News Round-Up

• “Downing Street refuses to call Lee Anderson’s comments Islamophobic” – Labour and the Lib Dems demand that Rishi Sunak uses the term ‘Islamaphobic’ to describe Lee Anderson’s remarks, according to the Telegraph.
• “Lee Anderson digs in as Rishi Sunak condemns Sadiq Khan comments” – Rishi Sunak has declared he is “living proof” that Britain is not a racist country, reports the Times.
• “The Islamist threat is all too real – the Lee Anderson row must not obscure this” – The foolish remarks by Ashfield MP Lee Anderson have helped Labour to distract from the real problem of antisemitism within the party’s ranks, says Tom Harris in the Telegraph.
• “Paul Scully MP defends saying parts of Tower Hamlets ‘no-go’ areas” – A former Tory Government minister claims that there are religious “no-go areas” in Birmingham and East London, according to the BBC.
• “Mass migration has shattered Britain’s identity” – ‘Islamism’ is a convenient way for the Conservatives to avoid reckoning with the results of their policies, says Tim Stanley in the Telegraph.
• “Labour’s Islamic blasphemy law” – Outlawing ‘Islamophobia’ would turn criticism of Islamic extremism into a crime, warns Tim Black in Spiked.
• “France expels Islamists while Britain appeases them” – Unlike in France, much of the British political class remains in a state of denial about the threat to British democracy from radical Islam, says Gavin Mortimer in the Spectator.
• “Biden in danger of losing White House over Gaza, say Left-wing Democrats” – Joe Biden risks handing Donald Trump the White House with his stance on Israel, progressive Democrats have warned ahead of a key vote in a battleground state, according to the Telegraph.
• “Australian Medical Association wants Covid vaccine sceptic off the ballot at upcoming election” – The Australian Medical Association has criticised the Liberal Party’s selection of a Covid vaccine critic as “untenable” ahead of the upcoming elections in Tasmania, says Rebekah Barnett on Substack.
• “Life after Lockdown: foreword by Rand Paul” – In Life after Lockdown, the Brownstone Institute’s Jeffrey Tucker paints a picture of the living hell that was the lockdown and outlines a roadmap for never again allowing it to happen again.
• “REPPARE (REevaluating the Pandemic Preparedness And REsponse agenda)” – The Brownstone Institute announces its support for the University of Leeds’s REPPARE initiative, which aims to clarify the evidence base upon which the largest public health programme in history was based.
• “How councils have let staff ‘work from beach’ in overseas countries” – U.K. councils, already with huge budget deficits, have let workers sign in from countries as far away as Australia and New Zealand, reveals the Mail.
• “Former PM Hipkins and Profs. Bloomfield and Baker should be held accountable for quoting statistics that have now been shown to be wrongly estimated” – On Bassett, Brash and Hide, Robert MacCulloch questions why COVID-19 remains a topic of concern in New Zealand, despite other countries moving forward.
• “One Health is a massive globalist grant-making scam” – The importance of One Health, or whether it truly exists, is a matter of debate, says Eugyppius on Substack. But it is certainly very stupid.
• “Sweden to join Nato as Hungary drops objection after arms deal” – Sweden will become the newest member of Nato after Hungary dropped its objections, ending a two-year blockade in the face of the growing threat from Russia, reports the Times.
• “Nato and EU members ‘considering sending troops to Ukraine’” – The Prime Minister of Slovakia claims that Nato and EU member states are preparing to deploy troops to Ukraine, says the Telegraph.
• “Navalny was close to being freed in prisoner swap between Russia and West – ally” – A close ally claims that Alexei Navalny was killed because he was close to being freed in a prisoner swap and Putin could not tolerate the thought of him being released, according to Reuters.
• “Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence chief claims Navalny died of natural causes” – Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence, says that Navalny died of a blood clot, reports Pravda.
• “Double good news for ‘Education Not Taxation’ campaign” – On Substack, Mr. Chips celebrates a recent parliamentary debate over Labour’s proposal to end VAT exemptions for independent schools and the growing petition from concerned parents.
• “Renewing academia” – In the Critic, Eric Kaufmann announces the launch of his Centre for Heterodox Social Science at Buckingham University, the only explicitly non progressive-dominated social science research centre in Britain.
• “Small manufacturers forced to answer 300 questions on Net Zero” – Small manufacturers are being forced to fill out 300-question spreadsheets on their eco-credentials as part of a Net Zero drive by big business, reports the Telegraph.
• “Buses take two hours to travel three miles in low-traffic neighbourhood” – A new LTN is causing such bad congestion that buses running along its boundary are taking up to two hours to travel less than three miles, says the Times.
• “How pensioners are being fined for going 22mph in 20mph limit zones” – Police forces are trying to fine pensioners for travelling just 2mph above the speed limit in 20mph zones, leaving them “absolutely terrified”, according to the Mail.
• “Protesting farmers spray Brussels police with liquid manure near EU’s base in a new display of power” – In a fresh show of force, farmers in Belgium sprayed officers with liquid manure and threw eggs and flares at them, as EU ministers met in search of ways to address the protesters’ concerns, reports AP.
• “John Kerry has unwittingly exposed the climate change wheeze” – Why shouldn’t other countries develop their own oil ad gas supplies when the U.S. has been busy doing just that? asks Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Chicago sues Big Oil for climate change as its weather has been nice and unremarkable for years” – On Substack, Igor Chudov reacts to the City of Chicago suing five major oil and gas firms, accusing them of causing damage to the city and its residents due to climate change.
• “Sky nature show boss reveals sounds are recorded in editing suite” – The team who worked on Sir David Attenborough’s new Sky’s new series, Secret World of Sound, says “‘many of the actual sounds of the animals come from existing sound libraries or recordings”, according to the Mail.
• “Problems of being young now branded mental health issues, critics claim” – A new report suggests that it is now more likely for a Brit in their 20s to be classified as too ill to work than one in their 40s, says the Mail.
• “Guardian writer boycotts newspaper for failing to tell readers ‘cat killer’ murderer was transgender” – A writer for the Guardian has boycotted the newspaper for failing to tell its readers that a cat killer who murdered a stranger was transgender, reports the Telegraph.
• “Children aged five are being asked if they want gender-neutral toilets” – Primary school pupils as young as five have been asked to give their thoughts and opinions on whether gender-neutral toilets should be installed in their schools, says the Mail.
• “Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth has become a running joke” – Sadiq Khan is using London’s public spaces to promote a dreary political agenda, writes Harry Phibbs in CapX.
• “Stonewall funded Church of England guide that said primary schoolchildren can be trans” – CofE guidance telling primary schools that children as young as five can be transgender was funded by Stonewall, reveals the Telegraph.
• “The Church of England should stop distracting itself with ‘racial justice’” – St. Paul would have had little time for identity politics, remarks Andrew Tettenborn in the Spectator.
• “Former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada claims males who identify as ‘women’ do not have male anatomy” – Canada’s former Deputy Prime Minister is under fire after repeatedly denying that biological males who identify as “women” have “male anatomy”, according to Reduxx.
• “The enduring ghastliness of Alastair Campbell” – The Rest Is Politics host Alastair Campbell has been a staple of British public life for decades. Why? asks Julie Burchill in the Spectator.
• “Google has drowned the internet in a sea of stupidity” – AI models are being fed a diet of low quality data – and Google is to blame, says Andrew Orlowski in the Telegraph.
• “Why are Americans becoming more stupid?” – America’s entire education system needs a revolution, argues Joel Kotkin in UnHerd.
• “Javier Milei’s Argentine revolution seems to be working” – Argentina’s President has made a lot of progress in a very short space of time, remarks Matthew Lynn in the Spectator.
• “‘While his words were clumsy… he expressed a sentiment that most of the British public will get behind’” – On TalkTV, Laura Dodsworth tells Mike Graham that the row over Lee Anderson’s comments “are a distraction from a much more serious issue”.

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