News Round-Up

• “Boris Johnson will urge public to accept ‘one last heave’ to freedom as he gets set to delay June 21st” – Face mask mandates, the rule of six and the 30-person limit on outdoor gatherings will remain in place for another month, the Telegraph reports
• “Rishi Sunak rejects pleas from businesses to extend furlough scheme” – The Chancellor of the Exchequer plans to phase out the furlough scheme as scheduled despite the delay to the end of lockdown, according to the Daily Mail
• “Scotland Yard taskforce chief fears violence will rise as lockdown lifted” – DSI Lee Hill, the head of Scotland Yard’s Violent Crime Taskforce, has expressed fears the easing of lockdown will lead to a rise in violence as people release “pent up aggression”, the Guardian reports
• “Furious MPs demand certainty over ending of Covid restrictions” – The Daily Mail reports the concerns of rebel Tory backbenchers that we will “never get out of this nightmare”
• “Company closures spark fears of surge in Covid loans fraud” – “Fears are growing that thousands of Covid loans were fraudulently claimed and will never be returned to the taxpayer,” the Daily Mail says, reporting that almost 40,000 firms were struck off in the first three months of the year
• “Medical treatment was withheld from people with learning disabilities during pandemic” – An investigation by the Telegraph has found that patients admitted to hospital with learning disabilities were not given potentially life-saving treatments because of their conditions
• “Almost a third of Britons who died of Indian variant had two jabs’” – According to a new report from Public Health England, 29% of the 42 people who have died from the Indian Delta variant had been double jabbed, MailOnline reports
• “Devastating impact of lockdown laid bare in shocking impact report” – The Express reports on the People’s Lockdown Inquiry, a new report into the consequences of lockdown commissioned by Lawrence Fox’s Reclaim Party
• “Scots are restless over ‘dither and delay’ of lockdown” – According to the Telegraph, Duncan McConchie, Chair of the Scottish Wedding Industry Alliance, has warned that “people are starting to throw caution to the wind” because of the contradictions in the coronavirus guidance
• “Concerns grow in St Ives over Covid cases linked to G7 summit” – At least five hospitality venues have closed after two police officers and the Extinction Rebellion camp reported cases of the virus, according to the Guardian
• “Downing Street defends Boris Johnson’s G7 beach barbecue after backlash” – The Downing Street press team has been forced to defend the beach barbecue at the G7 summit from furious criticisms by hospitality industry leaders, the Telegraph reports
• “Unlock and let us live with Covid, Boris Johnson urged by adviser on eve of crucial June 21st decision” – SAGE committee member Professor Robert Dingwall has urged the Prime Minister to stick to his original road map, the Telegraph reports
• “We cannot allow country to become a dystopia ” – “There is,” says Dr Renee Hoenderkamp in the Daily Mail, “A very real danger that these infringements on ordinary, everyday life will continue not only the rest of the year but until next spring at least”
• “Though it is newly respectable, the Wuhan lab theory remains fanciful” – “The fixation on the origin of Covid is a distraction,” says Dr David Robert Grimes in the Guardian. “It does not advance our understanding, nor address how we ought to proceed”
• “The Swiss referendum on lockdown rules shames Britain’s authoritarian stance” – “Switzerland trusts the Swiss people to decide what is best for them,” says Jonathan Saxty in the Telegraph on the eve of Switzerland’s referendum on whether to end all lockdown restrictions. “It’s time the British people got the same right”
• “Why is the Government so reluctant to give freedom back to citizens?” – The Spectator publishes an edited version of Theresa May’s speech to Parliament last week which set out some realities about Covid
• “The risky business of delaying 21st June” – The Spectator’s Kate Andrews highlights what’s at stake in the decision to delay the unlocking originally scheduled for June 21st
• “In Orwellian Britain, lockdown is perpetual and sickness is health” – “There is a spectre haunting  Britain,” warns Tim Stanley in the Telegraph. “Permanent lockdown”
• “Early Treatment: Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is” – Omar Khan interviews serial entrepreneur Steve Kirsch, a champion of early treatment, who has offered $2 million to anyone who can demonstrate that the trials on Ivermectin and Fluvoxamine are wrong and the NIH and WHO are right
• “Elites, Tweets and Queens – The Week in Review (ep. 23)” – The Bournbrook contributors discuss the ‘new normal’, the G7 meeting and more in the latest episode of the Week in Review
• “Belgium is fastest vaccinating country in EU” – Belgium, where over 60% of the adult population has received a first dose of the coronavirus, is currently vaccinating its residents quicker than any other country in the European Union, the Brussels Times reports
• “’Wake-up call for Canada’: Security experts say case of two fired scientists could point to espionage” – The RCMP is investigating Dr Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, who were fired from the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg after they shared information and samples of Ebola and Henipah with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in a case which has led to concerns about Chinese espionage, the CBC reports
• “Polling shows Canadians more cautious on Covid reopening” – “People may be fed up with lockdowns, they may want to get back to normal life but they are also scared, extremely cautious and don’t want governments moving too fast,” says Brian Lilley in the Toronto Sun
• “A Scientist Who Said No to Covid Groupthink” – A Wall Street Journal interview with Filippa Lentzos, a social scientist with a research interest in biological threats who raised the possibility of a lab leak a year ago
• “Save us from idiot savants: Did Covid come from a Wuhan lab? Either way, technology’s mystique must be challenged” – “The only way suffering on Covid’s massive scale can be redeemed is if, thanks to it, humanity were to come to an understanding of the growing dangers of technological fetishism,” says Swagato Ganguly in the Times of India
• “Border ban forces Australian CEO to quit global role” – The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Fiona Reynolds, the Australian CEO of the London-based Principles for Responsible Investment, has been driven to resign because it’s impossible to fly in and out of Australia. “Australia’s not changing anything, so what am I going to do?” she says
• “Child labour rises to 160 million – first increase in two decades” – A UNICEF press release announcing the findings of a their report, produced jointly with the International labour organisation, which warns that “progress to end child labour has stalled for the first time in 20 years”
• “How to save the world in three easy steps” – On the latest episode of the Dark Horse Podcast, Dr. Bret Weinstein talks to Dr. Robert Malone, the inventor of mRNA vaccine technology, and Steve Kirsch about COVID-19 treatment and the vaccination
• “Footage proves bats were kept in Wuhan lab” – Sky News Australia’s Sharri Markson broadcasts footage from a video spotted by the ‘Drastic’ research network showing live bats at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and a piece to camera from the ‘Bat Woman’ Shi Zhengli. The full video is available from the Chinese Academy of Sciences here
• “Boris Johnson has bottled it” – Dan Wootton kicked off the new GB News Channel in style yesterday, making his debut on the day the new channel launched. “Boris Johnson has bottled it,” he reported. “Britain will not be open for business again”