News Round-Up

• “Trump is now certain to win the Presidency” – Kamala Harris can only offer Americans more of the same identity politics they tired of in 2016, writes Jake Wallis Simons in the Telegraph.
• “Biden’s arrogance in withdrawing so late has plunged Democrats into crisis” – With just 107 days before the Presidential election, no Democrat has ever stood down this close to polling day, notes Tony Diver in the Telegraph.
• “After Joe” – On Substack, Yascha Mounk breaks down what Kamala Harris needs to do to win if, as seems likely, she becomes the Democratic nominee.
• “Bye-Din” – On the Point Substack, Thomas Buckley analyses the fallout from Joe Biden’s decision not to seek re-election.
• “Third of Democrats wish Donald Trump had been killed” – In UnHerd, Eric Kaufmann reveals that about one-third of Democratic voters wished Donald Trump’s assassin had succeeded. Will that number decline, now that Kamala is the nominee?
• “Council tax bills hit £10,000 under second homes crackdown” – Councils stand to make millions by charging double council tax on second homes under new powers that have been in place since April, reports the Telegraph.
• “Reeves hints at inflation-busting pay rise for public workers” – Rachel Reeves has hinted at inflation-busting pay hikes for public workers, despite the Treasury’s warning of an £8 billion fiscal black hole, says the Times.
• “Andy Burnham’s £745 million skyscraper loans fail to provide affordable housing” – A string of luxury skyscrapers backed by Andy Burnham’s Manchester authority have failed to include any affordable flats despite the Labour Mayor’s pledge to tackle the city’s housing crisis, reveals the Telegraph.
• “More than 2,000 migrants on small boats have arrived in the U.K. in July” – British Border Vessels have intercepted hundreds of migrants crossing the Channel, including one group in a suspected stolen yacht, reports the Mail.
• “Labour goes to war on nail bars in fight against illegal immigration” – The Government has announced that nail bars and hand car washes will be targeted in a new illegal immigration blitz over the summer, says the Mail. 
• “MP’s allies ‘filmed and followed’ Labour rival before election” – According to new footage, two close associates of the new independent MP for Leicester South followed, filmed and confronted John Ashworth, his Labour opponent, before polling day, reports the Times.
• “Tories know why they lost, but who will pull them from the dustbin?” – Can a new leader stop the Tories being consigned to the scrapheap? wonder Caroline Wheeler and Harry Yorke in the Sunday Times.
• “The Tories and Reform need to expose Labour’s blatant Brexit backsliding” – Starmer’s plans to mirror EU laws and share its asylum burden were not in the Labour manifesto, says David Frost in the Telegraph.
• “Jeremy Hunt apologises for role in Covid ‘tragedy’ after inquiry blast” – Jeremy Hunt has apologised for failures in the U.K.’s Covid preparations after a scathing report by the pandemic inquiry hammered senior politicians, reports the Mail.
• “Moderna was more deadly than Pfizer” – On Substack, Dr. Clare Craig breaks down the Czech data that reveals Moderna’s Covid vaccine may have increased all-cause mortality by over 50%.
• “VAT on private school fees expected as soon as January” – The parents of children at private schools face having to pay VAT on fees as soon as January – nine months earlier than forecast, reports the Mail.
• “English schools to phase out ‘cruel’ behaviour rules as Labour plans major education changes” – Good behaviour in schools looks set to be phased out by the Labour Government, says the Guardian.
• “Backlash over Government plans to soften measures tackling bad school behaviour” – Britain’s ‘strictest headteacher’ has slammed Labour’s plans to soften measures that are designed to tackle bad behaviour in classrooms, reports the Mail.
• “It’s time to be blunt: too many young people have worthless degrees” – The Telegraph’s Zoe Strimpel would be far happier if her child chose to become a plumber or an electrician than if they pursued a degree in politics.
• “High gear: the growth economy” – Solving Britain’s drug problem is essential to breaking the power of organised crime and making the British people secure once more, says the Pimlico Journal on Substack.
• “East German intelligence agency proposes to classify the Thüringian AfD as ‘militant and aggressive’, inching closer to a state-level ban of the party” – Without fully intending to, authorities in Thüringen, Germany, are inching closer to a state-level ban of Alternative für Deutschland, says Eugyppius on Substack.
• “The insanity of Net Zero has been exposed – and by the Greens, no less” – Green party leader Adrian Ramsay’s opposition to pylons needed for wind farms exposes his hypocrisy, and the madness of Net Zero, writes Zoe Strimpel in the Telegraph.
• “England built one wind turbine on land last year – 9,000 to go” – Labour has lifted David Cameron’s effective ban so it can double capacity by 2030, but how will it work? The Sunday Times’s Ben Spencer asked the only men to manage it in 2023.
• “Police hunt for ‘hate crime’ suspect after Pride flags vandalised” – The Metropolitan Police is appealing for witnesses after three Pride flags were vandalised in a ‘hate crime’ incident, according to GB News.
• “Could we really be seeing the end of cinema’s woke dogma era?” – Rather than kowtowing to one group, Hollywood’s studios are now going out of their way not to alienate anybody, says Robbie Collin in the Telegraph.
• “Gangsters in jails brag they’ve paid female prisoner officers for sex” – Imprisoned gangsters have claimed they paid female prison officers up to £2,000 for sex in their prison cells, reports the Mail.
• “How Boeing ‘shorted safety’ to chase profits – and cost hundreds their lives” – In the Telegraph, Christopher Jasper traces Boeing’s cultural shift from engineering excellence to profit prioritisation, resulting in fatal crashes.
• “Ghost cities, fleeing millionaires: China’s rudderless economy” – President Xi’s obsession with security and party control is hobbling tech companies and scaring off the foreign investment the country so badly needs, says Ian Williams in the Sunday Times.
• “‘What can be, unburdened by what has been’” – A video of Kamala Harris trotting out her catchphrase reminds Democrats of what they can look forward to now that Joe Biden has finally stepped down from the 2024 Presidential race.

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