News Round-Up

• “Counter-terror police investigate fire at Keir Starmer’s home” – Counter-terror police are leading an investigation into a suspected “firebomb” attack at Sir Keir Starmer’s North London home, according to Sky News.
• “Police investigate fires at properties and car linked to Keir Starmer” – The Times reports that three fires on or near the Prime Minister’s properties could be linked to a terror plot.
• “Can Labour really get immigration under control?” – Keir Starmer has pledged to end the “betrayal” of Britain’s reliance on cheap foreign labour, says the Mail.
• “Coachload of migrants humiliate Starmer on day he vowed to stop them” – More Channel boat arrivals were transported inland just as Sir Keir Starmer launched his latest bid to “take back control” of Britain’s borders, reports the Mail.
• “Three key flaws in Starmer’s immigration crackdown” – In the Spectator, John Power argues that beneath Sir Keir’s tough talk on immigration lies a white paper laced with liberal concessions that risk incentivising more illegal migration.
• “Another round of political promises on migration is pointless” – Labour’s white paper won’t tell voters anything they haven’t heard before, says Kamal Ahmed in the Telegraph. Only action will restore trust.
• “Can Britian end its dependence on foreign workers?” –“Significantly” reducing immigration can now be added to “smashing the gangs” and “restoring growth” as clear priorities on which Labour will be judged, writes Danny Shaw in the Spectator.
• “The leaders who promised to cut immigration but failed” – Successive prime ministers have pledged to reduce net migration and failed to do so – yet it remains one of the most serious concerns among voters, notes Amy Gibbons in the Telegraph.
• “‘I am reading Douglas Murray. Should I expect the police to come knocking?’” – The treatment of retired special constable Julian Foulkes makes Britain look like an Orwellian dystopia, says Tom Harris in the Telegraph.
• “Number of entrepreneurs closing UK businesses hits highest level since pandemic” – The number of UK entrepreneurs voluntarily shutting down viable businesses has hit the highest rate since the pandemic, with advisers blaming rises to tax rates for the jump in liquidations, reports the FT.
• “CIPD links Employment Rights Bill with low business confidence” – A new CIPD report suggests that rising costs, forthcoming legislation and global uncertainty has pushed employer confidence to a record low, according to Personnel Today.
• “Starmer’s trade deals will do nothing to fix Britain’s broken economy” – Major growth won’t materialise through easy decisions – a radical change of direction is needed, argues Roger Bootle in the Telegraph.
• “Politicians to be banned from presenting news after Farage row” – Politicians will be banned from working as news presenters under a crackdown from Ofcom, as the regulator seeks to tighten rules following a High Court row with GB News, reports the Telegraph.
• “Out with the old…” – Predictions that Nigel Farage will become Britain’s next prime minister now attract expressions of anxious concern instead of mockery from the liberal commentariat, notes John Lloyd in Quillette.
• “‘The country is f****d and it needs reforming’” – The rise of Reform UK as the main challenger to the political establishment is driven not just by policy but a visceral desire for change, says Dr David McGrogan on his Substack.
• “The dismantling of our country through self-hatred is no accident – it is policy” – On GB News, Alex Story argues that the manufactured shame of young Britons towards their country is a deliberate result of state-sponsored ideologies.
• “The hidden mechanisms of unfreedom: part two” – On Substack, Alex Klaushofer slams the growing use of “deliberative democracy” techniques to manufacture consent.
• “Protect Northern Ireland Veterans from Prosecutions” – Sign this petition if you think that the Government should not make any changes to legislation that would allow Northern Ireland Veterans to be prosecuted for doing their duty in combating terrorism as part of ‘Operation Banner’ (1969-2007).
• “Ed Miliband’s wife embroiled in Nimby housing row” – Angela Rayner’s housebuilding blitz has found an unlikely opponent in Ed Miliband’s wife, who has opposed plans for a new development in her neighbourhood in North London, reports the Times.
• “King hails climate activists he hopes will change the world” – GB News reports on King Charles’s foundation celebrating its 35th anniversary by praising 35 young “changemakers”, including a former Extinction Rebellion activist.
• “The London residents who fought back against LTNs – and won” – A recent High Court victory by the West Dulwich Action Group could force the Labour-run council to scrap its Low Traffic Neighbourhood scheme, reports Southwark News.
• “Nissan to axe 20,000 jobs worldwide” – Japanese car giant Nissan is in crisis mode as the shift to electric cars leaves it playing catch-up, reports GB News.
• “COVID-19 mRNA shots destroy over 60% of women’s non-renewable egg supply” – On the Focal Points Substack, Nicolas Hulschee reports that a new rat study shows Pfizer’s mRNA COVID-19 vax destroys over 60% of the ovaries’ non-renewable egg supply – a potentially irreversible blow to female fertility.
• “GOFather and his Egyptian fruit bats” – On Substack, Jim Haslam ties together Egyptian fruit bats, transmissible vaccines and a tangled web of US biolab activity to argue that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered through gain-of-function research and quietly shipped to Wuhan.
• “Macron accused of ‘hiding bag of cocaine’” – France has responded to a claim that President Emmanuel Macron hid a bag of cocaine while posing for a photo with Keir Starmer and Germany’s Friedrich Merz over the weekend, reports the Mail. It was a tissue, apparently.
• “German researcher calls out Science Magazine for refusing to consider study pointing to a Wuhan lab accident” – Censorship remains a serious problem in medical and science journals, says Paul D. Thacker on his Substack.
• “The campaign to ban Alternative für Deutschland is not going well” – On Substack, Eugyppius takes aim at the failing attempts to outlaw the AfD, highlighting the lack of public support and legal missteps that are undermining the push for a ban.
• “Trump’s crackdown on Chinese ‘junk’ is long overdue” – We have chosen to binge on quantity, not quality while our own industrial base withers away, says Andrew Orlowski in the Telegraph.
• “China has won the trade war with Trump” – The US needs China more than China needs the US, writes Matthew Lynn in the Spectator.
• “Taliban bans chess” – The Taliban has banned Afghans from playing chess until it works out whether the game is compatible with Islamic law, reports France24.
• “Graham Linehan says ‘resolve won’t waver’ ahead of trial for harassing trans woman” – Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan has pleaded not guilty to harassing a biologically male trans woman and damaging his phone, says the Mail.
• “Teaching union says trans women must be allowed to use ladies’ toilets” – The Left-wing National Education Union has resolved to campaign for trans teachers to continue to choose toilets according to ‘gender identity’, according to the Mail, even though admitting biological males to women’s toilets is against the law, according to the Supreme Court.
• “Outrage culture in offices has reached new heights of absurdity” – The reign of the workplace snowflakes is only going to get worse under Labour’s Workers’ Rights Bill, says Lucy Burton in the Telegraph.
• “Britain’s ‘wokeist’ university has finally seen sense” – Oxford University’s backtracking on the removal of some gendered language is an extraordinary U-turn, writes Celia Walden in the Telegraph. But what has prompted it?
• “‘You become something unique’: the A-list offspring coming out as trans ” – Robert De Niro joins a long line of Hollywood stars whose children now identify as trans or non-binary, reports Nicole Lampert in the Telegraph.
• “Monetising malaise: the corporate exploitation of urban black youth” – On UNN, Dr Niall McCrae argues that the music industry has exploited urban black youth by promoting gangster rap, which fuels criminality and profits both the record and prison industries.
• “Football club’s vindictive red card for a gender critic” – In the Conservative Woman, Dr Fredderick Attenborough highlights the case of Linzi Smith, the Newcastle fan who’s been given a three-season ban for challenging gender ideology on social media. You can donate to Linzi’s crowdfunder here.
• “The state’s Southport narrative is crumbling” – In the Spectator, Laurie Wastell exposes how the Southport riots weren’t a far-Right plot, but a local eruption fuelled by silence, spin and state scapegoating.
• “‘The people guilty of spreading harmful misinformation were the authorities!’” – On GB News, Toby weighs in on a new report which says the riots after the Southport murders have no link to the “far-Right”.

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