News Round-Up

• “A molnupiravir-associated mutational signature in global SARS-CoV-2 genomes” – A major study in Nature finds that Covid treatment molnupiravir drives the creation of new virus variants.
• “Civil servants given go-ahead to work from the beach” – Civil servants have been given the go ahead to work from the beach in “exceptional circumstances” following a long-running battle with Ministers, the Telegraph reports.
• “Covid Vaccination in Iceland: A Failed Experiment” – Thorsteinn Siglaugsson estimates that only 20 lives were potentially saved in Iceland by COVID-19 vaccination, while 60-70 may have been lost from it.
• “NHS forced to spend almost £65m to make ambulances Ulez compliant” – The NHS has been forced to spend nearly £65 million to make hundreds of ambulances compliant with London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s Ulez scheme, the Mail reports.
• “Polar bear sea ice habitat update at November 15th and problem bears in Western Hudson Bay” – WUWT reports on abundant polar bear habitat this autumn across the Arctic so far, with only Hudson Bay sea ice formation a bit behind schedule.
• “BBC ‘hypocrisy’ row as reporter racks up air miles to criticise global emissions” – Panorama’s London-based Richard Bilton took flights to Dubai, Alaska, California and Berlin for a programme on climate change, according to the Telegraph.
• “Russian artist jailed for seven years for anti-war protest” – A Russian artist has been jailed for seven years for replacing supermarket price labels with messages against the war in Ukraine, reports the Times.
• “NewsGuard Boasted of Government Ties in Censorship Pitch to Twitter” – NewsGuard, the purportedly impartial media rating service that has created a blacklist of disfavoured news organisations, boasted of its ties to the intelligence community and to other arms of the federal Government in a pitch to Twitter before Elon Musk bought the company, Breitbart News reports.
• “Elon Musk vows to file ‘thermonuclear lawsuit’ as advertisers desert X” – The billionaire has promised to hit back against a “fraudulent attack” on his company by media watchdog non-profit Media Matters for America, reports the Mail.
• “The Tories have changed direction – but they may not be headed where you think” – David Cameron’s return to office seemed to signal the triumph of the Conservatives’ centre-Right wing, but things aren’t what they seem, argues the Telegraph‘s Tim Bale.
• “Corrupted by extremist Islamists, the Left is now openly anti-British” – We will lose the battle for hearts and minds if we allow ourselves to become radicalised by this hateful ideology, says Janet Daley in the Telegraph.
• “If Gen Z have become fans of Osama bin Laden, there’s only one way to snap them out of it” – The young may not mind that he was a mass-murdering jihadi terrorist. But wait till they hear how problematic he was, says Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
• “First U.S. state to decriminalise hard drugs may be set for swift U-turn” – The authorities are leading demands for Oregon to recriminalise heroin and fentanyl after addicts took over the streets of major cities, the Telegraph reports.
• “Senior civil servant wore Black Lives Matter lanyard at official meeting” – The senior health mandarin, who is required to be politically impartial, also displayed a poster supporting striking miners in one meeting, says the Telegraph.
• “Why is antisemitism so rife in UK academic settings? I have never found student life more difficult” – British campuses have seen more incidents in a month than in all of 2022, but support and understanding are in short supply, says a student at Oxford University in the Guardian.
• “Sex assault centre at Canadian university denies women raped on Oct 7th” – Samantha Pearson, director of the University of Alberta’s sexual violence centre, was among those signing a letter downplaying the rape and sexual assault of women on October 7th, according to the Mail.
• “‘Shocking’ scale of U.K. Government’s secret files on critics revealed” – Dossiers were compiled by 15 departments after scouring social media activity to vet people invited to speak at official events, the Guardian reports.
• “Maternity hospital downgraded over use of term ‘mother’” – Cambridge University Hospital Trust received a low grade on an NHS diversity assessment because staff only use the term “mother” when discussing maternity leave, the Telegraph reports.
• “Yvette Cooper raises Labour MPs’ safety with police after Gaza vote threats” – Several MPs have seen their offices attacked and received threats for either refusing to back a ceasefire or for voting in favour during a vote in the Commons last week, according to the Telegraph.
• “Oxbridge scholars accused of ‘white domination’ after defending Industrial Revolution hero’s legacy” – The editors of a prestigious academic journal have accused Oxbridge dons of “white domination” for defending a hero of the Industrial Revolution, the Telegraph reports.
• “UK finally sends plane-mutiny rapist back to Somalia after five years” – It has taken five years to send Yaqub Ahmed back to Somalia – with Ministers forced to offer concessions, including a stay in a luxury hotel with armed protection, to break his relentless cycle of dubious human rights appeals, reports the Mail.
• “Do we really need more diversity on Gardener’s World?” – Monty Don is retiring in a couple of years as presenter of Gardener’s World, and the Spectator‘s Melanie McDonagh is dismayed that he’s already calling on the BBC to appoint a ‘diverse’ successor.
• “Pro-Palestine protesters target Pret as police battle crowds in London” – Pro-Palestine protesters targeted a string of stores across Manchester on Saturday including McDonald’s and Starbucks as gatherings in London threatened to turn ugly following a day of more than 100 protests around the U.K., according to the Mail.
• “Parents fear ‘spurious’ domestic abuse arrests over trans children” – Parents of children who believe they are transgender have written to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) calling for a review of its guidance on gender identity amid fears it could lead to “spurious” charges of domestic abuse, the Telegraph reports.
• “Here’s a major coffee chain in Jordan serving a new ‘Holocaust coffee’ (that’s the name!), with the slogan ‘I feel the Arab taste’” – Dr. Eli David posts on X about the “genocide coffee”: “It is served with blue and white marshmallows (Israel flag) which are burned before serving.”

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