News Round-Up

• “John Swinney set to be next SNP leader and First Minister” – John Swinney is set to become SNP leader and First Minister as his potential rival Kate Forbes ruled herself out of the race, reports the Herald.
• “Kate Forbes has still won a significant victory” – for religion in public life” – Fraser Nelson in the Telegraph says that even though Kate Forbes isn’t going to stand for the leadership of the SNP, Swinney’s promise to include her in a future SNP Government is a major blow for tolerance of Christians in public life.
• “Ireland miraculously discovers its hard border” – Remember when parliamentary legislation to deem Rwanda a safe country was an assault on the rule of law? Well, now Dublin has decreed Rwanda a safe country so it can send asylum seekers back over the U.K. border, says Henry Hill in UnHerd.
• “Migration reality is biting in Ireland” – The Irish have been stitched up like a kipper by that most magnificent of things – reality, writes Rod Liddle in the Spectator.
• “Donald Trump claims immigration has left London ‘unrecognisable’” – Donald Trump claims mass immigration has rendered London “unrecognisable” after Europe “opened its doors to jihad”, according to the Mail.
• “Macron says European nationalists are ‘hidden Brexiteers’” – Emmanuel Macron says that Brexit has “impoverished” the U.K. and failed to solve the country’s immigration problems, reports the Telegraph.
• “Comedians outraged by stand-up’s death threat to ‘Zionist’ woman” – Comedian Dane Baptiste, who has appeared on a number of BBC shows, has sparked outrage for posting a threat on social media to kill a female “Zionist” comedian, says the Times.
• “Governments are beginning to resist ‘disinformation index’” – In the European Conservative, Frederick Attenborough takes aim at the Global Disinformation Index, which has blacklisted a number of conservative and ‘gender critical’ news publishing sites in the hope of demonetising them.
• “Teacher banned over misgendering pupil ‘had free speech right infringed’” – The High Court has been told that banning a Christian maths teacher for misgendering a pupil infringed on his freedom of speech and religion, according to the Standard.
• “Billy Bragg’s attack on JK Rowling highlights the idiocy of woke tribalism” – Instead of judging arguments on their merits, the cataclysmically dim find it much easier to judge the people making them instead, says Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
• “The desire to silence others is unhealthy” – On the Public Substack, Michael Shellenberger, in conversation with Glenn Loury, argues that defending the free speech of those you dislike is the sign of a healthy society.
• “The publisher and the police” – The case of Ernest Moret has drawn attention to a sinister abuse of power, writes Freddie Attenborough in the Critic.
• “Guardian to cut journalists’ jobs as it slides back into heavy losses” – The Guardian has launched a redundancy programme as the newspaper grapples with a sharp slowdown in advertising, reports the Telegraph.
• “CDC found evidence COVID-19 vaccines caused deaths” – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found evidence that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines caused multiple deaths before claiming that there was no evidence linking the vaccines to any deaths, reveals the Epoch Times.
• “The CDC lied; people died” – The CDC knew the Covid vaccines were killing people. But despite that, they lied to the public and told them they were safe, says Steve Kirsch on Substack.
• “Families of people who died after Covid vaccination abandon attempt to sue AstraZeneca” – Families whose loved ones died after taking the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine have abandoned attempts to sue the pharmaceutical giant after being told that they were likely to lose, reports the Telegraph.
• “Turbo cancer in New York” – Cancer cases are up by two-and-a-half times in New York State in 2023 compared to the 2017-2019 baseline, according to Steve Kirsch on Substack.
• “My parents and the sorry state of the NHS” – In the Spectator, Melissa Kite reflects on a recent hospital visit with her father, navigating the complexities of familial bonds and personal beliefs amid the backdrop of the healthcare system.
• “Are antidepressants making you asexual?” – Half of those on antidepressants experience sexual problems, writes Freya India in the Spectator.
• “Why Britain is building the world’s most expensive nuclear plant” – In the Spectator, Sam Dumitriu explains why Hinkley Point has been so expensive and how we can make nuclear power in Britain cheaper.
• “Forget Brexit – Net Zero is the real threat to the car industry” – Extreme green targets pose an existential threat to U.K. carmakers, says James Woudhuysen in Spiked.
• “The vegan meats that are worse for you than a McDonald’s quarter pounder” – The Telegraph reveals that many of the vegan alternatives to meat are worse for your heart than the junk food they’re designed to replace. 
• “Climate models, catastrophe scenarios and the imaginary climate crisis” – There is no compelling scientific evidence of a human-caused climate crisis or emergency, says Aivar Usk on the Freedom Research Substack.
• “BBC presenter says calling animals by their English names is ‘jarring’” – Springwatch presenter Gillian Burke says she prefers to refer to animals by their traditional Swahili names rather than those commonly used in the BBC’s nature programmes, reports the Mail.
• “Psychotherapy body rows with trans activists over conversion therapy memo” – The U.K. Council for Psychotherapy has raised doubts about banning ‘trans conversion therapy’, according to the Telegraph.
• “Breastfeeding charity bullying claims over call to let in trans women” – Britain’s oldest breastfeeding charity has called in regulators amid claims of “harassment and bullying” over a policy to include trans women in meetings, reports the Mail.
• “Gender identity and the Christian vision of humanity” – In his Psephizo blog, Ian Paul delves into a recent document by Catholic bishops addressing gender identity, highlighting its biblical grounding and contrasting its clarity with the stance of the Church of England.
• “Do many women want to be train drivers?” – In the Spectator, Douglas Murray reacts to news from the BBC that train drivers in the U.K. are – shock horror – “overwhelmingly middle-aged white men”.
• “Australia’s misinformation bill was seeded by the global censorship vanguard” – The Australian Government is seeking to exploit two recent knife attacks to relaunch its misinformation bill after it was put on ice late last year over free speech concerns, says Andrew Lowenthal on Substack.
• “Why Trumpists think the real conspiracy is RFK Jr.” – The more Trump and Biden criticise RFK, the more they risk elevating his credentials, writes Freddie Gray in the Spectator.
• “Gen Z is like a South Park episode unfolding right in front of our eyes” – In 2020, Gen Z kneeled in front of black people to prove that they’re “not racist”. In 2024, they’re kneeling to Allah to show that they’re “against genocide”.

If you have any tips for inclusion in the round-up, email us here.