News Round-Up

• “The India-Pakistan ceasefire is a triumph for Trump” – After more than four days of clashes since the early hours of Wednesday morning, India and Pakistan have agreed to a full ceasefire, and it’s a triumph for Trump, says Kunwar Khuldune Shahid in the Spectator.
• “How US pulled India and Pakistan back from all-out war” – Washington’s late-night return to pulling strings in foreign conflicts has paid off, says the Telegraph.
• “Will the ceasefire between India and Pakistan hold?” – Language from both Governments indicated a genuine desire to halt the fighting, but the problem of Kashmir, the issue that caused the latest confrontation, remains, says Ben Farmer in the Telegraph.
• “Nuclear war has never been more likely. Here’s what it would look like now” – Flashpoints in the Middle East, Asia and Europe mean we are perilously close to Armageddon. But where would it start? How many of us would survive? The Telegraph hazards some answers.
• “Miliband plots surge in wind farm subsidies to rescue Net Zero” – Ed Miliband is plotting a surge in the wind farm subsidies added to electricity bills to prop up his ailing green power target, reports the Telegraph.
• “Britain could face months-long blackouts because of Net Zero” – Britain’s grid operator has raised concerns that the switch from dependable gas to intermittent wind and solar power will “reduce network stability” and could induce blackouts that take months to fully recover from, the Telegraph reports.
• “Unlawful LTN takes £1 million from motorists” – A low traffic neighbourhood scheme that a court ruled this week to be unlawful banked a Labour council more than £1 million in fines from motorists in just six months, leaving campaigners now demanding that it be paid back, the Telegraph reports.
• “Dim” – A mandatory solar panel installation will cost a young house buyer over £19,000 and take him nearly 60 years to pay for, says Richard Lyon on Substack.
• “Villagers use council’s anti-slavery policy to fight solar farm plan” – Villagers protesting against a proposed solar farm are claiming it could breach the local council’s anti-slavery commitments, the Telegraph reports.
• “Another private school forced to close under Labour VAT raid” – Another independent school, this one in Wakefield, is set to close later this year as a result of Labour’s VAT and National Insurance tax raids, reports the Telegraph.
• “As Reform era starts, here’s everything we would do” – Nigel Farage sets out his stall in the Mail.
• “Reform heads to court to shut asylum hotels” – Reform UK is preparing legal challenges to close down asylum hotels in areas it now governs, reports the Telegraph.
• “Farage pressures Reform councils to scrap second homes tax raid” – Hundreds of second home owners in Reform-led councils could be spared double tax bills after party leader Nigel Farage labelled the policy “madness” and told Reform councils to scrap the raids, says the Telegraph.
• “Voters are sick of lectures from the lanyard class” – Reform is surging because working-class people resent the professional cadre who dismiss them as stupid and racist, says Janice Turner in the Times.
• “Cadaver ‘Calamari’ Amyloidogenic Fibrin Aggregates” – A new analysis of the strange white blood clots linked with the vaccines has been published by Dr Kevin W. McCairn on Substack.
• “Why aren’t prison guards safe from Rudakubana?” – At the very least men like Rudakubana need to be held in a prison like a US ‘Supermax’, and never again allowed to harm another person, says David Shipley in the Spectator.
• “The Pope was chosen in two weeks. Why is the C of E taking a year to replace Welby?” – The moribund Lambeth Palace should take a leaf out of the Vatican’s book, argues William Sitwell in the Telegraph.
• “How Britain’s £300 billion welfare bill became untouchable” – The cost of benefits is out of control, but it will take guts and immense political skill to wean the UK off its addiction to handouts, says Gordon Rayner in the Telegraph.
• “Merz promised an end to mass migration, but so far he has delivered primarily messaging chaos. Could this be some kind of insane strategy?” – The central question in German politics right now is whether the new Government has any interest in stopping mass migration (as it claims), or whether it is merely trying to appear as if it is doing something, says Eugyppius.
• “Retired police officer arrested over ‘thought crime’ tweet” – A retired special constable was arrested and detained over a social media post warning about the threat of antisemitism in Britain, the Telegraph reports.
• “Bridget Phillipson isn’t a victim of ‘sexism’, she’s just useless” – The Education Secretary’s cheerleaders are cynically weaponising gender politics to shield her from legitimate criticism, says Annabel Denham in the Telegraph.
• “Heathrow worker and NHS doctor run charity with Hezbollah links” – An airport lounge employee has been stripped of his security pass after his organisation raised £300,000, much of it at British universities, for aid for Lebanon, reports the Times.
• “Universities have ‘lost sight of responsibility over public money’” – Universities have “lost sight” of their responsibility over public money, a Minister has said amid a growing blame game over the financial crisis across higher education, reports the Telegraph.
• “Come off it, Stonewall” – Stonewall has long been an unreliable guide to the law, says Freddie Attenborough in the Critic.

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