News Round-Up

• “First ever American pope elected” – The new pope, Pope Leo XIV, is seen as a progressive successor to Francis, according to the Standard.
• “Pope Leo could prove a powerful new critic for Trump” – The newly elected pontiff’s social views will no doubt irk the Republican party, says Tim Stanley in the Telegraph.
• “New Pope in social media storm as Trump tweets resurface” – Newly elected Pope Leo XIV spent years retweeting criticism of President Trump and JD Vance on X, reports the NY Post.
• “Is Pope Leo XIV part of the ‘Trumplash’?” – In the Spectator, Freddy Gray suggests that the election of Pope Leo XIV signals the Vatican’s quiet rebuke of Trumpism.
• “UK-US trade deal is ‘jobs saved, not job done’, Keir Starmer says” – Sir Keir Starmer has secured the first deal with President Trump since he embarked on his global trade war, sealing cuts to tariffs on car and steel exports that threatened thousands of jobs, reports the Times.
• “This trade deal is a win for Brexit, not Starmer. Leavers should welcome it” – The agreements with the United States and India should be supported by all Atlanticists and free traders, says Daniel Hannan in the Telegraph.
• “The week the Rejoiner dream finally died” – A flurry of UK trade deals has made the cost of reversing Brexit too high to contemplate, says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Telegraph.
• “Starmer hands Trump ‘veto’ on Chinese investment in UK” – Sir Keir Starmer has given Donald Trump a ‘veto’ over Chinese investment in Britain, according to the Telegraph.
• “Trump has just put a dagger through the heart of the EU” – The UK-US trade deal is a stunning example of why other EU countries may be better off outside the bloc, says Matthew Lynn in the Telegraph.
• “Could Trump’s UK deal start a golden age of free trade?” – What Trump has shown is that when the will is there, trade deals can be negotiated very rapidly, writes Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Starmer’s economic policies have collapsed into an incoherent mess” – Time and again, the PM has shown that when torn between two outcomes, his preference is to choose neither, writes Sam Ashworth-Hayes in the Telegraph.
• “Reeves tax raid to blow £57 billion black hole in Britain’s finances” – Economists say that the Chancellor’s plans have undermined growth more than Trump’s tariffs, according to the Express.
• “Britain braces for £111 billion shortfall after Reeves’s non-dom clampdown” – Experts warn that Labour’s non-dom crackdown could cost the UK £10 billion a year as millionaires exit Britain, reports the Telegraph.
• “Reeves is utterly trapped by the winter fuel row. It may yet finish her off” – Short of political capital and lacking economic room for manoeuvre, the Chancellor is on borrowed time, writes Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph.
• “Lucy Powell apologises for dismissing rape gangs as ‘dog whistle’ issue” – Lucy Powell has finally apologised for dismissing the rape gangs scandal as a “dog whistle” issue, reports Breitbart.
• “Our politicians find truth more painful than fiction” – Douglas Murray in the Spectator reflects on the fact that Sir Keir Starmer was spellbound by Adolescence, a fictional drama, but Lucy Powell dismissed the Channel 4 documentary on the grooming gangs as a “dog whistle”.
• “Migrants ‘must speak fluent English’ to remain in UK” – Migrants coming to Britain will be required to speak “fluent English” or face a decade-long wait to secure permanent residency under new immigration rules to be announced next week, reports GB News.
• “Winter fuel savings wiped out by spiralling migrant housing costs” – The costs of migrant accommodation has wiped out the savings the Government will gain from cuts to winter fuel payments, says the Telegraph.
• “Channel migrants offered ‘summer season’ discount” – People smugglers are advertising lower prices for migrants who agree to be filmed for promotional purposes, reports the Telegraph.
• “The anti-Israel lobby now has its foothold in the Tory Party” – It is a dark day in UK politics when a dozen or so members of Parliament support those forces seeking the destruction of Israel, says Natasha Hausdorff in the Telegraph.
• “How armed robbers are turning London’s affluent roads into no-go zones” – The Mail reports that in the bustling heart of London, a high-price tag doesn’t buy you a zero crime rate.
• “The Reformation is here” – “I would have voted for Farage and I always get the 1% question in Lee Mack’s The 1% Club”, says Rod Liddle in the Spectator.
• “Welcome to Scuzz Nation” – In the Spectator, Gus Carter paints a bleak, biting portrait of a broken Britain.
• “Why celebrate VE Day when we can’t stop rubber dinghies?” – Britain is becoming a failed state, laments Paul Sutton on his Substack.
• “Good riddance to Carla Denyer: wrong about everything, all the time” – If the Greens have any sense, they’ll appoint as next co-leader someone who knows what a woman is, says Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.
• “Miliband’s clean power goal branded a ‘fantasy’ after wind project axed” – Ed Miliband’s hopes of achieving clean power by 2030 have been branded a “fantasy” after a massive offshore wind project was axed by developers, reports the Telegraph.
• “Canary Islands hit by new power cut” – Spain has been hit by another big power cut, affecting tens of thousands of people on the Canary Islands, says the Express.
• “‘I had the Moderna vaccine – what happened next left me wanting death’” – In the Mail, Katherine Lawton recounts the harrowing ordeal of Danielle Pieton, a cyclist whose life was upended by severe health issues following a Moderna Covid vaccine, leaving her grappling with an incurable condition.
• “Irish support for EU membership falls amid immigration fears” – A new poll reveals that support for the EU in Ireland has fallen to its lowest level since 2012, according to the Express.
• “Germany will turn away migrants without papers at the border” – Newly elected German chancellor Friedrich Merz has issued orders to turn undocumented migrants away from the nation, reports the Mail.
• “Don’t forget it’s America first, Marjorie Taylor Greene warns Trump” – In an exclusive Telegraph interview, Rob Crilly captures Marjorie Taylor Greene’s blunt warning to Trump: ditch the war hawks and stick with the America First base – or lose it all.
• “The New York Times gets ever more Orwellian in its effort to rewrite the story of Kilmar Abrego García’s tattoos” – Who needs Big Brother when you have Big Media? writes Alex Berenson on his Substack.
• “Bill Gates accuses Elon Musk of killing children” – According to the Daily Beast, Bill Gates is finally saying what he really thinks about Elon Musk’s DOGE shuttering the US Agency for International Development.
• “Biden’s confused BBC interview was devastating for him and Kamala Harris” – Ex-President Joe Biden apparently believes he was just too successful to realise he should step back, says Dan McLaughlin in the Telegraph.
• “Pakistan’s Islamist double-dealing has taken us to the brink” – New Delhi is not blameless but Islamabad has a long history of providing a safe haven for militants, writes Con Coughlin in the Telegraph.
• “Publisher of Woman, Woman’s Own and Woman’s Weekly still allows men to use ladies’ toilets” – Future Publishing, home to Britain’s favourite women’s mags, has decided that the Supreme Court ruling – that trans women aren’t women – doesn’t apply to them, and will still let employees use whichever toilets match their chosen ‘gender identity’, says Russell David on his blog.
• “Jaguar searches for new advertising agency after rebrand derided” – Jaguar Land Rover is looking to replace its current advertising agency just months after the company faced a backlash over its controversial rebrand, reports the Mail.
• “How Churchill shaped our view of the second world war” – In the Spectator, John Charmley disputes the revisionist view of Churchill that he was a warmonger who essentially started the Second World War.
• “Comparing a colleague to Darth Vader isn’t offensive” – Snowflakery has become endemic among the British workforce, says Tom Slater in the Spectator.
• “Mark Zuckerberg leaves crowd speechless as he reveals terrifying plan” – Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks that you don’t have enough friends, but his solution isn’t socialising more – it’s talking with more robots, writes Chris Melore in the Mail.
• “Will the FA apologise to women it’s penalised for trying to protect women’s football?” – In the House of Lords, Toby asked Baroness Smith whether she’d invite the FA to apologise to those women it’s penalised for objecting to the participation of biological males in women’s football.

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