News Round-Up
- “Let’s celebrate: Donald Trump is vaccinating the West against the woke mind virus” – Whether it’s gender ideology or border control, the President has torn through years of bizarre, divisive groupthink in a matter of weeks, writes Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.
- “DOGE sends firing notice to 9,400 USAID employees” – President Donald Trump’s administration will fire about 9,400 workers from USAID, deeming only 611 as essential employees and bringing about the near total elimination of the government agency, says the Mail.
- “America has seen sense on aid. When will we?” – The new administration in Washington has startled its critics by issuing a blizzard of Executive Orders, including one aimed at USAID. When we will cut foreign aid? asks Douglas Murray in the Spectator.
- “Why pervasive media propaganda is ultimately self-defeating and destructive to the political class that wields it” – On his Substack, Eugyppius reflects on the unfolding USAID scandal and concludes that the funding of woke propaganda by the US Government in Germany and elsewhere is counterproductive.
- “Trump’s ‘Thomas Cromwell’: How a little-known fixer is seizing control of the US Government” – The architect of Project 2025 has been confirmed as budget chief – securing his position at the heart of the White House, reports the Telegraph.
- “Inside Republican’s plan to end the ‘untouchable Deep State’” – A Republican is working to end the ‘deep state’ with a new law that would make it easier for Donald Trump to fire high-level officials who undermine his policies, says the Mail.
- “DOGE lieutenant’s X-rated online pseudonym leaves CNN hosts flummoxed” – One of Elon Musk’s DOGE staffers left CNN hosts shocked by his X-rated online pseudonyms as another resigns over racist digital footprint, according to the Mail.
- “Elon Musk vows revenge on college staffer who threatened his nerd army” – Elon Musk has issued a blunt response to his fans who have called for Boston University to be defunded, after an employee apparently threatened six of his DOGE staffers, reports the Mail.
- “Wealthy Hampton residents hold panicked over nannies being deported” – The residents of East Hampton, one of America’s wealthiest small towns, held a town meeting worried that their hired help would face expulsion from the US as part of Donald Trump’s mass deportation program, says the Mail.
- “What sort of parent believes their toddler is trans?” – Liberals who claim that a two-year-old can question their gender are only stirring further support for Donald Trump’s transition ban, writes Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
- “J.K. Rowling says the left to blame for Trump’s transgender sports ban” – The Harry Potter author has taken to X to express her approval of Trump’s plans to ensure no transgender athletes participate in women’s sports at 2028 Olympics, reports the Mail.
- “US States with legislative efforts to ban mRNA injections as of February 6th 2025” – The number of US states banning mRNA vaccines is growing and will soon reach critical mass, writes Peter McCullough on his Substack.
- “Andrew Bailey lays bare the damage of Reeves’ broken promises” – The Governor of the the Bank of England has warned the Government about the devastating impact of the Chancellor’s economic philosophy, according to the Telegraph.
- “Farage calls for attorney-general to be fired over Chagos deal” – The Reform UK leader says Lord Hermer is partly responsible for “the betrayal of our national interest”
- “Ministers will only put up with looking like schmucks for defending Starmer’s old chum for so long…” – In the Mail, Quentin Letts compares Lord Hermer to Frank Spencer from Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em, a gaff-prone idiot who is making life more and more difficult for Labour ministers.
- “Ed Miliband’s growth U-turn” – Another day, another Labour U-turn. Ed Miliband has done a reverse ferret on his opposition to a third runway at Heathrow, reports the Spectator’s Steerpike.
- “Billpayers face £800 hit from Miliband’s carbon capture gamble” – MPs warn have warned about the “significant” impact on household costs of Milliband’s push of “unproven” technology, says the Telegraph.
- “The assisted dying bill is becoming a car crash” – Kim Leadbeater has described her assisted suicide bill as “potentially one of the most important changes in legislation that we will ever see”. And one of the most catastrophic, says Dan Hitchens in the Spectator.
- “More families will miss out on first choice school under reforms” – The Government is planning to reduce the admissions number of England’s most successful schools in an effort to force middle class parents to send their children to under-performing schools with empty places, according to the Telegraph.
- “Mrs Thatcher showed the way – when the centre-Right is optimistic it wins” – In the Telegraph, John Howard, the former Australian Prime Minister, urges the Conservative Party to avoid timidity and emulate their greatest leader since Churchill.
- “Could a Tory/Reform pact be looming?” – In the Spectator, Katy Balls says Reform UK and the Conservatives are inching closer to an electoral pact ahead of the next General Election.
- “Tomorrow belongs to the AfD” – Germany’s establishment parties are gradually facing reality and resigning themselves to working with the AfD, writes Lisa Haseldine in the Spectator.
- “‘Our side is significantly sexier’: an interview with Germany’s most controversial politician – Elisabeth Dampier interviews Maximilian Krah in the Spectator.
- “Kyiv ‘is very near to really ending war by a just and lasting peace’” – A top Ukrainian official has claimed that the country is “very near to really ending this war by a just and lasting peace”, reports the Mail.
- “Can Hamas ever be defeated?” – In the Spectator, Jonathan Sacerdoti shares his thoughts on how to defeat Hamas once and for all.
- “The depravity of the Palestine marchers is now undeniable” – While the Israelis were still being butchered by terrorists on October 7th, the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign was already planning a protest, says Danny Cohen in the Telegraph.
- “Lego isn’t homophobic” – In the Spectator, Patrick West mounts a heroic defence of Lego, arguing it’s not “homophobic”, as an exhibition at the Science Museum has claimed.
- “Greatest President ever!” – Elon Musk celebrates Trump’s pledge to pass an Executive Order next week lifting the ban on plastic straws.
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Net Zero is Destruction of Nature – latest leaflet to print at home and deliver to neighbours or forward to your bad MP & friends online. Start a local campaign. Deliver 100 leaflets a week (5200 a year). Over 300 leaflet ideas on the link on the leaflet.
“DOGE lieutenant’s X-rated online pseudonym leaves CNN hosts flummoxed”
I don’t know which bit to be more outraged about. ‘Big’ or ‘Balls’. Hardly ‘X-Rated’.
CNN are utterly desperate to show they have some moral superiority, but instead show themselves as spiteful children.
“Could a Tory/Reform pact be looming?”
On the subject of Balls, here’s Katy’s latest effort which looks depressingly like all her other efforts. Does her Dad dictate these and have her type them up.?
Is she Ed,s daughter ? If so that means her mom is Yvette Cooper , dear me , what genetic hotch potch ! Anyway we don’t need more Tory / Reform love bombs , Farage ceded to Bojoke last time & look where that got us , “Balls” with bells on, to the Tory’s, they enabled the mess we are in !!
I was told last December by a reasonably placed Reform staffer that the party had ruled out ANY deals with ANY other party. If Reform goes back on this I will quit and I know plenty of others with the same views.
Tells you a lot that Speccie under Gove would employ such a person as Yvette Cooper’s and Ed Ball’s daughter.
Shame it’s not true. The Balls have 2 daughters and 1 son – 1 daughter is a Cooper the other 2 are Balls
“Greatest President ever!”
Paper straws, and paper cup lids are disgusting. In addition the cup lids are made from fibrous sugar cane residue, processed and shipped from the Caribbean and South America in dirty great big diesel ships. Sustainable, no. Recyclable, no. But they are ‘compostable’, assuming that they are kept and separated from the recycling by someone who cares.
“Ed Miliband’s growth U-turn”
…which now confirms that there is no climate emergency. Emergencies take priority, do they not.?. Now, quite rightly, its economic growth taking the focus, although Labour don’t understand what it is, never mind how to deliver it.
Time to dismantle the rest of the nett zero nonsense. If you told me 20 years ago that we would be considering spending billions to bury air, (not all air, just hurty air), and we’d be fining our car producers for making their product, I would have laughed.
“The assisted dying bill is becoming a car crash”
Bad law, poorly thought through and rushed through the house. What could we possibly expect as an outcome?
The irony of this is that it was given the Rantzen treatment. She got herself all up in arms because she had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer (lung? Not sure) and demanded, in only the way she can, to have the right to die at the time of her choosing. Then, miracles of miracles, there was a treatment which, while not ever being a cure, could possibly delay things. And it has. How long is it now? Couple of years? She’s gone a bit quiet since, I’ve noticed.
Did her tumour resemble a potato with a face on it , That’s Life !
Has she already made preparations for when the Act takes effect.
Perhaps she’ll record the “event” for posterity [and ego]. It would be interesting if it turned out to be unpleasant and lengthy.
DOGE sends firing notice to 9,400 USAID employees
The British government has roughly half that number of foreign aid staff, which, itself, tells a tale, given the respective size of those two countries foreign aid budgets.
So that is about 3,300 salaries, roughly £100 million of savings for starters, that this government could make immediately….a drop in the ocean until you consider the amount of damage these individuals were doing:
‘DFID’s decision to focus on climate change created a sound basis for a new development partnership’
‘in countries where it set out to transition to a new development partnership, DFID did not articulate clearly, either for its own planning purposes or to national stakeholders, what that new partnership would consist of and how it might be developed.’
However, we also found significant management weaknesses in all seven cases.
we saw little evidence of DFID actively passing on knowledge or relationships to other departments
Due to the limited central support or guidance and the absence of structured learning processes, we have given DFID a red rating for learning, our lowest rating. DFID’s failure to learn from past experience is a significant factor in its underperformance’
Independent Commission for Aid Impact
You don’t seriously think those people work for only £30k a piece?! Including pensions I suggest double it, plus office space (even if unused though WFH) and travel costs to all sorts of warm places.
A question needs to be put to HMG about how much of the UK Ais budget goes onleft wing political groups. The evidence from USAID is they spend a lot on it and I doubt our civil servants (double sic) would do less.
Plus lots of “expenses”.
How right you are! And of course it would be an annual saving amounting to £.5bn at least by the time this appalling government is dismissed.
Kyiv ‘is very near to really ending war by a just and lasting peace ‘…countermeasures against Russian long-range bombs……air defense units have successfully shot down guided bombs using ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns…..Rheinmetall’s Skyguard Air Defence, which integrates multiple 35mm GDF007 guns with advanced targeting and control systems.’ Brilliant! Who knew that air defence weapons could work for air defence? Not the British Army, for sure. They never had much and what they had in the Falklands, for example, didn’t really work….something to do with hills and not liking being transported cross country…the Royal Artillery not bothering to practice much about that sort of thing…..muddy boots….the horror….! Fragile drones are just as vulnerable to ground fire as were the biplanes used for ground attack in 1918. Meanwhile ‘Russia lost $15 billion due to the weakening of the yuan by a certain percentage. Something like this is likely to happen again. Kellogg, speaking of 100 days, points out that negotiators are hiding a lot of trump cards. When you set a date, it means that you are speaking from a position of strength…….one of the quick mechanisms that can be applied is to depreciate the yuan by 10-15%, which will lead to the… Read more »
‘On the evening of Saturday, February 1, Russian troops struck a boarding school in Sudzha, completely destroying the building and killing at least four people, with many others wounded. At the time of the attack, around a hundred civilians were inside when a bomb, dropped from a Russian aircraft, tore through the structure….(while) evacuat(ing) survivors, Russian forces launched a second airstrike, seemingly intent on eliminating any remaining witnesses.
Despite clear evidence of Russia’s actions, Kremlin-controlled propaganda outlets quickly moved to spread disinformation…..However TRO Media published video footage revealing first hand testimonies, in which rescued civilians confirmed that the strike came from a Russian plane. One survivor, speaking to a relative over the phone, made it clear: “It was a Russian aircraft……I want to thank the soldiers… They carried out the evacuation…When I return to Russia, I will only tell the truth,”
In other news:
‘Russia’s unexpected reliance on donkeys and horses for frontline logistics has sparked widespread discussion, even prompting official commentary. The sight of these animals being used to transport supplies raises questions—whether this reflects a shortage of vehicles or an attempt to navigate terrain inaccessible to conventional transport.
In Russia itself, the revelation about the “second strongest army in the world” resorting to such methods nearly three years into what was supposed to be a swift operation has gained significant traction. Notably, these pack animals were supplied not by volunteers but through official military channels, forcing state-controlled media to address the issue.
Aiding in this explanation was retired Lieutenant General Viktor Sobolev, a Communist Party lawmaker and former commander of the 58th Army.
“There are serious difficulties in supplying units, especially assault groups, with ammunition, military equipment, and food. If donkeys, horses, or other means are used to deliver these supplies to the front, it’s perfectly normal,”
Donkeys led by….errrr….donkeys, you might say…..
I’m sorry but as well as finding war appalling and disgusting and insane, I find reporting on war very boring.
As the man said: ‘You may not be interested in war but war is interested in you’
Sir Richard Dearlove:
‘It is time “to face up to the fact” that Russia thinks it is in a state of war with the whole of the continent, and has already carried out “very aggressive moves” on certain European countries.’
‘A murder inquiry was launched after Dawn Sturgess, 44, died from Novichok poisoning in Salisbury Hospital on 8 July 2018.
The mother-of-three was fatally poisoned after spraying herself with the contents of a perfume bottle which contained a “significant amount” of the nerve agent. The inquiry heard there was enough Novichok to “kill thousands”.’
Meanwhile, did i ever mention that foxes are beautiful and endearing creatures?🤔 *Sound on*
https://x.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1885192632525074849
You will find no greater fan of foxes than myself, in common with many who hunt.
I am fortunate to hear them most nights at the moment.
That is why we do not like them being shot and wounded, left to die an unspeakable death, or wandering the streets of our towns suffering from mange.
Mange is spread between foxes through contact. Thus foxes in urban areas, being more densely populated are more likely to suffer from it than rural foxes.
Sick, injured foxes are quickly caught and mercifully killed, instantaneously, by hounds. Fit, healthy foxes are well capable of evading hounds; nature at its very best.
I am not a fan, though, of foxes killing pets or livestock. Lambs killed by foxes are not killed quickly.
This is what now happens in the absence of foxhunting:
‘The lambs, all aged between seven days and two weeks old, had been mauled to death, left to die in fields or dragged away.’
A farmer has shot dead 10 foxes after 33 lambs were mauled to death in the “worst sheep attack” he has suffered in more than 45 years of farming.’
https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/sheep-farmer-shoots-dead-10-foxes-losing-33-lambs
Onr of the memorable moments of my university years was sitting in a Caernervon cafe one miserable rainy evening when a guy came in with a wriggling rucksack. He opened it up to reveal three orphaned foxcubs that he had rescued. They had the softest fur you could imagine and were utterly captivating.
From 2014 onwards it was obvious that the CIA was going to try to create the conditions for war, and so its no great surprise. I liken it to a poorly written and directed detective thriller where you have worked out the end by half way through. In this case, the end could have been played out two years ago with little difference other than 100,000’s of young lives.
Seconded, although if the Yanks had not caused trouble in the first place all of the war making and deaths could have been averted.
Given the Russians invaded then I would have thought the conditions for war already existed. The shame is Obama did not respond but seemed to acquiesce at Putin’s invasion.
Billpayers face £800 hit from Miliband’s carbon capture gamble Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS). The Government has committed to investing £22bn into the technology, most of which will be loaded on to consumer bills with the rest coming from taxpayers. So it’s either our money… or our money. The [Public Accounts Committee] report said: “The Department [of Energy Security and Net Zero] has not indicated the likely cost of these projects. The Department and HM Treasury expect that around 75pc of the cost of supporting these early projects will be met by levies on consumers who are already facing significant financial pressures, with the remainder funded by the Exchequer.” Yes. Our money or… our money. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said: “Carbon capture, usage and storage is vital to boost our energy independence, and the Climate Change Committee [CCC] describes it as a ‘necessity not an option’ for reaching our climate goals. Hmm. Vital. ie it must be made to work. I’m reminded of the manager’s adage: ‘We must save money. At any cost‘. CCUS ‘is vital to boost our energy independence‘. With CCUS the CCC and Miliband can effectively ‘permit’ the UK to burn… Read more »