when Mojtaba supervised the regime's suppression of protesters, crowds chanted: "Mojtaba, may you die, and never become leader." Some 17 years later, their fears have been realised.

After his leadership was announced, I received a text from a friend in Iran: "If Mojtaba stays in power, he will pulverise us." To millions of Iranians, he is the embodiment of the most "closed, corrupted, punitive and hereditary" form of the Islamic Republic. Politically speaking, he has the same mentality as his father: hostile to America, obsessed with annihilating Israel, convinced that coercion as the main instrument of rule. He has cultivated deep ties not only to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but also the Basij militias and conservative clerical circles who view him as a reliable guardian of his father's doctrine. For Iranians who openly celebrated the death of the hated ayatollah, even as the "theo-security state" shot anyone who dared cheer his demise, the ascent of Mojtaba is an insult. And that may be the point.

🤕🤷 Iranians still haven't heard from their new leader, says Patrick Wintour in The Guardian, most likely because he is still recovering from injuries suffered in the strike that killed his father. No one really knows how badly Mojtaba was hit, but it seems a broken leg and facial injuries are "the minimum". Opposition groups even claim, perhaps mischievously, that he is in a coma and has no idea he is now running the country.

Advertisement

Thoughtful tax planning can help you make the most of your allowances before 5 April, giving you a confident start to the new tax year. Our simple checklist brings the key steps together, making it easier to stay organised and take action.

As one of the UK's longest established investment and wealth management firms, Rathbones has supported generations in building long term financial security. If you'd like tailored guidance or want to explore your options in more detail, our financial planning experts are ready to help. Download the checklist to get started.

Gone viral

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has released an extraordinary AI-generated video in the style of The Lego Movie, trolling their American and Israeli attackers, says Rhian Lubin in The Independent. The two-minute animation depicts a smiling Benjamin Netanyahu and the devil showing a fresh batch of Epstein files to a furious Donald Trump, who grabs and presses a big red button launching the missile attack that hit an Iranian girls' school. For the rest of the video, the IRGC takes its bloody revenge, all in the medium of colourful plastic bricks. To see the rest, click the image.

Pay up, evil coloniser

Who would have guessed? Within weeks of the Mauritanians successfully shaking down the British state – to the tune of £3bn and a handful of islands they never owned – the African Union has spied an opportunity, and is preparing to bring a case to the ICJ demanding reparations for colonialism and slavery. It's a feeble case, but among the ICJ's ultra-politicised judges is a Jamaican who has already said he thinks Britain owes something in the region of £18trn. And with international law obsessive Keir Starmer in No 10, and his similarly minded legal sidekick Richard Hermer as Attorney General, there's every reason to think we're sitting ducks…

To read our comment piece dissecting this absurd situation, simply subscribe to The Knowledge. Other pieces today include the creeping political influence of America's billionaires; the unlikely friendship between Ginger Spice and the King; a mysterious code being transmitted into Iran; the millennial rapper about to become prime minister of Nepal; and a fine quote by the inimitable Peggy Noonan on the damnable power of propaganda.

And remember: it's peanuts! Just £40 for the whole first year, or £4 a month if you prefer. And we promise we won't come back in 200 years asking for trillions more.

Click here to subscribe

Let us know what you thought of today's issue by replying to this email
To find out about advertising and partnerships, click here
Been forwarded this newsletter? Try it for free
Enjoying The Knowledge? Click to share