News Round-Up

• “Why I burnt the Quran” – In the Spectator, Hamit Coskun, who was recently convicted of burning a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish consulate, explains why he did it.
• “This is a dangerous moment for free speech” – In a leading article, the Spectator laments the return of blasphemy laws to Britain’s shores.
• “Starmer rejects Reform MP’s call for burka ban” – Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin has called on Sir Keir Starmer to “ban the Burqa” in the “interest of public safety”, reports GB News.
• “France finally agrees to intercept migrant boats” – France has agreed to draw up a plan to stop small boats in the English Channel with new patrol vessels, says LBC.
• “Politicians have their heads in the sand about immigration’s irreversible damages” – Significant population changes are testing the UK’s reputation for being a successful multi-ethnic democracy, warns Rakib Ehsan in the Telegraph.
• “Badenoch launches review into leaving ECHR” – Kemi Badenoch is to launch a police commission headed by shadow attorney general David Wolfson into whether Britain should leave the European Convention on Human Rights and how to prevent lawyers “subverting” government policy, reports the Telegraph.
• “Starmer could be Labour’s last PM. That’s why he is a danger to Britain” – As the PM’s problems mount, he is likely to adopt Corbynite policies to appeal to the far-Left, warns Allister Heath in the Telegraph.
• “We are heading for economic disaster: say goodbye to virtue-signalling socialism” – Britain is now simply too broke for virtue-signalling socialism, says Matthew Lynn in the Telegraph.
• “Has Nigel Farage just snatched defeat from the jaws of victory?” – The by-election on Thursday is shaping up to be a straight fight between the SNP and Reform, reports Alan Cochrane in the Telegraph. But Farage may have blown it for hinting he’d abolish the Barnett formula.
• “Literal Nazi” – On Substack, Dr David McGrogan argues that while Lord Hermer was accused of likening Tory and Reform ECHR critics to Nazis, the real scandal is that Hermer unwittingly echoed Nazi legal theorist Carl Schmitt more closely than his opponents did.
• “Teen who left female teacher unconscious in pool of blood avoids jail” – A schoolboy who slammed his teacher onto the concrete ground and left her in a pool of blood has avoided prison, reports the Mail. Meanwhile, Lucy Connolly…
• “Britain’s pubs are being ‘taxed out of existence’. Can Clarkson’s Farm help?” – In the Telegraph, Liam Kelly reports how Jeremy Clarkson’s chaotic bid to revive a village pub lays bare the brutal economics and overregulation taxing Britain’s locals out of existence.
• “Labour won’t return winter fuel cash to all pensioners despite U-turn” – Labour’s U-turn on fuel payments will happen in time for more pensioners to benefit this winter – but not all retirees will have the handouts restored, says the Mail.
• “Labour council forced to axe LTN that raked in £1 million” – A Labour council has been ordered to scrap an “unlawful” low-traffic neighbourhood after losing a High Court battle, reports the Telegraph.
• “Reeves forced to back down in Net Zero row with Miliband” – Ed Miliband has defeated an attempt by Rachel Reeves to raid one of his key Net Zero programmes in next week’s spending review, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Ed Miliband wants kill switches in your house” – In the Telegraph, Andrew Orlowski warns that Ed Miliband’s push for smart meters could let power companies flick a remote ‘kill switch’ in your home.
• “Ed Miliband’s agenda is falling apart piece by piece in Net Zero humiliation‘” – Miliband’s Net Zero is a one-way ticket to energy poverty, industrial decay and national subjugation, warns Lois Perry in the Express.
• “Carbon capture company emits more than it captures” – In Climate & Capitalism, Chris Lang reveals how Climeworks’ carbon capture scheme emits more than it removes and sells credits for CO₂ it hasn’t yet captured.
• “Mental health sick days soar by five million in just a year” – Britons took an extra five million sick days for mental health reasons last year after a surge in conditions including stress, anxiety and depression, reports the Telegraph.
• “The hospital where routine heart operations became a death sentence” – Botched heart ops, feuding medics and covered-up deaths – in the Telegraph, Michael Searles reports on the hospital where routine surgery became a death trap and police are now investigating 11 deaths.
• “Sylvanian Families toymaker targets ‘kidults’ as falling birth rates hit sales” – Sylvanian Families maker Epoch, hit by collapsing birth rates, is pivoting to ‘kidults’ in a bid to rescue profits from the nursery’s slow death, reports the Telegraph. 
• “Gal Gadot ‘reluctant to ever film in London again’ after protests” – Gal Gadot has been left “scarred” and “reluctant to ever film in London again” following a wave of anti-Israel and antisemitic protests that have dogged the production of her latest film, reports the Mail.
• “Israel threatens Greta Thunberg’s ‘Freedom Flotilla’ Gaza cruise” – Israel has threatened to block Greta Thunberg’s “freedom flotilla” from delivering aid to Gaza, says the Mail.
• “Greta Thunberg’s pathetic Gaza voyage” – Was there ever such a show-boating crusading numpty as Greta? asks Julie Burchill in the Spectator.
• “France is on the brink of full-scale civil war” – In the Mail, Jonathan Miller, who has spent 25 years in France, says locals are fed up with violent mobs – and he dreads what’s coming next.
• “How asylum advocates, a corrupt Green judge, some Polish NGO and three Somali migrants collaborated to attack Friedrich Merz’s new border policy” – On Substack, Eugyppius explains how asylum advocates, NGOs and a Green-aligned judge orchestrated a legal ambush against Germany’s border crackdown.
• “Bulgaria is being forced to adopt the euro. It’s caused an outcry” – An intense political standoff has erupted as the eurozone prepares to welcome its 21st member, writes Hans van Leeuwen in the Telegraph.
• FTC targets advertising groups over allegations of social media censorship – The US Federal Trade Commission is investigating advertising and media watchdog groups over whether they violated antitrust laws through coordinated boycotts of social media platforms, reports the National News Desk.
• “How Trump killed Pride month” – Corporate America has fallen out of love with Pride month – and it’s because of Donald Trump, says Benedict Smith in the Telegraph.
• “LGBT Pride Month has become a pointless embarrassment” – It makes no difference whether firefighters or flight crew are homosexual – so why are we told that they are? asks Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
• “Marvel fans erupt after new Black Panther is revealed as white” – Marvel fans are in uproar after the debut of a new storyline that reimagines Black Panther’s legacy with a shocking twist: his successor appears to be white, reports the Mail.
• “‘People are realising that woke is deeply authoritarian’” – In a wide-ranging interview with Claire Fox for her Substack, Andrew Doyle talks about how authoritarian woke is and why there is still much to be done to defend freedom.
• “GCSE Applied Mathematics Paper II” – On Substack, Paul Sutton takes a darkly comic swipe at today’s GCSE Applied Mathematics.
• “Pervert Fayed ‘spent years spying on women in Harrods changing rooms’” – According to claims made by his former bodyguard, Mohamed Al Fayed spied on customers using the changing rooms at Harrods for decades, according to the Mail.
• “Atta gal…” – Lord Ashcroft, who has threatened to leave the Conservative Party if Kemi is deposed as leader, praises her performance at PMQs yesterday.

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