News Round-Up

• “Daily Covid cases surge 60% in biggest rise since Freedom Day” – Government dashboard data showed there were 61,900 new positive tests over the last 24 hours, up 58.7% on last week’s figure of 39,000, reports the Mail.
• “Where’s the outrage over Trudeau’s trip to Britain?” – As Justin Trudeau waltzed through the U.K., visiting Boris Johnson and the Queen, did anyone spare a thought for Canadians struggling under Trudeau’s authoritarian Covid power moves, asks Jane Stannus in the Spectator.
• “UK freedom protesters chant “F*ck Trudeau” outside Downing Street” – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was dogged by protesters outside of 10 Downing Street on Monday, heckled for his continuing support of COVID-19 restrictions and his use of the Emergencies Act to quash peaceful demonstrations in Ottawa, reports True North.
• “Towards SARS-CoV-2 serotypes?” – The magnitude of immune evasion of Omicron raises the question whether it should be considered as a distinct SARS-CoV-2 serotype, according to a study in Nature Reviews Microbiology.
• “Take Off the Masks!” – Even with mandates finally waived, healthy Manhattanites show a seemingly inexhaustible appetite for fear and risk aversion, writes Heather Mac Donald in City Journal.
• “The story of how ivermectin was ‘cancelled’” – Kathy Gyngell in TCW Defending Freedom relays the depressing story of how Dr. Andrew Hill let down colleague Dr. Tess Lawrie and others when his review failed to recommend ivermectin for use in treating COVID-19.
• “Is the media still stifling the lab-leak theory?” – Science writers have become useful idiots, writes Paul D. Thacker in UnHerd.
• “New Pfizer data kills the case for universal child Covid vaccines” – A recent study of the efficacy of Covid vaccines for children in New York state provides a striking reminder of how rarely children and adolescents are hospitalised when they get Covid, writes Professor Jay Bhattacharya in UnHerd.
• “Africa’s food crisis pre-dates the war in Ukraine” – Revisionists are already trying to erase the impact of Covid policy on the continent, writes Toby Green in UnHerd.
• “‘Slippages’ in democracy? Justin Trudeau knows a lot about that” – What would invoking the Emergencies Act over a truckers’ protest be considered, asks Rex Murphy in the National Post.
• “Climate Obsessed Biden Administration Seeks Oil Deal with Venezuela and Iran” – No word yet whether Hunter Biden will join the boards of any Iranian or Venezuelan oil companies, writes Eric Worrall on Watts Up With That?
• “Why block energy wells just when we need them?” – While Putin’s rape of Ukraine creates energy insecurity, to deny ourselves indigenous production of shale gas is crazy green dogmatism, writes Charles Moore in the Telegraph.
• “Can the West afford an energy embargo?” – Any such action will severely damage Western economies, though America is much less exposed than Europe, says the Telegraph in this leading article.
• “Living standards ‘return to the 70s’ as household incomes will drop 4%” – Inflation could rise above 8% as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, reports the Telegraph.
• “War in Ukraine makes European recession almost inevitable” – Russia’s invasion has put rocket boosters under surging energy, fuel and food prices, meaning inflation will remain higher for far longer, writes Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph.
• “John Kerry: Putin’s Useful Climate Idiot” – Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine marks the end of the West’s Era of Illusions. It was an era in which Western elites obsessed about solving climate change because the climate crisis was far more dangerous than issues of war and peace and the stability of the international system, writes Rupert Darwall on Real Clear Energy.
• “What a second golden age for North Sea oil could do for Britain” – While Norway got rich off its oil reserves, Britain went cold on its own ‘golden goose’. Could the Russian energy crisis now turn the tide, asks Harry de Quetteville in the Telegraph.
• “Ignore the sniping – our war effort for Ukraine is something we should all be proud of” – Volodymyr Zelensky’s tribute to Boris Johnson will sting those who only care about sneering at the Government’s handling of this crisis, writes Allison Pearson in the Telegraph.
• “Ep 41. Inside Ukraine: Tanya Shelepko, Alex Borovenskiy, Bogdan and Pro English Theatre” – In a departure from the usual show the Real Normal Podcast is back with their friend Tanya Shelepko, and they find out what life is like in Kyiv in a bunker hiding from the Russian shelling.
• “Getting a sense of the Russian soul” – Looking into Russian genetics and history with Razib Khan on his Substack page.
• “Mentioning NATO does not make you a ‘Putin apologist’” – If you venture to suggest that NATO expansion has anything to do with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, you will be promptly informed that you’re a “Putin apologist” or that you’re peddling “pro-Putin talking points” (or some variation on this theme), writes Dr. Noah Carl on his Substack page.
• “The moral mess of banning Russian oil” – The U.S. ban on Russian oil will probably result in a closer embrace of countries and regimes that many Americans rightly loathe, writes Joel Mathis in the Week.
• “This energy crisis has deeper roots than Ukraine” – We are paying a heavy price for decades of policy failures, writes James Woudhuysen in Spiked.
• “Bully Bercow ‘should have portraits labelled like a slave trader’” – The former Commons Speaker is already facing a life ban from Parliament after an excoriating report today outlined his appalling treatment of staff, while one Tory MP suggests ‘explanatory plaques’ could be added to his portraits, reports the Mail.

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