| Oil prices have dropped sharply after Donald Trump sent Tehran a 15-point ceasefire proposal and said the Iranian leadership was "talking sense" in negotiations. Iran says it has re-opened the Strait of Hormuz to "non-hostile" ships, but denied Trump's claims about talks, saying the US is "negotiating with itself". Rachel Reeves is expected to limit energy bill support to those on benefits, calling the £40bn universal package announced by the previous government after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 a "mistake". Sources tell The Times the handouts will go to around six million people who claim welfare payments like universal credit and pension credit. A hospital patient who talked a terrorist out of blowing up St James' Hospital in Leeds will receive the George Medal for bravery. Stepping outside the ward one night in January 2023, Nathan Newby met Mohammad Farooq, who revealed he had a home-made bomb and wanted to "kill as many nurses as possible". After a two-hour chat on a nearby bench, and several hugs from Newby, Farooq agreed to turn himself in. | | |  | Locals surveying the damage after Monday's arson attack in Golders Green. Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu/Getty |
| We Jews are horrified, but not surprised | An Iran-linked terror group has claimed responsibility for Monday's arson attack in north London, and while two men have been arrested nothing is confirmed. Whoever it was, says Rachel Cunliffe in The New Statesman, their motivations are obvious. A Jewish ambulance service in a Jewish area next to a Jewish synagogue – "it's not hard to imagine what was going through their minds". Keir Starmer was right to call it a "horrific anti-Semitic attack", but we Jews aren't surprised, "not any more". More than 1,000 anti-Jewish hate crimes have been reported in London in the past year; a Manchester synagogue was attacked on Yom Kippur; a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach was shattered by gunfire, killing 15 people including a little girl. None of the victims had anything to do with Benjamin Netanyahu or the IDF, but to today's anti-Semites, as always, it doesn't matter. "Jews are Jews." | Life is changing fast in the Jewish diaspora, says Ben Judah in UnHerd. Cities like New York, London and Paris now have "fewer old men like Joe Biden with a war-era fondness for Jews", and growing numbers of Hispanics and Muslims. These minorities are more anti-Semitic, younger and more likely to get their news online and from foreign TV like Al Jazeera. The truth is that we no longer really live in what you could call "Western civilisation": a world of nation states and print culture, with a "clearly defined attitude towards Jews". Its successor is a "globalised internet civilisation" that plays out in viral clips and has become unmoored from old certainties. This is a world where mega-influencers on X play as big a role as the Archbishop of Canterbury. By its nature, this culture of "ephemeral, emotive social media posts" rewards hatred and anger. Which, I fear, "will not prove kind to the Jews". | | | | Advertisement | | | The Chancellor's sweeping changes to Inheritance Tax (IHT) start taking effect this April. More families will be caught. More of your wealth might fall prey to it (including, from 2027, your pension). Tax reliefs are being cut, and the nil-rate bands are staying frozen. So what are the options now for IHT-averse investors in 2026? Is it still possible to reduce IHT – without giving anything away? | This free guide from Wealth Club explains what experienced investors could consider doing to beat the 40% tax trap (capital at risk). Tax rules can change and benefits will depend on circumstances. Download the guide here. |
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| | |  | Cillian Murphy winning best actor in 2024. Patrick Fallon/Getty |
| The Irish language has made a remarkable comeback, says The Economist. A century ago just 18% of Ireland's population spoke it; today, around 40% do, up 71% from 1991. Nearly half the country's students study Gaelic in secondary school, compared with less than a third in 2005. This linguistic renaissance is in part due to exam reforms and other government policy, but it's also because of pop culture. Cillian Murphy ended his Oscars acceptance speech in 2024 with "go raibh míle maith agaibh" ("a thousand thank yous"); Gen Z heartthrob Paul Mescal casually uses the language on the red carpet. Irish has "become cool". |
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| | | | | | The mother of all typos |  | Sorry, mum |
| One of the Knowledge team received a text from his mum yesterday noting a rather glaring typo in the headlines section. She very sweetly pretended it was the first she'd ever seen in the newsletter. Mums always know what to say. | The reason, of course, is that we're humans, not computers. Our very small team does all the work: reading through everything, picking out the best bits, rewriting it all into our concise and good-humoured style, and then – yes – checking everything for factual mistakes and typos. | We don't just ask AI to trawl the internet, pick out some good stuff and spit it out. We've tried, and the results are rubbish. That's why, if you can afford it, we ask you to take out a paid subscription. The Knowledge is so much better than all that AI slop. And it's only £4 a month or £40 for the first year. | |
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