News Round-Up

• “Southport stabbing suspect pleads not guilty to killing three children” – Axel Rudakubana, charged with murdering three girls in a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, appeared via videolink at Liverpool Crown Court, where not guilty pleas were entered on his behalf, reports the Mail.
• “Starmer facing fresh cronyism row as he prepares to appoint new peers” – Keir Starmer faces a fresh cronyism row as he prepares to appoint 30 new Labour peers this week – including his former Chief of Staff Sue Gray, according to the Mail.
• “Reeves misses deadline to answer questions over ‘embellished’ CV” – Rachel Reeves appears to have broken her own Government’s guidance by ignoring questions about whether she lied on her CV, reports Pieter Snepvangers in the Telegraph.
• “Budget is forcing us to close shops, warns high street retailer” – High street retailer Shoe Zone says it is shutting shops because of the Budget, after tax rises and an increase to the minimum wage made some locations “unviable”, says GB News.
• “Factories suffer worst output since Covid as Budget triggers ‘widespread’ cancellations” – Britain’s factories slashed output at the fastest pace since the first Covid lockdown as Rachel Reeves’s Budget was blamed for triggering a wave of project cancellations, reports the Telegraph.
• “Labour’s Truss-scale shock over Bond yields” – In This is Money, Alex Brummer highlights Labour’s failure to stabilise the U.K.’s bond yields, which have soared to their highest level in 34 years.
• “Police ‘failed to spot rise of far-Right violence before riots’” – A new report claims that police failed to realise the significance of a series of events leading up to the summer riots, reports the Mail.
• “Jews are the victims of institutional police racism” – In the New Conservative, Joe Baron reveals how woke policing in Britain has left Jewish communities feeling vulnerable and betrayed.
• “The public sector spends millions on translation but the true cost is incalculable” – In the Telegraph, Dia Chakravarty exposes the staggering £27 million spent by the Department for Work and Pensions on translation services.
• “Kim Leadbeater has stacked the deck on assisted dying” – A rushed, unscrutinised Assisted Dying Bill will have catastrophic consequences when its safeguards inevitably fail, says Madeline Grant in the Telegraph.
• “What Nigel Farage gets wrong about ‘two-tier justice’” – In the Spectator, Andrew Tettenborn argues that Nigel Farage’s ‘two-tier justice’ complaint misses the mark, claiming that a milkshake in the face hardly warrants heavy-handed legal treatment or special privileges for politicians.
• “The real reason people don’t like Elon Musk funding Reform” – In the Spectator, Freddy Gray blasts the outrage over Elon Musk funding Reform, pointing out that the real threat to British politics is the homegrown elite already pulling the strings.
• “Reform would use Musk millions to recruit young army of voters” – Reform’s Richard Tice says that a large donation from the world’s richest man would be put to use in encouraging young people to sign up to vote, according to the Telegraph.
• “Labour considers law change as Elon Musk weighs Reform U.K. donation” – Labour is considering plans to limit political donations from companies owned by foreigners as Elon Musk is about to give a significant sum to Reform U.K., reports the Mail.
• “Elon Musk net worth more than Bezos and Zuckerberg combined” – According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Elon Musk’s estimated net worth has leapt to $486 billion (£383 billion), reports LBC.
• “Tories fight Reform for Musk’s millions to defeat ‘woke mind virus’” – Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith says Elon Musk should donate $100 million to the Conservatives, not Reform, if he truly wants to defeat the “woke mind virus”, according to the Mail.
• “Labour lied to pensioners – and got away with it. No wonder people loathe politicians” – The Government’s U-turn betrayal of the Waspi women reveals just how deceptive Starmer’s promises in pursuit of power really were, says Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
• “The Waspi women don’t deserve compensation” – We are being invited to believe that tens of thousands of women drew up detailed plans for their retirement – all now undermined – without actually bothering to find out at what age they would retire, writes Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “New Ofcom guidance will stifle free speech online” – In UnHerd, Timandra Harkness warns that Ofcom’s new Online Safety Act guidelines will strangle free speech online, pushing tech giants to over-censor and silencing debate in the name of “safety”.
• “The Left are losing because they are hated, not because of ‘dark money’” – Just name the election or referendum that turned out badly for progressives and they will whisk out a list of excuses for their failure, says Tom Harris in the Telegraph.
• “It is not the mission of the Church or the Museum to give away our national treasure to foreigners” – The British Museum and the CofE have been behaving in ways that are against their own interests, immune from public scrutiny and damaging to the nation, writes Robert Tombs in the Telegraph.
• “Miliband’s coal ban eclipsed by surging global demand” – Demand for coal is continuing to grow as efforts to cut consumption by Britain and other wealthy nations are eclipsed by growth in China and India, reports the Telegraph.
• “Miliband’s Net Zero grid upgrade means household charges will almost double” – Household charges for the upkeep of Britain’s power transmission grid are on course to double this decade as part of a £35 billion upgrade to prepare for Net Zero, reports the Telegraph.
• “Labour council to dim street lights to save money despite spending £25 million on eco initiatives” – A cash-strapped Labour council plans to dim street lights in a bid to reduce energy bills, despite spending £25 million on eco-friendly initiatives, says GB News.
• “The vegan wind-farm owner who wants to shape Starmer’s politics” – Concerns have been raised about the outspoken green energy tycoon Dale Vince – one of the Labour party’s biggest donors, writes Jim Norton in the Telegraph.
• “Trump’s rejection of Net Zero will leave the U.K. in the dust” – As America embraces energy abundance, Britain is stumbling into a new dark age of energy insecurity, warns Peter McCusker in Spiked.
• “The energy transition that couldn’t” – In Project Syndicate, Richard Haass and Carolyn Kissane argue that replacing fossil fuels with renewables is an idea whose time has passed.
• “Why cats are the new pigs – and could spark the next pandemic” – Scientists have dubbed cats a “mixing vessel”” that could form a “bridge” for the deadly H5N1 virus, according to the Daily Star.
• “Gavin Newsom declares state of emergency over California bird flu outbreak” – California Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency after an H5N1 outbreak among dairy cows on Southern California farms, reports Fox News.
• “Humza Yousaf’s top five worst Covid WhatsApps” – In the Spectator, Steerpike uncovers Humza Yousaf’s most cringeworthy Covid WhatsApps.
• “The negative efficacy of COVID-19 mRNA injections has been demonstrated” – Four studies show that vaccinated individuals face a higher risk of infection than the unvaccinated, says Nicolas Hulscher on the Courageous Discourse Substack.
• “Pfizer’s own study shows their Covid vaccines increase your risk of serious adverse events (up to 71% higher)” – On Substack, Steve Kirsch shines a spotlight on Pfizer’s secret study, exposing alarming risks of adverse events from their Covid vaccine – risks they’d rather you never saw.
• “Labour will let trans people use some single sex spaces” – Labour has been accused of breaking its pledge to protect female-only spaces by allowing both public and private bodies to admit men who claim to be women, reports the Telegraph.
• “Millionaire who changed gender three times sues NHS after ‘botched’ op” – A multimillionaire transwoman who has changed gender three times is suing the NHS after a “botched” operation which left her in “constant pain”, says the Mail.
• “Inside the battle to ban puberty blockers” – In Spiked, Malcolm Clark reveals how an unlikely grassroots coalition took on the might of the LGBT lobby – and won.
• “‘I was fired for social media posts about being a good Christian wife’” – In the Mail, Gozen Soydag, who was fired from a Catholic school for posting about traditional Christian values, argues that in today’s world, inclusion means everything – except faith.
• “Study blames ‘sexism’ for causing dementia in women” – U.S. researchers, reviewing data from over 21,000 people, say inequality in access to resources and power – driven by “social policies and societal norms” – is fuelling dementia rate disparities, according to the Mail.
• “Judith Butler is no longer a feminist” – Judith Butler has regressed to the angry adolescent stage of calling any middle-aged woman who disagrees with her a fascist, says Victoria Smith in UnHerd.
• “Don’t blame the sexual revolution for Lily Phillips’s gross stunt” – The rise of OnlyFans speaks to a pervasive fear of intimacy, not to 1960s-style liberation, writes Brendan O’Neill in Spiked.
• “Welcome to the BBC’s post-Lineker world – where women rule the roost” – Keely Hodgkinson’s triumph at Sports Personality of the Year marked four in a row for female sports stars, whose dominance was reflected in the presenting line-up, says Jim White in the Telegraph.
• “Grace Dent revealed as Gregg Wallace’s MasterChef replacement” – Gregg Wallace will be replaced by restaurant critic Grace Dent in the next series of the BBC’s Celebrity MasterChef, reports Sky News.
• “Crystal Mangum: the woman who lied for 18 years about being raped by three Duke university lacrosse players” – Former stripper and current murder convict Crystal Mangum has confessed to lying about being raped by three Duke lacrosse players, according to Fox News.
• “Duke lacrosse rape hoax accuser’s confession teaches a lesson the Left won’t learn” – The Left just can’t seem to stop hitching its narrative to bogus stories, says the NY Post.
• “Tate brothers’ £2 million can be seized by police over unpaid tax” – Police have been granted permission to seize £2 million from Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan in unpaid tax, reports GB News.
• “Trudeau’s resignation speech” – On X, an AI-generated Justin Trudeau bids farewell to the Canadian people.

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