News Round-Up

• “President Trump is trouncing Governor Newsom in the court of public opinion” – The images of violent rioters is terrible for the Democratic establishment, says Michael Lind in the Telegraph.
• “Crackdown on family visas risks breaching ECHR rules, Starmer told” – A proposed crackdown on family visas aimed at reducing immigration risks breaching human rights laws, Government advisers have warned, according to the Telegraph.
• “I didn’t think we were heading for civil war. Now I’m not so sure” – Responding to the latest migration-related unrest in Northern Ireland (now in its second night), the Telegraph‘s Annabel Denham says we are not yet at the point where civil war is inevitable, but uncontrolled immigration means the nation’s cohesion is fraying fast.
• “Starmer’s Chagos ‘surrender’ will fund tax cuts for Mauritians” – The Mauritian Government has said it will use almost £500 million in payments under the Chagos agreement to pay off its national debt, allowing ministers to abolish income tax entirely for 81% of employed Mauritians and raise minimum salaries – while the UK suffers under crippling levels of tax and debt, the Telegraph reports.
• “Rachel Reeves’s winter fuel U turn is indefensible” – In U-turning on her flagship policy, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has shown just how spineless this Government really is, says Charles Amos in the Spectator.
• “Britain losing jobs at fastest rate since Covid” – 274,000 jobs have been lost over the last 12 months as the Chancellor has mounted her tax raid on the country – yet at the same time public sector employment has hit a 14-year high, says Eir Nolsøe in the Telegraph.
• “Fury as farmers told inheritance tax raid will ‘fund mental health hubs’” – Labour has sparked further fury from farmers after confirming its inheritance tax raid will fund “mental health hubs”, leaving MPs “staggered” by the decision, reports the Telegraph.
• “Labour’s ideological attack on private schools is backfiring spectacularly” – Instead of extracting £1.5 billion from private schools, Treasury analysis has suggested that the new tax policy could cost the Government an extra £650 million per year, writes Dia Chakravarty in the Telegraph.
• “Rayner: Rough sleeping will no longer be a crime” – Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner is set to scrap a 200 year-old law banning rough sleeping, sparking fears more people could camp on the streets, reports the Telegraph.
• “US drops support for a Palestinian state” – Supporting an independent Palestinian state is no longer official US policy as there is “no room” for a two-state solution unless culture changes, according to Mike Huckabee, America’s ambassador to Israel, the Telegraph reports.
• “Greta Thunberg deported by Israel” – Greta Thunberg said the world needs more “angry young women like me” after she was deported from Israel.
• “Did Greta Thunberg refuse to watch the October 7th video?” – To shut one’s eyes to the grim reality of Hamas’s antisemitic barbarism is to be wilfully blind to one of the great horrors of our age – yet Greta has been reported to have done exactly that, says Brendan O’Neill in the Spectator.
• “Quit if you disagree with Israel-Gaza policy, Foreign Office staff told” – Civil servants in the Foreign Office have been told to resign by their bosses if they disagree with the Government’s policy on Gaza, after 300 wrote a letter to the Foreign Secretary warning of “complicity” in Israel’s actions, the Telegraph reports.
• “Labour to sanction Israeli ministers” – Britain has sanctioned Israel’s security and finance ministers, banning them from entering Britain, over their comments about the war in Gaza in a significant break with the US, the Telegraph reports.
• “Hermer praised mosque where preacher urged Muslims to ‘spit on Israel’” – Lord Hermer praised a mosque where a preacher urged Muslims to spit on Israel, the Telegraph reveals.
• “Tories score double the donations of Reform” – The Tories received a whopping £3.3 million of donations between January 1st and March 31st 2025, £1 million more than Labour who received £2.3 million, and over double the £1.48 million for Reform, according to the Spectator.
• “Reform Chairman once branded Farage a ‘prejudiced and dangerous idiot’” – The new Chairman of Reform UK, Dr David Bull, once called Nigel Farage an “idiot” and said comments made by him were “dangerous”, while he branded Trump a “fool”, reports the Telegraph.
• “Does David Bull know why people vote Reform?” – In his first interview in the role, Reform’s new Chairman said “immigration is the lifeblood of this country, it always has been”. Does he know why people vote for his party, wonders Tom Jones in the Spectator.
• “RFK Jr. Just Declared War on mRNA” – On Substack, Lauren Lee shows the four key actions RFK has already taken against experimental mRNA vaccine technology.
• “Chikungunya Vaccine: Now you don’t see it, now you don’t” – On Trust the Evidence, Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson note that the vaccine the MHRA has just removed over safety concerns wasn’t even on the market yet. What about the ones that are?
• “Ed Miliband’s nuclear golden era could soon become a new dark age” – We are careering into a future without gas, and the atomic solutions offered for so long are not ready, says Philip Johnston in the Telegraph.
• “Calling us Nimbys is ‘hate speech’, anti-solar campaigner tells Government” – The term ‘Nimby’ is “hate speech” that is being used to “alienate and isolate ordinary people”, the leader of a campaign trying to block Britain’s biggest solar farm has said, according to the Telegraph.
• “Finally, a Harry Potter star has backed J.K. Rowling” – Tom Felton, who played Harry Potter’s platinum-blond nemesis Draco Malfoy in the films, has done what so many of his young co-stars have failed to do, says Tom Slater in the Spectator.
• “Christian worker gains final victory against school after it sacked her for LGBT posts” – Kristie Higgs has said she is “relieved” at the “common-sense decision” after winning her years-long legal battle against a school which sacked her for sharing social media posts about LGBT relationships, the Telegraph reports.
• “‘Pride crumble’ served in House of Lords” – The House of Lords canteen has served peers a ‘pride crumble’ dessert with a rainbow-coloured topping, says the Telegraph.
• “A woman head of MI6 – my open letter to Nigel Farage” – In TCW, Julian Mann wonders aloud whether the two women in the final running to be MI6 head were really the best for the job.
• “How has the media wronged Nadiya Hussain?” – In the Spectator, Stephen Daisley says that Bake Off‘s Nadiya Hussain stroppily played the race (well, Muslim) card after her long-running cookery show was cancelled by the BBC.
• “Unite union had ‘pervasive fraud environment’, leaked report says” – One of Britain’s biggest trade unions had a “pervasive fraud environment”, a leaked auditors’ report has concluded, the Telegraph reports.
• “HOPE Not Hate’s working relationship with Global” – Both LBC and the News Agents have worked with HOPE Not Hate on exclusives, says Charlotte Gill on Substack.
• “The Curse of Government by Committee” – Eugyppius continues to flesh out his Theory of Political Stupidity.
• “Scottish drug deaths soar after SNP opens legalised heroin use room” – Drug deaths in Scotland have surged by a third since the SNP’s legalised consumption room for heroin addicts opened, prompting warnings it was “feeding addiction”, the Telegraph reports.
• “Make Speech Free Again” – In the Claremont Review of Books, John Rosenthal writes on how the US can defeat EU censorship.
• “Brazilian comedian jailed for eight years for offensive jokes” – Brazilian comedian Léo Lins has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for telling offensive jokes, as he says he plans to appeal, the Telegraph reports.
• “The UK is about to pass Europe’s most extreme abortion law” – Britain may soon have one of the most extreme abortion regimes in the world as the Commons prepares to vote on amendments, proposed by Labour MPs Stella Creasy and Tonia Antoniazzi, to the Crime and Policing Bill that seek to decriminalise abortion up to the moment of birth, warns Miriam Cates in the Telegraph.
• “Stop the Oxford Congestion Charge” – Sign the petition on ActionStorm.
• “China’s London embassy could be scrapped amid claims ministers rigged decision” – China’s bid to build a mega-embassy in the heart of London could be scrapped amid claims ministers rigged the decision behind closed doors, reports the Sun.
• “Sadiq Khan is the last person that should get a knighthood” – The London Mayor appears more interested in antagonising diplomatic allies than in improving London, says Rakib Ehsan in the Telegraph.
• “Woke police chiefs whinge about underfunding when the real problem is their warped priorities” – Officers are no longer doing the job we expect them to do, while interfering in things that are none of their damn business, says Allison Pearson in the Telegraph.
• “I really hate to say it, but I agree with J.D. Vance. Britain has a free speech problem” – The US constitution provides far more freedom of speech than there is in the UK, says the Guardian‘s Arwa Mahdawi.
• “State is ‘stifling criticism of Islam over fear of violent mobs’, says Tory MP” – The state is stifling criticism of Islam because of fears of a violent mob reaction, Tory MP Nick Timothy has warned following the conviction of Hamit Coskun for setting fire to a Koran, the Telegraph reports.
• “Keep Hamit Coskun Safe” – Watch Toby in the House of Lords urge the Government to ensure police are doing everything possible to protect Hamit after police warned him of a serious and credible threat to his life.

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