News Round-Up

• “Get your house in order before pushing Elgin Marbles deal, British Museum told” – The British Museum has been urged to get its own house in order amid the scandal of stolen artefacts after it emerged it was pushing ahead with plans to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece, reports the Telegraph.
• “Lucy Letby: The moral case for capital punishment” – Some crimes are so unforgivable that the majority of decent people will condone the death penalty. The particular evil of Lucy Letby meets this threshold, writes Frank Haviland in the New Conservative.
• “Pfizer drip feeds data from its pregnancy trial of COVID-19 vaccine” – So far, analysis of data from Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine trial for pregnant women shows that the trial was underpowered, poorly designed and incomplete, says Dr. Maryanne Demasi on Substack.
• “Cochrane Library: World’s preeminent medical information resource goes into tailspin” – The Editor-in-Chief of the Cochrane Library has hired a pricey consulting firm to manage missteps and scientists’ concerns over transparency, writes Paul D. Thacker on Substack.
• “Shapps risks backlash by forcing ‘luxury’ heat pumps on households, warns energy boss” – Forcing British households to adopt “luxury” heat pumps risks triggering a backlash, the U.K.’s biggest gas network operator has warned, according to the Telegraph.
• “Vandals destroy cameras on eve of Ulez expansion with wave of protests” – Anti-Ulez ‘blade runners’ were out in force ahead of Sadiq Khan’s Ulez expansion deadline, knocking over cameras and covering them with protest signs, says the Mail.
• “Sadiq Khan’s luxury Range Rover is exempt from the Ulez charge” – London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s bulletproof, taxpayer-funded Range Rover will is exempt from the Ulez fee, reports the Mail.
• “The Transport Secretary could halt the Ulez expansion – why doesn’t he?” – Mark Harper, the Secretary of State for Transport, needs to use his powers to stop the Ulez expansion, writes Simon Fawthrop in TCW.
• “Net Zero is condemning more Brits to energy poverty” – Many customers face being priced out of the electricity market altogether when supply of renewables is weak, warns Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Europe hits roadblocks in the race to switch to electric cars” – Despite progress towards a 2045 zero-emission goal, the high price of EVs has created a headache for European governments, says the Guardian.
• “Democrats’ climate change blame game for Hawaii fire confronted by reality after Maui identifies cause” – Hawaiian officials blamed recent catastrophic wildfires on the state’s main power utility and downed lines, countering Democrats who cited global warming as the cause, reports Fox News.
• “Watch: Gun-wielding rangers clear eco-protestors blockade in Nevada” – The Telegraph has video footage of gun-wielding rangers ramming through a road blockade set up by climate protesters, stopping people getting to the Burning Man festival in Nevada.
• “Growing number of countries consider making ecocide a crime” – Mexico is the latest country to consider passing a new law criminalising environmental destruction, reports the Guardian.
• “Oxford academic forced to attend equality training wins legal case” – An Oxford University academic who was forced to go on an equity and diversity training course has successfully sued the University for harassment, says the Telegraph.
• “France bans abaya robe from being worn in schools” – Muslim leaders have reacted with anger to a move by the French Government to ban the abaya in state schools, reports the Mail.
• “What went wrong at the Open University?” – The Open University is facing three legal challenges from staff and students who say they have been discriminated against because they dared to express ‘gender critical’ views, writes Alice Sullivan in the Spectator.
• “Wikipedia should focus on content creation – not social justice campaigns” – Whether or not you support climate justice – whatever that may be – it has nothing to do with Wikipedia or encyclopaedias, argues Andrew Orlowski in the Telegraph.
• “Investors warn ‘fluffy’ ESG metrics are being gamed to boost bonuses” – Three-quarters of S&P 500 companies have disclosed that ESG metrics contributed to executives’ pay, according to Financial Review.
• “‘Not just money and math’: Young people are willing to sacrifice returns for ESG” – New data shows young people are willing to give up returns to invest in ways that supports causes they care about, reports CNBC.
• “BlackRock hit by backlash after fall in ESG votes” – The New York City comptroller has accused BlackRock, the $14.7 trillion asset management group, of giving in to critics of ESG, says Financial Review.
• “Secret intelligence leaks vs. basic common sense” –  Ron Unz of the Unz Review delves into the crucial yet often overlooked issue of how leaked or manipulated intelligence can dramatically shape media stories and sway public opinion.
• “Disbelief at Reading Festival’s ban on ‘cultural appropriation’ clothes” – Reading Festival traders and attendees are openly defying one of its rules, which bans clothing that “promotes cultural appropriation”, reports the Times.
• “Senior woman interrogated by police after taking photograph of sticker critical of gender ideology” – An elderly woman was visited by West Yorkshire Police for taking a photograph of a sticker critical of gender ideology, reports Reduxx.
• “Watch: Nish Kumar gets shut down on women’s rights” – The Spectator’s Steerpike is amused by the sight of Nish Kumar – a man who identifies as a comedian – being put firmly in his place by TV presenter Lowri Turner after he said gender critical feminists were afflicted with a “brainworm”.
• “Scotland has been led into this mess by the nice but weak” – Why did Graham Linehan have to perform in the street during the Fringe this year, asks Mark Smith in the Herald.
• “Meet Oliver Anthony: The new voice of America’s working class” – Until recently, nobody had heard of Rich Men North of Richmond. Now the song is a symbol of forgotten America. The Free Press sits down with the man behind a movement.
• “‘This exposes just how hypocritical Sadiq Khan’s Ulez expansion really is’” – Richard Tice flags up a video of an intrepid young journalist testing the air quality on the London Underground and finding it far worse than the streets of Central London.

If you have any tips for inclusion in the round-up, email us here.