News Round-Up

• “White House pressures Starmer over Lucy Connolly case” – The White House says it is “monitoring” the case of Lucy Connolly in an escalation of free speech tensions with Sir Keir Starmer, according to the Telegraph.
• “Donald Trump has fired a free speech warning shot” – Donald Trump’s free speech probe lands as a stark rebuke to Britain’s creeping censorship, says the Telegraph in a leading article.
• “How Lucy Connolly’s racist tweet sparked a free speech row” – Lucy Connolly lost her appeal against her race-hate jail sentence – but is free speech really under threat? asks Ben Schofield for the BBC.
• “Labour Left ‘at war’ with Starmer’s new right-hand woman” – Former ‘fixer’ for Tony Blair Liz Lloyd is back in No 10 and ruffling feathers, says Ethan Croft in the Telegraph.
• “Angela Rayner piles pressure on Keir Starmer over winter fuel U-turn” – The Deputy PM has used a TV interview to suggest that pensioners should be told within weeks whether, and when, their winter fuel payments will be restored, reports the Mail.
• “Angela Rayner insists she has ‘no desire’ to be Labour leader” – The Deputy PM says that she has “no desire” to be promoted to her party’s top job, according to the Mail.
• “Angela Rayner doesn’t know what rich means” – Labour doesn’t understand that excessively taxing the wealthy is bad economics, says Michael Mosbacher in the Telegraph.
• “Farmers face losing harvests under Starmer’s Brexit reset” – Farmers say that they face losing harvests because crucial agricultural chemicals will be banned under Labour’s deal with the EU, according to the Express.
• “Rachel Reeves’ prestige in tatters as prepares to ditch ‘fiscal rules’” – Rachel Reeves is preparing to ditch her strict fiscal rules that were meant to safeguard the Government’s economic credibility, reports the Mail.
• “Labour despises Britain’s middle-class savers” – Why does this clueless Government continue to play cruel games with the country’s army of savers? wonders Jeff Prestridge in the Mail.
• “South Western is renationalised by Labour” – South Western Railway has become the first train company to be renationalised by Labour, reports the Mail.
• “Labour is pioneering the Blackadder approach to public finances” – Like General Melchett, the Government has a pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face, writes Liam Halligan in the Telegraph.
• “Labour’s in a mess of its own making… now the rebels are gathering” – This Government has failed on its own terms, and it has failed in the eyes of the electorate, says the Mail on Sunday in a leading article.
• “Self-flagellating over the British Empire helps no one but our rivals” – Spurious guilt over our history leads to decisions such as the Chagos Islands giveaway, says Matthew Syed in the Sunday Times. Honestly, it wasn’t all bad.
• “Outdated Foreign Office dogma makes Britain weak. Chagos proves it” – Our diplomats still believe that the the rules-based international order protects us, but power is what counts, writes David Blair in the Telegraph.
• “‘I did not harm national security with private driver’” – Kemi Badenoch has dismissed as “nonsense” allegations she risked national security by using a privately contracted car despite repeated warnings it could be bugged, reports the Telegraph.
• “Kemi Badenoch’s critics circle as Tory MPs plot her downfall” – Robert Jenrick and Boris Johnson are seen as candidates for a leadership challenge after the local elections wipeout, writes Tim Shipman in the Sunday Times.
• “Boris Johnson’s allies ‘urging him to return’ as Tory leader” – Details of a plot to reinstall Boris Johnson to the political frontline have emerged as pressure piles on current party leader Kemi Badenoch, reports the Mail.
• “Kemi Badenoch warns Nigel Farage as PM would be ‘very bad’ for Britain” – The Tory leader has accused her Reform UK rival of saying “whatever he wants to get into power” and warned he’d “bankrupt” the country if he entered Downing Street, according to the Mail.
• “Farage’s greatest threat isn’t Kemi, it’s Angela Rayner” – The Deputy PM can expose divisions within Reform UK over issues like the economy and the NHS, says James Frayne in the Telegraph.
• “NCA freezes future sale of home of ex-City Minister’s mother” – The National Crime Agency has taken the first step in a British corruption case involving ex-City minister Tulip Siddiq, by freezing the future sale of her mother’s home, reports the Mail.
• “Alan Bates attacks ‘quasi kangaroo courts‘ payouts system” – Post Office hero Sir Alan Bates has slammed the Government’s “quasi kangaroo court” payout scheme, as hundreds of Horizon victims still await compensation, says the Mail.
• “Liberal democracy is dying before our very eyes” – The modern democratic state, with a government directly accountable to its population, has become unworkable, writes Janet Daley in the Telegraph.
• “The death of Debenhams: why ghost stores are left to rot across the UK” – In the Mail, Chris Matthews lays bare how the abandoned husks of Debenhams stores are haunting Britain’s high streets.
• “Gone Girl star Rosamund Pike falls victim to deadly phone snatchers” – Rosamund Pike has revealed she was punched in the face and had her mobile phone snatched violently out of her hand by a “mugger” on a bicycle in London, reports the Mail.
• “Complaints over pro-Gaza protests are petty tit-for-tat, say police” – The Met Police have dismissed complaints about a pro-Palestine protester glorifying the October 7th terror attacks as “almost petty tit for tat”, says the Express. 
• “Islamophobia training cancelled over teachers’ ‘antisemitic’ posts” – A training session for psychotherapists on tackling Islamophobia was cancelled after three academics leading the event were accused of posting antisemitic material on social media, reports the Telegraph. 
• “BBC promotes Match of the Day as Gary Lineker’s ‘last time’” – The BBC has proudly promoted Sunday’s Match Of The Day as Gary Lineker’s “last time” – after the former England captain resigned in disgrace after sharing an antisemitic post, says the Mail.
• “Israel deserves support, not scorn, as it confronts a savage Nazi-like terror group” – The obstacle to peace is Hamas, writes Tzipi Hotovely in the Telegraph. Britain would not accept living next to a force that wants to destroy it.
• “Starmer’s turn against Israel will prolong war” – Removing the ayatollahs in Iran is the only route to securing long-term peace in Gaza, says John Bolton in the Telegraph.
• “Net Zero restricts bill cuts in price cap change” – On Substack, David Turver explains why electricity bills have fallen by less than gas bills.
• “Flawed system leaves millions paying too much for energy bills” – In This is Money, Gabriel McKeown argues that Britain’s broken energy pricing system continues to saddle millions with inflated bills, despite falling wholesale costs.
• “UK cash meant to stop climate change in Malawi” – British taxpayers are footing the £4.5 million bill for a climate scheme in Malawi that’s turning locals into loan sharks – and funding others’ illegal migration to South Africa, reveals the Mail on Sunday.
• “Watson et al debunked? Why 14 million lives saved was always an impossibility” – On the HART Substack, Dr Ros Jones questions Watson et al’s claim that Covid vaccines saved 14 million lives, pointing to new research that says the numbers don’t add up – and the vaccines may have caused more harm than help.
• “Nearly half of patients with serious COVID-19 vaccine injuries die within six weeks” – On the Focal Points Substack, Nicolas Hulscher reports on a bombshell Korean study showing nearly 45% of severe Covid vaccine injury cases ended in death within six weeks.
• “‘Criticism of Covid mandates is doctrine of violent domestic extremists’” – On the Focal Points Substack, John Leake reveals a declassified 2021 memo, released by Tulsi Gabbard, showing the Biden administration labelled Covid mandate critics as potential violent extremists.
• “Senate interim report finds fraud and corruption on COVID-19 vaccine myocarditis” – On the Focal Points Substack, Dr Peter A. McCullough claims a Senate interim report exposes a cover-up by US health officials who downplayed COVID-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis.
• “Japan rides the censorship bandwagon” – In addition to government and media collusion to keep Covid medical realities from the Japanese public, the Government has also passed a law to squelch nonconforming messaging online, writes Bruce W. Davidson for the Brownstone Institute.
• “How America is losing its military supremacy to China” – Beijing’s army boasts almost a million more troops than the US and has the largest navy in the world, notes Allegra Mendelson in the Telegraph.
• “President Trump vs Harvard” – On Substack, Dr Robert W. Malone paints Trump’s showdown with Harvard as a high-stakes reckoning between America First populism and a corrupt, globalist academic elite.
• “San Francisco is finally waking from its living nightmare” – The far-Left brought San Francisco to its knees, but locals are finally fighting back, says Melissa Lawford in the Telegraph.
• “Crypto millionaires served ‘airline food’ at glitzy Trump gala” – A dinner at Donald Trump’s $1.7 million-a-head event for crypto investors has been described as “worse than airline food”, reports the Telegraph.
• Third of white men fear being held back at work due to race and gender” – A new survey reveals that more than a third of young white men in Britain fear they are losing out on promotions because of their race and gender, says the Mail.
• “BBC presenter Anita Rani accused of being ‘biased and bigoted’” – BBC Woman’s Hour presenter Anita Rani has been accused of being “biased and bigoted” by Helen Joyce, Director of Advocacy at the women’s rights group Sex Matters, according to the Mail.
• “Five years after BLM, the woke revolution is still destroying the West” – The ‘social justice’ spirit lives on in the eco movement, the trans movement and of course, most harmfully, in the ‘Palestine’ movement, warns Zoe Strimpel in the Telegraph.
• “Woke Doctor Who loses millions of viewers: only the BBC didn’t see it coming” – It turns out people just want to be entertained of a Saturday evening, rather than having propaganda forced down their necks under the guise of family viewing, says Camila Tominey in the Telegraph.
• “‘Don’t change books to be more PC – that’s like cutting Jane Austen’s buggery joke’” – In a Telegraph interview with Ed Cumming, Jane Austen scholar Paula Byrne denounces politically correct rewrites of classic literature as patronising vandalism.
• “Sergeant majors urged to stop shouting at ‘sensitive recruits’” – Army Sergeant Majors are being told to ditch the Full Metal Jacket routine and channel David Beckham to avoid upsetting sensitive recruits, reveals the Sun.
• “Backlash over Kermit the Frog’s ‘woke’ college’s graduation speech” – Kermit the Frog’s University of Maryland commencement address has been slammed by conservatives as tasteless and tone deaf, according to the Mail.
• “Former BBC executive and TV presenter Alan Yentob dies aged 78” – Former BBC executive and TV presenter Alan Yentob has died aged 78 after an illness, reports the Mail.
• “Commuters fume at new ‘bare beating’ trend on public transport” – Passengers letting any noise from their phone reverberate on public transport, rather than using headphones, may soon face a £1,000 fine, says the Mail.
• “OpenAI software ignores explicit instruction to switch off” – An AI model created by the owner of ChatGPT has been caught disobeying human instructions and refusing to shut itself off, reports the Telegraph.
• “Brazilian tribe sues for £113 million after claims they became porn addicts” – An indigenous Brazilian tribe has sued the NY Times over a report which claimed they had become addicted to porn after Elon Musk’s Starlink system gave them high-speed internet access, says the Mail.
• “Harry and Meghan are accused of hypocrisy over Montecito ‘royal’ court” – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been accused of “hypocrisy” over their new “royal” court in Montecito after they condemned life as royals, reports the Mail.
• “Charlie Kirk vs Cambridge students” – Charlie Kirk puts a “bouncy Brit” in his place on the issue of Israel at a recent Cambridge Union debate.

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