News Round-Up

• “Brazil suspends X after fight with Elon Musk” – Brazil has suspended X after a judge claims it promotes extreme rightwing content, reports the Telegraph.
• “Musk slams Brazil judge over Starlink frozen accounts, X shutdown threat” – Elon Musk’s Starlink says that Brazil’s top judge has issued an order that “freezes” the internet satellite business’ finances in the country and prevents it from conducting financial transactions, according to Axios.
• “Freedom is on a knife’s edge worldwide, as Brazil’s ban of X shows” – Are we headed towards 1984, asks Michael Shellenberger on his Substack.
• “Switzerland: The End of Free Speech” – Ordinary citizens face hefty fines and jail for “wrongthink”, says Nor Bin Laden on her Substack.
• “The global war on free speech online” – On the Spiked podcast, Luke Gittos, Tom Slater and Fraser Myers discuss the arrest of Pavel Durov, Mark Zuckerberg’s censorship mea culpa, the return of Islamist terror in Europe and Labour’s outdoor smoking ban.
• “The Kamala interview was a missed opportunity” – Kamala Harris’s first major TV interview since she became the Democratic presidential candidate was disappointing, says Amber Duke in the Spectator.
• “Flip-flopping Kamala’s primetime humiliation” – As president, Harris would have to deal with the world’s most powerful dictators, like Russia ‘s Putin. Yet she couldn’t face a middling broadcast journalist like CNN’s Dana Bash without being babysat by Tim Walz, says Andrew Neil in the Mail.
• “The rise and stall of Kamala Harris” – In the Weekly Dish, Andrew Sullivan gives his verdict on Kamala Harris.
• “Who will win the 2024 US election? Polls and predictions” – The Times rounds up the latest opinion polls in the US presidential election.
• “Harris v Trump is Barbenheimer Mark 2!” – I’ve seen this movie before, says Sir Niall Fergusson in the Mail. Or rather, both movies. On one side, it’s: ‘I’m a Barbie girl in a Barbie world.’ On the other, it’s a ‘destroyer of worlds’. Except now it’s the 2024 presidential election.
• “Angela Rayner is spotted raving in a DJ booth on party island Ibiza” – The Deputy Prime Minister was shown dancing on the Spanish party island in a video posted by actress Denise van Outen, reports the Mail.
• “Cronyism investigation launched into Labour civil service jobs” – A Whitehall Watchdog is going to review Labour’s unusual public appointments in the aftermath of the party’s election victory, says the Telegraph.
• “Swathes of green belt land could be used for building new homes” – Classifying areas as being part of the ‘grey belt’ would make them available for development under Labour plans, according to the Times.
• “Ed Miliband is putting Britain’s future in the hands of eco-fanatics” – No one voted for anti-growth, anti-capitalist green groups to use lawfare to control our economic fate, says Matthew Lynn in the Telegraph.
• “Why Labour’s four-day week plan could backfire” – Employees will have the right to ask their employers to compress their hours into four days a week rather than five, reports Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Gail’s chairman warns four-day week would strangle businesses” – Luke Johnson condemns Labour’s plans for a four-day week, while a Tory MP says it is “as mad a way to run an economy as a three-wheeled car”, reports the Mail.
• “It’s good news for us, say migrants after Rwanda threat lifts” – Migrants in Dunkirk have welcomed the end of the last government’s Rwanda policy and are now more determined than ever to cross the Channel, according to the Times.
• “Yvette Cooper is now the most dangerous woman in Britain” – If only the current Home Secretary had lost her seat to a Reform U.K. challenger, the country would have been spared her disastrous policies, says Isabel Oakeshott in the Telegraph.
• “Tube drivers’ union threatens strike after rejecting £70,000 pay offer” – Industrial action, if train drivers vote for it, could take place over the October half term and Halloween, reports the Telegraph.
• “Labour’s age of miracles” – In the Spectator, Douglas Murray marvels at how little fuss Rachel Reeves’s decision to abolish the pensioners’ winter fuel allowance has caused. Just imagine the uproar if a Tory Chancellor had done it!
• “Reeves’s tax raid on the rich has already flopped” – A near-certain increase in the capital gains levy will raise far less than the Chancellor is hoping for, says Matthew Lynn in the Telegraph.
• “Labour is redoubling on the Tories’ worst mistakes – now is the chance to change course” – The policies of both parties on immigration, Net Zero and the economy have failed, says Charles Moore in the Telegraph. This is an opportunity for an agile opposition.
• “Keir Starmer ‘has a problem with women’, say Tories after No10 Thatcher portrait removed” – The Prime Minister faces criticism over his “petty-minded” removal of Margaret Thatcher’s portrait from a room in Downing Street, says the Telegraph.
• “Priti Patel mocks Starmer for removing Thatcher portrait” – The Tory leadership contender says Sir Keir’s priorities “are not on serving the country” but “tinkering at the margins” at her campaign launch yesterday, reports the Telegraph.
• “I bet Maggie’s portrait is glad to be gone” – In his Mail column, Boris Johnson reminds his readers that six months ago Sir Keir was praising Margaret Thatcher.
• “Keir Starmer has a new Iron Lady: her name is Sue Gray” – William Atkinson in the Telegraph predicts it won’t be long before Sir Keir defenestrates Sue Gray.
• “The useless Conservatives are betraying the British public once again” – As Labour wreaks havoc on the economy, the official Opposition has been twiddling its thumbs, says Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.
• “The case against Lucy Letby” – Ignore the armchair detectives – there is overwhelming evidence that she murdered babies in her care, says Christopher Snowdon in Spiked.
• “Lucy Letby and the problem with statistics” – First Fred West, now Lucy Letby. At this rate, it won’t be long before Herefordshire has produced more serial killers than it has miles of dual carriageway, says Rory Sutherland in the Spectator.
• “Charity allows men identifying as women to apply for ‘women-only’ role” – A domestic abuse charity has been criticised for encouraging “men who identify as women” to apply for a senior female-only post, reports the Mail.
• “German supermarket chain takes brave stand against the colour blue in latest effort to stamp out fascism and preserve our democracy” – In Germany, all political parties have a colour and blue is now being banned because it’s associated with the AfD, says Eugyppius on his Substack.
• “Racism or scam? Groups of Travellers are behaving bizarrely in pubs” – Guy Adams in the Mail investigates a new phenomenon whereby Travellers are behaving bizarrely in pubs, then filming the landlord refusing to serve them so they can sue him for discrimination.
• “Gail’s boss breaks silence in gentrification row” – Gail’s Chief Executive Tom Molnar disputes that the chain is ruining high streets, telling the Mail that new branches are welcome 99% of the time.
• “If I only had a brain!” – In a brilliant AI mash up based on The Wizard of Oz, Sir Keir Starmer tells Angela Rainer just how good life would be if he only had a brain.

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