News Round-Up

• “No. 10 confirms it’s watching emergence of two Omicron sub-variants” – Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said the situation was being monitored “very closely” amid early signs that hospitalisations are also starting to rise in the U.K., reports the Mail.
• “Emergency care is at breaking point” – Delays in urgent care are causing needless deaths, write Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson in Spiked.
• “Testimony and Remarks, Pandemic Response” – Read what Dr. Robert Malone told the Texas Senate hearings on pandemic response.
• “Rise in long-term sickness” – HART observes a marked rise in people signed off work with long-term sickness in the U.K. which began not with the pandemic in 2020 but with the vaccine rollout in 2021.
• “Glasgow bookshop owner urges customers to wear masks to help business flourish” – Report in the Herald that the owner of the first independent bookstore in Glasgow city centre says he hopes customers will be happy to wear masks again after Nicola Sturgeon urged Scots to start wearing them indoors.
• “China’s population suffered severe mental health problems during Covid” – The Mail reports that whilst anxiety and depression have increased globally by 25% during the pandemic, studies suggest that the figure is higher in China where millions have been under strict lockdowns.
• “‘We’re not privileged, we are the poor persons of the justice system’: Tearful barrister breaks down on picket line in Manchester as fellow lawyers walkout of the Old Bailey in demand of 15% pay rise… despite ‘average sector earnings of up to £64,000’” – The Mail reports that hundreds of barristers began strikes on Monday in a dispute over legal aid funding and pay, despite average earnings of £64,000.
• “Lockdowns proved the public health panjandrums wrong about drinking” – Lockdowns showed that reducing the availability, affordability and advertising of alcohol does little to cut harmful drinking, writes Joseph Dinnage in CapX.
• “These Days It’s News When the CDC Does Something Right” – The mainstream media ignore a rigorous study finding no increase in paediatric hepatitis despite the scare stories in the spring, writes Allysia Finley in the Wall Street Journal.
• “Covid inquiry hires more than 60 barristers – and could cost £14m a year” – With almost a year before the inquiry is expected to begin hearing evidence, it employs as many barristers as the notoriously expensive Bloody Sunday investigation, reports the Telegraph.
• “Beijing declares Zero-Covid policy will last another five years then backtracks” – Anxiety and outrage erupts after a state newspaper publishes statement that its President claims was a “mistake”, reports the Telegraph.
• “The case for the lab-leak theory” – Why of all the cities in the world did Covid first emerge in Wuhan, asks Matt Ridley in Spiked.
• “More Flaws in the Vaccine Model Claiming 20 Million Lives Saved” – Bhaskaran Raman at Brownstone enumerates further problems with Imperial’s latest modelling fantasy.
• “Why is the Government getting into bed with Moderna?” – Kathy Gyngell in TCW Defending Freedom says with the new Moderna research and manufacturing facility, the real fear is that the MHRA will follow the FDA’s approach of rapid rubberstamping for new products deemed to be ‘biosimilar’ to existing products authorised on that ‘platform’.
• “WHO Behind FDA Scheme to Skip All Future Clinical Trials for Covid Vaccines” – The “Future Framework” is coming from the World Health Organisation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the biggest voluntary contributor to the WHO, so Gates is likely directing the play, argues Dr. Toby Rogers in the Defender.
• “It is an abject failure of the Regulators” – Watch Dr. Clare Craig tell Mark Steyn on GB News why the FDA should not have approved Covid vaccines for 0-4 year-olds.
• “British Army chief: Ukraine is our ‘1937 moment’” – General Sir Patrick Sanders says the U.K. must be ready for war with Russia as NATO announces a massive troop expansion, the Telegraph reports.
• “How we bet the house on Ukraine” – The media have gone quiet on the progress of the war in Ukraine because it’s not going well for the Ukrainians, and Western policy has been a disaster, says Ted Dwyer in Spectator Australia.
• “Net Zero red tape to be ditched as Britain returns to coal” – Checks on fossil fuel emissions are to be watered down under Whitehall plans, according to the Telegraph.
• “Online Safety Bill shows we’ve replaced Eurocrats with our own mandarins” – Is the Government trying to out-compete Russia and China in online censorship, asks Matthew Lesh in the Times.
• “The Online Safety Bill has terrifying implications” – The Bill will not just regulate public social media – it also covers private communications like WhatsApp messages and even search engines, says Victoria Hewson in the Telegraph.
• “Woke cops open ‘hate incident’ file after boy, 11, was called a ‘shorty’” – The Sun reports that woke cops opened a “hate incident” file after a boy of 11 was called “shorty” and a “leprechaun” in the street.
• “Boris Johnson: Women cannot be born with a penis” – The Telegraph reports that the Prime Minister says there is a difference between being a woman and a trans woman as he backs swimming ruling.
• “Laurence Fox Twitter banned for posting swastika made of Pride flags” – Laurence Fox was temporarily banned from Twitter over the weekend for posting a picture of a swastika made out of four GBT pride flags.
• “Why is Tom Daley wading into swimming’s transgender row?” – British Olympic medal winning diver Tom Daley is said to be “furious” about swimming’s governing body, Fina, “banning” trans women from female elite competition, but he shouldn’t be, says Debbie Hayton in the Spectator.
• “Britain’s students will become the wokest generation” – Don’t expect them to abandon illiberalism, and if policymakers don’t act quickly, Britain is likely to become a substantially less free society, writes Eric Kaufmann in UnHerd.
• “What really happened in Nottingham” – Siân Louise writes in the Critic that in 2022 women are no longer allowed to gather in public libraries.
• “ Facebook is funding and working closely with pro-Palestine charity that is linked to alleged terror groups that revere convicted killers and had a ‘Holocaust denier’ as a guest speaker” – Meta, Facebook’s parent company, provides funding and works closely with pro-Palestine charity 7amleh, the Mail reports.
• “Revenge is a dish best served unsold” – Laura Dodsworth says plant-based sales disappoint.
• “Oslo and the Islamist threat to gay life” – A suspected Islamist terrorist shot up a gay bar on the eve of Pride, but the Western media don’t want to know, says Tom Slater in Spiked.
• “Free speech – even at Speakers’ Corner – is on life support” – Toby joins Mark Steyn on GB News to discuss the state of free speech in the U.K. as Speakers’ Corner reaches its 150th birthday.

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