News Round-Up

• “White House casts doubt on Starmer’s charm offensive claim” – The White House has cast doubt on suggestions from Downing Street that Trump applied lower tariffs on Britain because of lobbying by Keir Starmer, says the Telegraph. 
• “The simple maths behind Trump’s ‘sum of all cheating’ tariffs claim” – In the Telegraph, Szu Ping Chan lays out the simple maths behind Trump’s tariff calculations.
• “Panic as US stocks plummet at open… crushing 401(K)s” – Wall Street had its worst day since the height of Covid after Trump’s tariffs sparked fears of a US and global recession, reports the Mail.
• “JCB to double US business as manufacturers urge Starmer to seize Brexit opportunity” – JCB plans to double the size of its new US factory after being “galvanised” by Trump’s new trade tariffs, says the Telegraph.
• “‘Liberation Day’ was even worse than expected” – “This is perhaps the worst economic own goal I have seen in my lifetime,” says Tyler Cowen in the Free Press.
• “Trump’s tariff bazooka is one hell of a gamble” – Some of the biggest victims of the President’s protectionism will be his own voters, warns Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph.
• “Trump doesn’t understand how trade deficits work” – In the Spectator, Andrew Lilico argues that Trump’s tariff policy threatens global recession.
• “How Trump’s tariffs will hurt China” – In the Spectator, George Magnus warns that Trump’s China tariffs will hammer its economy, disrupt global trade and likely backfire with a hostile Beijing response.
• “The BBC isn’t even pretending to be impartial about Trump” – In the Spectator, Rod Liddle blasts the BBC’s blatant anti-Trump bias.
• “National Insurance raid ‘risks forcing police to axe 3,600 officers’” – According to analysis by the Tories, Labour’s NI raid could force the police to axe 3,600 bobbies from the beat, reports the Express.
• “Reeves is gaslighting the public with her £50 billion fiddle” – Britons are paying the price for the Government’s failed Spring Statement gamble, says Adam Smith in the Telegraph.
• “Labour knowingly chose ‘most disruptive’ date for private school tax raid” – Bombshell court documents reveal that Labour picked January to slap VAT on private schools just to rake in more cash, according to Conservative Post.
• “Labour are blind to the cost of their war on private schools” – Shrinking the independent education sector deprives society of the choices through which it thrives, says David Smith in CapX.
• “Terrorism suspect linked to 7/7 bombings set to be released from prison” – Haroon Aswat, jailed for 20 years for plotting to form an extremist training camp, is set to be freed despite remaining a “risk to national security”, reports the Express.
• “‘Diversity is our strength’ rings hollower by the day” – The portrait of modern Britain is becoming an increasingly complicated one, writes Rakib Ehsan in the Telegraph.
• “Why the establishment loves Adolescence” – The new Netflix drama Adolescence is being used as a tool to promote ideology, warns Andrew Doyle on his Substack.
• “Lord Hermer appears to take swipe at Starmer over criticism of judges” – The Attorney General has attacked politicians who publicly criticise judges, weeks after Keir Starmer did so in the Commons, reports the Telegraph.
• “Carl Schmitt ate my law school” – On Substack, Dr David McGrogan discusses the origins and future of two-tier justice.
• “Shock poll shows Nigel Farage is on track to be Prime Minister” – A mega-poll claims for the first time that Reform would win the most seats if a general election was called now, reveals the Mail.
• “Democracy in the UK” – Vox Popoli takes aim at the UK’s Online Safety Act, hailing the pushback by the US State Department as vindication of Gab’s refusal to bend the knee to Ofcom.
• “Who’s in charge here?” – Progressive idiocies have rooted themselves so firmly that there seems no way of gainsaying them, writes Rod Liddle in the Spectator.
• “The hypocrisy of the Heathrow Nimbys” – In the Spectator, Douglas Murray slams the hypocrisy of MPs who block Heathrow expansion on environmental grounds while lobbying for a new airport in Pakistan.
• “Letby babies ‘died from poor care and natural causes not murder’” – A 700-page report from 21 world-leading experts has concluded that babies at a hospital where Lucy Letby worked died from poor care, prematurity and natural causes, according to the Telegraph.
• “One doctor’s quest for the truth about convicted killer Lucy Letby ” – Dr Shoo Lee’s research was used to help convict Lucy Letby of murdering babies, but he says it should never have been cited, writes Megan Specia in the NY Times.
• “The pandemic fallout” – On the TTE Substack, Prof Carl Heneghan and Dr Tom Jefferson lay bare the devastating long-term costs of lockdowns.
• “More empathy, less risk of dementia – how women’s brains work differently to men’s” – Women are more generous with money, but men are better at reading maps. The Telegraph reveals the science behind the brain battle of the sexes.
• “Why Trump was ‘highly disappointed’ before Elon Musk’s DOGE exit” – The White House is furiously pushing back against an explosive report that First Buddy Elon Musk will be leaving the Department of Government Efficiency “in the coming weeks”, according to the Mail.
• “‘Elon Musk is not going anywhere’” – J.D. Vance has dismissed reports Elon Musk is being sidelined by Donald Trump, reports the NY Post.
• “Israel accuses Sadiq Khan of parroting ‘Hamas propaganda’ in Eid message” – London’s Labour Mayor has come under fire for failing to directly condemn Hamas while criticising Israel’s military operation in Gaza in a video message celebrating Eid, says the Telegraph.
• “Hungary will withdraw from ICC, Government says during Netanyahu visit” – Hungary has announced it will leave the International Criminal Court during a visit by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces an ICC arrest warrant, according to Le Monde.
• “Israel has no alternative but to fight on in Gaza” – Israel’s war against Islamist fanatics in Gaza and Iran is very much the West’s war too, one that it is in all our interests that Israel wins, and wins decisively, says Con Coughlin in the Telegraph.
• “Putin supporters turn on Kremlin over Muslim migration” – Vladimir Putin’s supporters have turned on the Kremlin over Muslim migration into Russia from Central Asia, comparing the situation with that of European cities with large Muslim populations, according to GB News.
• “J.K. Rowling stickers were ‘not a transphobic dog whistle’” – A university professor has told an employment tribunal that stickers saying “I Love JK Rowling” were not a “dog whistle” for transphobia, reports the Mail. 
• “Have a tenth of all gay people really had an exorcism?” – In the Spectator, maths professor John Armstrong debunks Stonewall’s astonishing claim that 10% of LGBTQ+ people in the UK have undergone exorcisms.
• “Helen Joyce ‘would love to see gender reassignment surgeons in jail’” – The author of Trans: Where Ideology Meets Reality has accused people in leadership positions in Britain of being cowardly in the face of activists, reports the Times.
• “Britain’s wokest council tells staff to take white privilege test” – A flagship Labour council is telling staff to undergo a “white privilege” test as part of its efforts to combat unconscious bias against ethnic minorities, according to the Telegraph.
• “Lord Young of Acton asks a Labour minister about the Party’s plans to adopt an official definition of ‘Islamophobia’” – In the House of Lords on Wednesday, the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Sceptic asked a question about Labour’s ‘Islamophobia’ commission. He didn’t get a proper answer.

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