News Round-Up

• “Nicola Sturgeon and Jeane Freeman bought ‘burner’ phones in 2020 Covid lockdown” – The Scottish Daily Express reveals that Nicola Sturgeon and Jeane Freeman, then the Scottish Health Secretary, purchased cheap mobile phones and prepaid top-up cards during the early months of the Covid pandemic, despite having access to official communication devices.
• “Covid’s origin may never be discovered, Britain’s top scientist warns” – The Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor says we will probably never know whether COVID-19 occurred naturally or escaped from a lab in China, reports the Mail.
• “They still won’t quit pushing the mRNAs” – A recent New York Times opinion piece shows how completely public health bureaucrats, and the doctors who love them, have lost the plot, says Alex Berenson on Substack.
• “The SARS-CoV-2 transmission riddle” – Dr. Tom Jefferson and Prof. Carl Heneghan explore whether respiratory viruses can lie dormant, leading to unexpected outbreaks.
• “Challenging pandemic orthodoxy: a quick update” – Neil Datson takes aim at Patrick Vallance’s cautious approach to pandemics, preferring health regulations guided by more flexible thinkers like Dr. John Campbell.
• “Landmark Covid vaccine injury win” – On Substack, Rebekah Barnett reports that an Australian tribunal has ordered compensation for a youth worker’s pericarditis due to the Department of Child Protection’s workplace Covid booster directive.
• “The 13 year-old reporter challenging Gaza protesters: ‘The BBC are too neutral’” – A Jewish schoolboy, frustrated by unbalanced coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, has decided to uncover the facts for himself, reports the Telegraph.
• “Not just Claudine Gay. Harvard’s Chief Diversity Officer plagiarised and claimed credit for husband’s work, complaint alleges” – Harvard University’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer appears to be guilty of extensive plagiarism as well, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis.
• “Major Harvard donor withdraws financial support amid ongoing antisemitism backlash” – A major Harvard donor has halted financial support for the university and accused elite U.S. colleges of producing “whiny snowflakes” instead of future leaders, reports the Telegraph.
• “Police investigate special constable over Christian busker video” – Scotland Yard is investigating a special constable after she told a Christian busker that she was “not allowed to sing church songs outside of church grounds”, says the Mail.
• “Net migration to push U.K. population over 70 million, 11 years earlier than expected” – The Office for National Statistics has estimated that net migration will increase Britain’s population by nearly 10%, or 6.1 million, by mid-2036, reports the Telegraph.
• “The U.K. is fast approaching its immigration breaking point” – The idea that simply adding people to the population leads to general prosperity has toppled over, writes Sam Ashworth-Hayes in the Telegraph.
• “Telegraph sale: Government concerned by principle of foreign state media ownership” – The Media Minister says she is concerned in principle about a foreign government owning a British media organisation, according to the Telegraph.
• “The Laurence Fox ruling is a disaster for freedom of speech” – No one should ever be dragged to court for a rhetorical flourish, says Brendan O’Neill in Spiked.
• “I ban, therefore I am” – Nanny statism is the last refuge of the pointless politician, writes Tom Slater in Spiked.
• “Universities should want brilliant British minds, not dumbed-down foreign cash cows” – ‘Diversity’ candidates are preferred over white applicants by U.K. universities and British students are losing out, says Allison Pearson in the Telegraph.
• “University expansion was a reckless mistake – and this crisis proves it” – The supposed scandal over ‘cash for courses’ shouldn’t distract us from the real problem with higher education, writes Michael Deacon in the Telegraph, which is that there are too any places.
• “Germany opens citizenship to 1.5 million Turkish immigrants then gets the vapours when Recep Erdoğan’s AK Party reveals plans to establish a German offshoot” – Germany’s citizenship reforms – making it easier for immigrants, particularly Turks, to get citizenship – raise concerns as a party linked to Turkish President Erdoğan plans to operate in Germany, says Eugyppius on Substack.
• “The betrayal of Charlie Hebdo” – The French intelligentsia has reneged on its commitment to free speech and embraced a pervasive culture of censorship, writes Gavin Mortimer in the Critic.
• “Victory to the French farmers” – European farmers are right to rise up against our eco-obsessed elites, says Fraser Myers in Spiked.
• “America is hitting the brakes on electric cars. Has Biden noticed?” – It’s one thing to manufacture EVs, another to sell them, as Americans still prefer petrol cars and the environmental benefits are murky, claims Irwin Stelzer in the Times.
• “Keir Starmer pledges to ban conversion ‘therapy’ under Labour government ” – Keir Starmer promises that a Labour government will modernise the Gender Recognition Act and ban conversion therapy, according to Diva Magazine.
• “I don’t need my sexuality affirmed at a railway station – I just want the trains to run on time” – Network Rail’s ‘Pride Pillar’ is full of shapes and colours that represent different groups… but ultimately it means nothing, says Suzanne Moore in the Telegraph.
• “The cowards, the pretenders and the woman-haters” – The time to claim ignorance about the issue of gender identity in the U.K. has passed, writes Jean Hatchet in the Critic.
• “Glenn Hoddle and the birth of cancel culture” – Glenn Hoddle was sacked as England manager after an ill-thought-through comment about reincarnation and disabled people. The episode seems to have foretold an imminent shift in our culture, remarks John Sturgis in the Spectator.
• “Royal Academy outs past members for links to slavery” – The Royal Academy has revealed that one of its prestigious academicians was a slaveowner ahead of an exhibition in which it details its own extensive links with colonialism, reports the Times.
• “The surprising truth about ‘nanny state’ Britain” – When it comes to food, drink and public health in Britain, the nanny state is coming. Look busy, warns James Kirkup in the Spectator.
• “Israeli forces kill three Palestinians in West Bank hospital raid” – On X, journalist Andy Ngô shares a video that could be straight out of an episode of Fauda, showing an elite undercover Israeli team carrying out a targeted execution of three jihadist fighters at a hospital in the West Bank.

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