News Round-Up

• “The Covid care-homes scandal” – The U.K.’s irrational approach to the pandemic put the most vulnerable in harm’s way, say Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson in Spiked.
• “Julia Donaldson: How I fear lockdown may have damaged our children” – The bestselling author explains to the Telegraph why she worries that coronavirus restrictions have deprived a generation of vital experiences.
• “Labour’s lockdown lies: Angela Rayner was at Keir Starmer’s ‘beergate’ event despite Party denying it… as MPs tell how she joked about using Sharon Stone ploy at PMQs and leader apparently flouted guidance at his own birthday bash… with cake” – Labour acknowledged that Angela Rayner was also at the event on April 30th last year at which Sir Keir was filmed enjoying a beer with officials at a time when indoor socialising was banned, according to the Mail.
• “Keir Starmer won’t be fined over lockdown beer ‘even if he is found to have broken rules’” – Telegraph sources claim Durham police’s policy of not taking retrospective action on Covid lawbreakers means Labour leader will escape punishment.
• “Sue Gray’s ‘partygate’ QC is Labour-supporting anti-Brexiteer who publicly criticised Boris Johnson” – Daniel Stilitz’s neutrality is questioned after a string of social media posts attacking the Government and Prime Minister emerge, the Telegraph reports.
• “Even by China’s standards, their new Covid crackdown is brutal” – Videos from inside China’s locked-down districts have shown hazmat-suited workers implementing the Government’s Zero-Covid policy, confining countless numbers of residents confined to their homes, the Mail reports.
• “Beijing orders schools closed in tightening of virus rules” – Beijing is closing all city schools in a further tightening of COVID-19 restrictions, as China’s capital seeks to prevent a wider outbreak, reports the Associated Press.
• “Taiwan’s daily Covid cases top 10,000 for first time” – Taiwan reported on Thursday that the daily number of confirmed domestic COVID-19 cases had topped 10,000 for the first time, in line with predictions, and the Health Minister said infections would continue to rise, Reuters reports.
• “Epidemic: German and Austrian Mayors Under 60 Are ‘Suddenly and Unexpectedly’ Dropping Dead” – When did so many young and healthy middle-aged people, described as healthy and sporty, drop dead before 2020, asks Amy Mek at the Rair Foundation.
• “Third of appointments are with qualified GPs in parts of England” – NHS figures show just 36% of patients were seen by a qualified GP in North East Lincolnshire in March, with the rest seen by other staff, including nurses, physiotherapists or even acupuncturists, reports the Mail.
• “‘We see mums whose cancer has become untreatable as NHS backlog is too big’” – One of Wales’s most senior cancer consultants says opportunities to cure patients of cancer are being missed as it’s too late by the time they’re seen, reports WalesOnline.
• “Is wind power really the solution to our green energy needs?” – You needn’t be a climate sceptic to want renewable energy that makes sense, says Bill Blain in CapX.
• “Climate change: Don’t let doom win, project tells worriers” – BBC News report on a new project launched to address rising climate anxiety in students at the University of East Anglia.
• “Ep 49. Murder and Rape in Bucha. Eyewitness with Tanya Shelepko” – The Real Normal Podcast is back talking with Tanya Shelepko about her journalistic work in Bucha, Ukraine.
• “Sleepwalking into censorship: a reply to Nadine Dorries” – Politicians have given themselves censorship powers by creating a new category of forbidden speech, ‘legal but harmful’ – but ‘harmful’ is not really defined, the censorship potential is wide open, and Nadine Dorries is in denial as she creates “the most ambitious censorship apparatus in the democratic world”, says Fraser Nelson in the Spectator.
• “America has betrayed its young” – Lionel Shriver writes in the Spectator of the iniquities of ‘reverse’ racism: “Nearly half of Harvard’s white admissions are athletes or the children of faculty, staff, Harvard graduates or Harvard donors – leaving precious few slots for white kids relying on dumpy old academic pre-eminence.”
• “Increasingly, university is a place where you are told what to think rather than taught how to think. This must change” – Diversity of opinion is just as important as diversity of background, writes Minister of State for Higher and Further Education Michelle Donelan in ConservativeHome.
• “Leaked recording reveals woke Twitter staff warning bosses of ‘mass exodus’ of workers when Elon Musk buys platform because of tycoon’s ‘questionable ethics’” – The Mail reports that at a meeting of Twitter staff on Monday, one asked: “How does the board and Mr. Musk plan on dealing with a mass exodus considering the acquisition is by a person with questionable ethics?”
• “Rishi: Biology must come first in trans debate and Government policy” – The Mail reports that Mr. Sunak told a Mumsnet user that women’s rights and trans rights should both be respected, but stressed: “Biology is critical to how we approach those type of questions.”
• “Government-funded report urges NHS to use terms ‘chestfeeding’ and ‘frontal birth’ instead of breast or vaginal” – A Department of Health-funded report on how to improve maternity services for transgender people says the NHS should ditch language like breastfeeding and instead use chestfeeding, the Mail reports.
• “Midwifery students being taught how to help men give birth” – Edinburgh Napier University told trainees they may be caring for a “birthing person” who has male genitalia, the Telegraph reports.

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