News Round-Up

• “US gives Israel ‘private backing’ for ground invasion of Gaza” — Benjamin Netanyahu has won private backing from President Biden in a closed-door meeting to press ahead with a ground invasion of Gaza, the Times reports.
• “Biden says hospital blast ‘appears as though it was done by the other team’” — US President Joe Biden blames “the other team” for the Gaza hospital blast after arriving in Israel in a desperate bid to prevent the war with Hamas from spiralling into a wider conflict, says the Mail.
• “IDF claims video shows misfiring Gaza rocket caused hospital carnage” — IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari presented evidence indicating Hamas knew the hospital blast was caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket, but launched a “global media campaign” to blame Israel, according to the Mail. 
• “BBC journalist speculated Israel was behind Gaza hospital attack” — BBC correspondent Jon Donnison said it was “hard to see” past the Israeli military as the source of attack as he reacted to Ahli Arab Hospital blast, reports the Telegraph.
• “Vow of ‘never again’ has never felt so hollow” — The moment I stopped trusting the scientific establishment was when we learnt scientists had lied about their views on the Covid lab leak, writes Juliet Samuel in the Times. And the moment she stopped trusting the BBC is when she saw its initial reporting of the Gaza hospital explosion.
• “Jenrick compares BBC reporting of Gaza hospital blast to ‘blood libel’ against Jews” – Robert Jenrick, the Immigration Minister, has fired a broadside at the BBC for misreporting the hospital explosion, according to the Telegraph.
• “PM to visit Israel as concerns grow over Middle East conflict” — According to the Independent, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will arrive in Israel on Thursday, commencing a two-day trip to the wider region.
• “Iranians chant ‘death to England’ as anti-Israel protests engulf Middle East” — Western embassies targeted after Hezbollah encourages “day of rage” against an alleged “violation of international law”, the Telegraph reports.
• “Pro-Palestinian protesters take over the Capitol” — Pro-Palestinian protestors invaded the U.S. Capitol building as hundreds demanded a ceasefire between Hamas terrorists in Gaza and Israel, reports the Mail. But it’s not an ‘insurrection’ because they’re not Trump supporters.
• “Europe antisemitism: Berlin synagogue targeted as attacks rise” – Berlin’s Jewish community is shaken after two petrol bombs are thrown at a synagogue, says the BBC.
• “The sanctimonious Left has a lot to say about Israel – but not about Hamas” — The open letter from over 2,000 actors, musicians and artists condemning Israel is staggeringly one-sided, argues the Telegraph’s Michael Deacon. 
• “Nobody – but nobody — wants mRNA jabs anymore” — Even as the CDC and vaccine manufacturers promote the new booster with massive ad campaigns, demand has collapsed, writes Alex Berenson on his Substack. 
• “Actuarial and statistical problems around the Covid phenomenon” – Nick Hudson publishes the text of his address to the jubilee convention of the Actuarial Society of South Africa in PANDA Uncut. 
• “The Left pushes for hard Covid measures (again)” — In an article for the Guardian this week, George Monbiot overstates the risk of re-infection and long Covid, using fear-mongering language, argues Kevin Bardosh in UnHerd.
• “The Covid inquiry asked the wrong questions of Neil Ferguson” — The Covid inquiry posed inadequate questions to Professor Neil Ferguson, who, along with almost all scientists involved in Covid and lockdown decisions, hides behind the structure of SAGE, argues Michael Simmons in the Spectator.
• “Greta Thunberg charged following Fossil Free London protest” — 20 year-old climate campaigner Greta Thunberg is accused of breaching the Public Order Act at a demonstration in London, reports the BBC.
• “Extinction Rebellion protestors occupy City of London offices of 10 insurers” — Hundreds of Extinction Rebellion protesters have occupied the offices of 10 City of London insurance companies, says the Evening Standard. 
• “Polar bear researchers hiding significant increase in Southern Hudson Bay numbers” — Last December researchers vigorously promoted a possible 27% decline in Western Hudson Bay polar bear abundance, but kept hidden the fact that Southern Hudson Bay numbers increased, according to Polar Bear Science. 
• “Transgender world champion fencer branded ‘entitled cheat’” – Outrage as transgender fencer Liz Kocab beats 14-time winner for title in the over-70s women’s category, reports the Telegraph. 
• “Government to tell GMC ‘women are women’ and ‘biological sex matters’” – Ministers will make clear “the importance of the use of correct language” after doctors’ regulator removed the word ‘mother’ from maternity advice, says the Telegraph. 
• “Trans butcher Andrew Miller who sexually abused schoolgirl is jailed” – Andrew Miller, a transgender butcher who kidnapped and sexually abused a primary school girl, has been jailed for 20 years, the Mail reports.
• “Are the thought police about to cancel George Orwell?” — Socialists have long loathed the 1984 author because he ruthlessly exposed their absurdity, writes Peter Hitchens in the Mail. A new woke biography of Orwell’s first wife accuses him of being a homophobe, a misogynist and a rapist.
• “With new declaration, luminaries warn that online censorship is destroying freedom” — Since the COVID pandemic, authoritarians around the world have used claims of ‘disinformation’ to censor ordinary people and stifle dissent about everything from masks and vaccines to the war in Ukraine, says Miranda Devine in the New York Post, writing about the Westminster Declaration.
• “You don’t improve democracy by militantly labelling speech as misinformation” — Watch Laura Dodsworth talk to BBC Politics Live about the Westminster Declaration, arguing that the best way to deal with so-called misinformation is to respond with better information.

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