News Round-Up
- “Don’t give money to Palestine Action, says No 10 after Sally Rooney row” – Downing Street has warned the Normal People author Sally Rooney that she risks committing a terror offence if she funds the banned group Palestine Action, according to Sky News.
- “Seaside council offers asylum seekers discounts on beach hut hire” – Asylum seekers in Portsmouth are being offered 40% off beach hut hires, reports Guido Fawkes. Might as well walk with towels and beach bags straight off the small boats…
- “Labour must abandon its project to define Islamophobia” – There are problems both in practice and principle with trying to circumscribe allegedly anti-Muslim speech and action, says the Times in a leading article.
- “How Dale Vince’s giant Palestinian flag is dividing a Cotswolds town” – Former Just Stop Oil tycoon Dale Vince has become embroiled in a row over a huge 30ft-tall Palestinian flag being flown on the front of his green energy firm’s HQ, reports the Mail.
- “Palestine Action wants you to think middle-class young women can’t be extremists” – Supporters of Palestine Action appear to believe their class and ‘virtue’ make them immune to punishment for serious offences, writes Brendan O’Neill in theTelegraph.
- “Corbyn was wrong to ‘capitulate’ over antisemitism, says Sultana” – Zarah Sultana, co-founder of Jeremy Corbyn’s new Left-wing party, says he “capitulated” over antisemitism while Labour leader, according to the Mail.
- “I stood up to shoplifters in Tesco. It ruined my life” – In the Telegraph, Will Bolton tells Emilie Martin’s story of how she confronted a gang of thieves in East London and is still dealing with the consequences 10 years on.
- “Farage is not selling out, he is just preparing Reform for government” – If the current political insurgency fails, what will follow will be genuinely nasty and truly far-Right, warns Tim Stanley in the Telegraph.
- “Rubbish collections delayed as binmen go on holiday” – Rubbish collections in Ealing are being delayed as the council blames a driver shortage caused by binmen on holiday, reports the Mail.
- “Mental health claims see Foreign Office absences soar” – In the Spectator, Steerpike reveals that Whitehall is off sick more than ever, with Foreign Office mental health absences up by 77% and total sick days soaring past 30,000.
- “Benefit sanctions fall under Labour” – Benefit sanctions have fallen sharply under Labour after a jump in the number of claimants who say they are too sick to look for work, reports the Telegraph.
- “How sickness benefits became a backdoor to an early retirement” – There are now 3.7 million people claiming Britain’s main unemployment benefit who do not have to look for work, writes Szu Ping Chan in the Telegraph.
- “Rachel Reeves eyeing huge tax change and your home is in ‘firing line’” – Rachel Reeves has been accused of planning a new punishment tax on homeowners as she scrambles to fill a mega £50 billion black hole, reports the Express.
- “Just one in 10 white pupils will get into a top university” – Official Department for Education data shows just 11.7% of white pupils attend the top third of universities by age 19, says the Mail.
- “Sorry graduates, but employers don’t care about your degree” – As AI swallows entry-level roles, candidates’ education qualifications are mattering less, writes Lucy Burton in the Telegraph.
- “Britain’s online safety law is running amok” – Britain’s Online Safety Act is out of control and poses big problems for social media platforms, says Toby in the Washington Post.
- “Reeves threatened with legal action over protection for bats and newts” – Rachel Reeves is under fire from green groups over claims she’s ready to gut environmental protections to fast-track infrastructure, reports the Mail.
- “The great unravelling” – On Substack, David Turver warns that the social and economic fabric of the nation is unravelling, and that rational energy policy must be part of the solution.
- “Trump EPA issues new guidance for ‘clean’ battery storage, exposing risks activists ignore” – The Trump administration has released the first federal safety guidance for battery energy storage systems, citing recent fires at several green energy facilities, reports the Daily Caller.
- “Insane energy policies are set to burn Democrats in New Jersey, New York” – New York’s state Public Service Commission just OK’d big National Grid rate increases that’ll hike many upstate utility bills by $600 a year – fuelling outrage Democrats will soon feel, says the NY Post.
- “Green energy wall coming into focus in New York?” – In the Manhattan Contrarian, Francis Menton says New York’s green-energy push is hitting a wall as utility bills soar to fund building and vehicle electrification.
- “GOP Senators: Scrap the Post Office electric vehicle ‘boondoggle’” – A year after climate change advocates praised a plan to replace thousands of gas-powered mail vehicles with a mostly electric fleet, an effort is underway in Congress to strip billions in federal EV funding, reports Breitbart.
- “In his first 200 days, Trump has overturned Biden climate agenda at breakneck speed, report shows” – In his first 200 days, Trump has bulldozed through Biden’s climate agenda with 200 energy-friendly actions, according to Just the News.
- “Taken for a ride” – Australian schools are about to ramp up Net Zero campaigning using the latest movie Future Council from dark-green activist Damon Gameau, writes Tony Thomas in Climate Scepticism.
- “BBC admits Gazan woman who ‘starved to death’ had cancer” – The BBC has admitted that a Gazan woman it claimed had died of malnutrition was being treated for cancer, reports the Jerusalem Post.
- “Violent political extremism on the rise in Ireland, police warn” – Irish police warn that violent political extremism is on the rise in Ireland, after anti-migrant riots and arson attacks on asylum centres, according to the Telegraph.
- “Has France got what it takes to stand up to the Islamists?” – In the Spectator, Gavin Mortimer warns that France is caving to Islamist intimidation, from banned Barbie screenings to street attacks.
- “Anti-Israel protesters get police protection. Not this Christian rocker” – In Canada, Sean Feucht was forced to perform in a field, while supporters of Hamas are allowed to block streets and threaten Jews, writes Rupa Subramanya in the Free Press.
- “Why Zelensky cannot do what Trump asks” – The US President should know that his proposal is impossible under the Ukrainian constitution, says Charles Moore in the Telegraph.
- “US forces to protect Ukraine as part of a peace deal” – Trump hasn’t ruled out the possibility of American troops helping to guarantee peace between Ukraine and Russia, reports NBC.
- “The pygmies of Europe still haven’t realised how irrelevant they’ve become over Ukraine” – European and Nato leaders chose moral grandstanding over diplomacy, and now they’re being sidelined, writes Owen Matthews in the Telegraph.
- “BlackRock chief Larry Fink entrenches his globalist power at the WEF” – In TCW, Kathy Gyngell warns that BlackRock chief Larry Fink’s new interim co-chair role at the WEF entrenches globalist and corporate power.
- “Killing not care” – On the HART Substack, Dr Ros Jones reveals that the UK COVID-19 Inquiry exposes widespread neglect, coercion and unnecessary deaths in care homes.
- “Pursuing the UKHSA” – On the TTE Substack, Dr Tom Jefferson and Prof Carl Heneghan dig into the UKHSA’s vaccine spending.
- “So what did really happen to Tiffany Dover?” – On the WATN? Substack, Profs Norman Fenton and Martin Neil provide an update on the nurse who collapsed on live TV after receiving one of the first Covid Pfizer shots.
- “The Red Cross suppressed a cure for malaria in 2012, causing over half a million people to die every year since” – On Substack, Dr Pierre Kory provides more evidence that international health care organisations (and all governmental health care and regulatory agencies) are fully captured by Big Pharma.
- “How Dr Jay Bhattacharya hopes to transform the National Institutes of Health” – On the Unreported Truths podcast, Alex Berenson sits down with Dr Jay Bhattacharya, who hopes to transform the National Institutes of Health (and just maybe all of science along the way).
- “Pierce Brosnan U-turns on a female Bond: ‘It has to be a man’” – Pierce Brosnan has backtracked on his earlier support for a female James Bond, now insisting the role “has to be a man”, says the Standard.
- “Thank you Mr President. I would like to begin by clarifying…” – On X, a parody of the recent White House summit on the Ukraine War has Macron trying to explain the ‘complicated’ situation with his wife.
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Surely it would be enough for James Bond to simply identify as a woman… surely?
I’d be OK with that. As long as all the attractive female characters also only identify as men, though.
I thought the next Bond had been decided and he was that black guy, whose name i don’t recall. But then I also remember people getting their knickers in a twist because a white Jewish guy was on the cards for the role, as if anyone’s religion is remotely relevant here.
I don’t watch it but it should naturally be a bloke playing Bond, just like Dr Who should have remained, unless they want their ratings and box office takings to tank. Let Snow White be a lesson to all about what happens if you embrace the woke ideology. I just don’t think you should mess with the original winning formula.
There’s no good reason, that I can think of, why there should not be strong female, or black leads in movies.
Off the top of my head the Terminator, Alien, Blade and Equaliser franchises come to mind. The point is, they stand (or fall) on their own. Shoehorning a character into an already existing role, to satisfy some DEI target is just lazy, unnecessary and diminishes everyone involved.
Recruit on Merit Only – latest leaflet to print at home, deliver to neighbours, forward to your bad MP & friends online. Start a local leaflet campaign. Deliver 100 leaflets a week (5200 a year). Over 300 leaflet ideas on the link on the leaflet.
The pygmies of Europe still haven’t realised how irrelevant they’ve become over Ukraine Europe disarmed, unilaterally, and is now paying the price, diplomatically and financially; European leaders of the last thirty five years less ‘Homo Sapiens’, more ‘Homo Sap’. The depth of that sheer idiocy becomes increasingly apparent as the huge cheques required to restore a verifiably credible conventional deterrent on continental Europe are written. Thanks almost entirely to weaponry supplied by the United States of America, Ukraine continues to defy the odds on the battlefield: ‘Russian forces are struggling to translate the initial tactical infiltration around Dobropillya into a wider operational-level breakthrough……..Ukrainian forces collapsed the Russian salient in the Dobropillya direction by cutting off Russian infiltration…….(Russian elements) operating within the penetration are therefore “fracturing” in their efforts to support the base of penetration and can only hold a 2.5 kilometre width of territory within the penetration as a result. Trump stated that Putin told him that Russia could seize all of Donetsk Oblast if Putin so desired. Putin’s claim that Russian forces will inevitably seize all of Donetsk Oblast if the war continues is false. The Russian campaign to seize all of Donetsk Oblast has been ongoing since Russia’s… Read more »
‘The meeting in Alaska was the last attempt by the Americans to save the Russians’ “The Russian economy is not just in a decline, but is catastrophically sinking. The turning point will be this fall. This is the policy of the new U.S. administration. It’s not necessarily what Trump wanted, but he is effectively crippling the Russian economy. Oil prices have fallen precisely because Trump needs cheap energy. The Russians have been knocked out of Iran, and they have nothing to trade on foreign markets. They were also removed from Syria, and now they’ve been excluded from the Caucasus. This means that Central Asia, which Russia previously blocked from European markets, will now have a much easier time in supplies,” . There is a coordinated agreement between the Americans and Europeans on the sale of energy resources in the European market. These factors mean that Russia will never regain a significant presence in Europe, at least not at the volumes it desires.’ So the Russians are ‘out of gas’ economically: ‘Russian opposition media outlet Vazhnye Istorii reported on August 18 that data from Russian federal budget expenditures indicate that the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) contract recruitment rate fell to… Read more »
Your mention of Dobropyllia is really a prime example of grasping at straws, and calling it a salient is gross exaggeration. It was a probe by a recon group of 2 or 3 soldiers, and as is the nature of such operations has a risk attached. It hardly warrants a mention unless you are desperate for some sign thata complete rout of the Ukrainian forces is not under way.
‘The key lessons from 2024 are that Ukraine can withstand enormous Russian pressures, on the one hand, and that the Kremlin has not figured out how to convert its overall numerical advantages into decisive battlefield gains. The scale of the Russian manpower and materiel losses in 2024 have set conditions for several material and manpower constraints in 2025 and beyond, as ISW has recently reported. The Russian defense industrial base cannot keep up with the pace of armoured vehicle and artillery shortages, and Russia is unlikely to be able to recruit the manpower it needs to continue sustaining these losses without another round of partial mobilization, which the Kremlin remains reluctant to conduct. ‘Images have shown T 62s being transported from storage depots and industrial plants, apparently in preparation for deployment. It remains highly uncertain how many T-62s are currently in Russian Army service, although footage has confirmed that the tanks have taken significant losses in the Ukrainain theatre, and that several dozen of the vehicles have been captured. The Russian Army has previously quickly retired its T-62s in the 1990s While the USSR was able to produce main battle tanks at rates of around 4000 per year in peacetime,… Read more »
Of course, no fortress is effective unless it has sufficient soldiers in it.
What’s really going on:
August 15
‘Small infantry groups of the Russian 5th, 110th, and 132nd separate motorized rifle brigades (all three of the 51st Combined Arms Army <CAA>) conducted the initial penetration, but that the total number of Russian forces that conducted the tactical breakthrough did not exceed 300 to 350 personnel. The Russian military command tried to consolidate the penetration by redeploying elements of the 114th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade (51st CAA) to near Nove Shakhove (east of Dobropillya) and Zapovidne. The Russian military command asked senior commanders in the area to provide additional forces and means by redeploying up to two battalions with armoured vehicles from the 8th CAA.’
August 18
‘Ukrainian forces collapsed the Russian salient in the Dobropillya direction by cutting off Russian infiltration elements from main forces’
Repetition doesn’t improve it.
‘Russian authorities confirmed that a Ukrainian strike recently seriously injured a senior Russian military commander. Republic of Dagestan Head Sergei Melikov confirmed the Ukraine’s Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) August 17 report that Ukrainian forces seriously wounded Russian Northern Group of Forces Deputy Commander Lieutenant General Esedulla Abachev. The GUR reported that Ukrainian strikes against a convoy along the 38K-040 Rylsk-Khomutovka highway in Kursk Oblast on August 16 injured Abachev, requiring an arm and leg amputation.
Russian media report that Ukraine’s Defense Forces have eliminated the brother of the scandalous Russian State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov. Oleksandr Milonov was a volunteer in the reconnaissance unit of the “Third Combined Arms Army of the LNR’
Ukrainian forces struck Russian oil infrastructure in Tambov Oblast overnight on August 17 to 18. The Ukrainian General Staff reported on August 18 that Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces and other Ukrainian forces struck the Nikolskoye oil pumping station in Tambov Oblast. The Ukrainian General Staff stated that the strike stopped oil flow through the Druzhba pipeline, which supplies Russian oil from Russia to various locations throughout Europe.’
Couldn’t agree more. Like Connor, I am not a free speech absolutist, and therefore think these unwelcome, hostile idiots should be banned from spewing their bile in the public space; ”Birmingham City Council banned England and Union flags, while flying Palestine and Pakistan flags. That’s because less than 3 percent of people in Sparkhill are white British, and over 80 percent are Muslim. It is a colony that does not identify with our flag or our country. They are British only by paperwork. You should not be allowed to fly foreign flags in public places or from government buildings. We shouldn’t be affected by Israel’s war with Hamas. I’m sick of hearing about it. Move to Pakistan or Palestine, if you care so much. As for third-worldist leftists protesting as part of Palestine Action: I don’t care about the free speech of people who support a genocidal Jihadist group that would turn my country into a caliphate if it could. Those who exploit Britain’s lenient liberties to advance the cause of communism or Islam don’t care about our traditions — and so should not be protected by them. You don’t get to ignore the rules, flip over the board, and… Read more »
Jim nails it again. European countries should be under no obligation to take these people. They’re surrounded by countries that are culturally compatible and many that are very rich with exactly the resources these kids need. But we know the real reason they’re being flown all the way to Europe; ”Why should injured children from Gaza be brought to Britain, a country already buckling under the weight of a broken NHS, mass illegal migration, housing shortages, and spiralling costs? Why here – and not Qatar, Saudi Arabia, or the UAE, who have infinitely more money, far greater cultural alignment, and vast empty hospitals built with oil wealth? Because it’s not really about compassion. It’s about ideology. Britain is expected to play the role of global caregiver – even when it comes at the expense of its own people. And the cynical truth is this: these “temporary humanitarian exceptions” always become permanent migration pipelines. We’ve seen it before. First the child arrives. Then a guardian. Then the family. Then “extended family reunification.” And before long, the British taxpayer is funding another enclave, complete with its own language, customs, and politics – completely unassimilated and increasingly hostile. Ask for an end to… Read more »
“Don’t give money to Palestine Action, says No 10 after Sally Rooney row”
I wonder which law within the law he means?
“The Red Cross suppressed a cure for malaria in 2012, causing over half a million people to die every year since”
This is HUGE. I wonder, though, whether the cure has to be taken every day for a lifetime, because the malarial parasites are in the drinking water in those countries. The simple cure did wipe out the parasites, but were the patients infected again the next time they drank the contaminated water? The study doesn’t say.