News Round-Up

• “Lords approve law that would block UAE Telegraph takeover” – Foreign state influence over British newspapers will be outlawed after the House of Lords voted to effectively block the UAE bid for the Telegraph, reports the Telegraph.
• “Robert Halfon quits as minister and MP in fresh blow to Sunak” – Rishi Sunak has suffered a fresh blow after Robert Halfon, the Skills Minister, quit his post and announced he will stand down as an MP at the next election, according to ITV News.
• “Can it get worse for the Tories? Oh yes it can” – Rebels will surely come gunning for Rishi Sunak in May, but they will only succeed in damaging the party further, predicts Daniel Finkelstein in the Times.
• “Israeli hostage reveals she was sexually assaulted while held by Hamas” –An Israeli hostage has revealed that she was sexually assaulted by a guard while she was held captive by Hamas, according to the Mail.
• “Britain is letting Hamas weaponise international law” – The U.K.’s most recent posturing over the Israel-Hamas conflict encourages the terrorists and is ultimately costing more lives, says Natasha Hausdorff in the Telegraph.
• “Trump urges Israel to ‘finish up’ its Gaza offensive and warns about global support fading” – Donald Trump says he would have responded the same way as Israel did after the October 7th attack but urged the country to “finish up” its offensive, warning about international support fading, according to AP.
• “This dishonest denial of a Covid jab link to cancer” – Shadowy forces preventing open discussion of Covid jab dangers are continuing to put countless lives at risk, says Neville Hodgkinson in TCW.
• “Policy watch: NHS waiting lists” – An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure; in the case of waiting, it’s worth five million less on the list, say Prof. Carl Heneghan and Dr. Tom Jefferson.
• “Satisfaction with the NHS falls to record low” – Satisfaction with the NHS has ­fallen to a historic low, with only a quarter of the British public believing that the health service is working, reports the Times.
• “Warning for men in cities: pollution might be ruining your sex life” – Research suggests that men living in heavily polluted cities find it harder to get erections, says the Mail.
• “Population decline will destroy the West as we know it” – The reality of a declining population is something we need to think about urgently, warns Dr. Stephen Davies in the Telegraph.
• “Churches risk undermining asylum system after Clapham attacker’s conversion, says Home Office” – Churches are jeopardising the asylum system, according to Home Office officials, following revelations that the Clapham chemical attacker was permitted to stay in the U.K. despite lying and failing a Christianity test, reports the Telegraph.
• “How can we avoid another Batley Grammar school blasphemy row?” – Dame Sara Khan, the Government’s adviser on social cohesion, has produced a powerful and brave report into incidents such as Batley Grammar, remarks Stephen Webb in the Spectator.
• “Welcome to Starmer’s Britain, where class hatred will ruin our private schools” – There’s no suggestion of adding VAT to university fees as well, but then that wouldn’t give Labour the satisfaction of smiting the rich, says Allison Pearson in the Telegraph.
• “Keir Starmer ‘snubbing special needs schools’ by ploughing ahead with VAT raid” – Keir Starmer has been accused of snubbing special needs schools amid fears that children with learning difficulties will have “no place to go” after Labour’s VAT raid, reports the Telegraph.
• “Braverman to headline NatCon with Orban” – In the Spectator, Steerpike casts his eyes over the line-up for the upcoming National Conservatism conference in Brussels.
• “Scotland’s pound shop Stasi” – The Scottish Government’s illiberal Hate Crime and Public Order Act isn’t even being enforced yet and already Police Scotland are being accused of behaving like a pound shop Stasi, writes Iain Macwhirter in the Spectator.
• “All Humza Yousaf’s Hate Crime Act will achieve is to stir up more hatred” – Whatever the intention behind Humza Yousaf’s new legislation, it is already looking completely unworkable and, quite honestly, mad, says Suzanne Moore in the Telegraph.
• “Humza Yousaf doesn’t understand his own Hate Crime Act” – Humza Yousaf cannot, or will not, accept that the incoming hate crime laws will have any adverse effects, writes Eliot Wilson in CapX.
• “Calls to restrict powers of Scottish police officers accused of inventing trans-hating parody of J.K. Rowling” – In an open letter, 200 gender-critical women demand that police officers who invented a trans-hating ‘parody’ of J.K. Rowling must be stripped of any role in enforcing new hate crime laws, reports the Telegraph.
• “Rugby legend calls for ‘Flower of Scotland’ to be ditched as sporting anthem” – Scottish rugby legend Jim Telfer has called on ‘Flower of Scotland’ to be ditched as the nation’s sporting anthem because of its anti-English “chippiness”, says the Scottish Express.
• “The suicide of Wales” – Dejection and despair now hang over the Valleys, writes Prof. Brad Evans in UnHerd.
• “‘It’s all much worse than I thought’” – The corporate media are all-in on government censorship, says Michael Shellenberger on the Public Substack.
• “Julian Assange extradition appeal: U.K. seeks assurances from the U.S.” – The High Court has ruled that the U.S. must give assurances that the Wikileaks founder will not face the death penalty, reports the BBC.
• “British farmers are treated with contempt by an ignorant elite” – Westminster has waged an all-out war on agriculture for years. It is no surprise that protests are now starting, says Jamie Blackett in the Telegraph.
• “Customers left with shock bills as four million smart meters ‘go dumb’” – Households are being hit with shock energy bills as four million smart meters are not working properly, reports the Telegraph.
• “You’re not being paranoid: smart meters are out to get you” – The constant changing of electricity tariffs – which Ofgem says could vary by the half-hour – threatens to upset budgets for millions of households, warns Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Green investment trusts face vote on future as shares slide” – Green energy investment trusts are undergoing investor scrutiny due to declining share prices, reports the FT.
• “Fantasy policy in Whitehall” – Civil servants are inventing wind farm output numbers to make Net Zero look cheaper, says Andrew Montford in Net Zero Watch.
• “Unusual cold plagues both Northern, Southern hemispheres… Arctic sea ice strengthens” – Despite the “devastating effects of climate change”, Saudi Arabia is looking to open its first ski resort by 2026, writes P. Gosselin in WUWT.
• “Climate change is coming for your wine, study warns” – A new study warns that 90% of wine-growing regions in Spain, Italy, Greece and southern California could lose their ability to grow grapes by 2100 due to climate change, reports the Mail.
• “Climate, the Movie: a review” – Martin Durkin’s important new film touches on questions about democracy and free speech as well as climate science, writes Dr. David Whitehouse in Net Zero Watch.
• “Inside the disturbing world of ‘femcels’” – In the Mail, Ellen Coughlan highlights an upcoming Channel Four documentary on the disturbing online community of ‘femcels’ – where women share fears about being alone forever and post shocking videos of themselves eating their own flesh.
• “Sarina Wiegman labels England kit ‘beautiful’ after Nike controversy” – Lionesses’ manager Sarina Wiegman has described the new England kit as “very beautiful” despite controversy over the altered version of the St. George’s cross on the collar, reports the Mail.
• “Cadbury accused of erasing Easter after selling ‘gesture eggs’” – A Cadbury shop has sparked a backlash from Christians who have accused it of “erasing” Easter by selling “gesture eggs”, according to the Mail.
• “Tribunal of gender-critical teacher collapses over panel member’s political and religious slurs” – A tribunal hearing for a teacher who says she was wrongly sacked for “misgendering” a pupil has collapsed after a member was accused of making anti-Christian comments and posting Tory slurs on social media, reports the Telegraph.
• “Spain’s ‘trans equality’ law is a predator’s charter” – Barely a year after Spain passed its ‘trans equality’ law, gender self-identification is wreaking havoc across the country, says Lauren Smith in Spiked.
• “The Left’s sense of humour bypass” – The likes of Diane Abbott, who can weaponise identity politics based on their colour, sexual proclivities or gender of the day, are incapable or brushing off anything, remarks Dr. Roger Watson in the New Conservative.
• “Nick Ferrari sparks furious debate with obesity claims” – Nick Ferrari has sparked a furious row after claiming it is “always”’ someone’s own fault if they’re overweight, according to the Mail.
• “Scientists turn to AI to make beer taste even better” – Researchers say they have harnessed the power of artificial intelligence to make beer taste even better, reports the Guardian.
• “Smartphones rewired childhood. Here’s how to fix it” – Phones have made kids sedentary, solitary, anxious and depressed. But, says Jonathan Haidt in the Free Press, we can reverse the damage.
• “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces Google founder’s ex-wife Nicole Shanahan as his running mate” – RFK Jr. has announced Nicole Shanahan, the rags-to-riches Silicon Valley lawyer, as his running mate for his 2024 presidential bid, according to the Hill.
• “Al Gore, please pick up the red emergency phone” – Shocking aerial footage has emerged, revealing the devastating effect of a hailstorm in Texas on thousands of acres of solar farms.

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