News Round-Up

• “Sadiq Khan grooming gang ‘cover-up’ exposed as new evidence revealed” – Sadiq Khan has been accused of covering up evidence of grooming gangs in London after an Express investigation.
• “Blair backs Kemi’s stance on small-boat arrivals claiming asylum” – Sir Tony Blair has put himself at odds with Sir Keir Starmer by arguing that boat migrants should not be allowed to claim asylum – the same position as Kemi Badenoch, reports the Mail.
• “Fury as migrants could have clothes washed for free in service paid for by you” – Hotel migrants could have their clothes washed for free in a pick-up and returns service run by a Home Office-hired laundry firm, according to the Express.
• “Asylum seeker jailed for biting rare plant and stealing from college property” – An asylum seeker who damaged and bit rare plants and stole from an Oxford college’s property, has been jailed, reports This is Oxfordshire.
• “Blowing the whistle on Birmingham’s integration problem” – The banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans is symptomatic of a society in decline, warns Joe Hackett in the Critic.
• “Anti-Jewish sentiment has poisoned our police” – A Jewish lawyer was grilled over his Star of David – proof, says Stephen Daisley in the Spectator, that the Met is now policing Jewish identity.
• “UK citizens who fought for Israel should be tried for war crimes” – Scottish Green co-leader Ross Greer is calling for British citizens who have fought with Israel in Gaza to be tried for war crimes when they return home, reports the Mail.
• “David Gilmour confirms he will never perform with Roger Waters again” – Pink Floyd star David Gilmour says he’ll never play with ex-bandmate Roger Waters again after a bitter feud over antisemitism, according to the Mail.
• “Gal Gadot needs police to thwart anti-Israel protesters on London set” – Gal Gadot has resumed work on her latest film in London, after a wave of anti-Israel protests delayed production for several weeks, reports the Mail.
• “UK MPs warn of repeat of 2024 riots unless online misinformation is tackled” – MPs have warned that failures to tackle online misinformation properly mean it is “only a matter of time” before viral content triggers a repeat of the 2024 summer riots, says the Guardian.
• “Starmer has been untruthful about China spy case, says Badenoch” – Kemi Badenoch has accused Sir Keir Starmer of making “false” statements about the reasons behind the collapse of the China spy trial, reports Conservative Post.
• “Markets punish Britain for losing its way” – Steep borrowing costs that would once have seemed laughable are now bleak reality for the UK, write Szu Ping Chan and Tim Wallace in the Telegraph.
• “New blow for Rachel Reeves as even Tony Blair opposes new tax hikes” – Sir Tony Blair believes the top rate of income tax should be cut to below 40%, putting him at odds with Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, according to the Express.
• “ A perfect storm is threatening Britain’s pubs – and even the very best venues aren’t safe” – As one of our “500 Best Pubs in England” is forced to close, many landlords fear they may be next, writes Will Hawkes in the Telegraph.
• “Ex-reality TV star leads castle protest over Reeves’ tax raid” – A millionaire ex-reality TV star has led a bizarre protest at a 13th Century castle against Rachel Reeves’ non-dom tax raids, reports the Mail.
• “Labour VAT raid triggers faith school closures” – The Catholic Church in England and Wales has slammed Labour’s private school raid for unfairly targeting schools with low fees and lots of bursary pupils, says the Telegraph.
• “EU steel tariffs ‘breach Brexit deal’, warns Britain’s former trade adviser” – The UK’s former senior trade negotiator says the EU’s threat to levy crippling tariffs on British steel is illegal and would breach the post-Brexit free trade deal, according to the Telegraph.
• “UK taxpayers still fork out ‘£41 billion to cover EU’s waste’ despite Brexit” – UK taxpayers have reportedly paid £41 billion since Brexit to cover Brussels’ waste, reports the Express.
• “Oxford Union faces financial ruin after free speech row over Charlie Kirk leaves debating society in ‘utter turmoil’” – The Oxford Union faces financial chaos as up to £500,000 in donations are frozen and speakers pull out over comments by the President-elect on Charlie Kirk, says the Mail.
• “Crime is so bad now I don’t go out after 6pm” – Actress Susan Hampshire tells Chris Harvey in the Telegraph that she won’t go out after 6pm because of rising crime.
• “DWP answering benefit claimants’ calls six times faster than taxpayer calls to HMRC” – Benefit claimants’ calls to Government phone lines are being picked up six times faster than taxpayer calls to HMRC, reports GB News.
• “A&E doctor tells of managers suffocating NHS with endless bureaucracy ” – In the Mail, an A&E doctor illustrates how the NHS is crippled by bureaucracy.
• “You can put a price on safety – here’s how” – The philosophy that ‘you can’t have too much safety’ is seemingly the starting point for Britain’s regulators, writes Henry Hill in CapX.
• “Greens overtake Tories as third-largest party after membership surge” – The Greens claim to have overtaken the Tories to become the UK’s third-largest party following a membership surge under new leader Zack Polanski, according to the Mail.
• “Reform’s new ‘kingmaker’: the theologian friend of JD Vance” – Nigel Farage has appointed James Orr, a Cambridge University theologian with strong White House links, as a senior adviser tasked with boosting Reform UK’s talent acquisition, reports the Telegraph.
• “Is this the new Jackie Weaver?” – A leaked Kent County Council meeting clip showing Reform members swearing at and muting each other could have launched the next Jackie Weaver into our midst, says the Mail.
• “Ed Miliband responds to Jeremy Clarkson’s threat to run for MP in his Doncaster seat” – Ed Miliband has revealed he would “welcome” Jeremy Clarkson’s challenge in his constituency at the next election, according to ITV News.
• “Ed Miliband makes major hint on energy bills ahead of Rachel Reeves’s Budget” – Ed Miliband has hinted that the Government may cut the rate of VAT on energy bills in its autumn Budget, reports the Express.
• “Miliband’s £22 billion CO₂ vision risks crashing into reality” – Off the Norfolk coast, the UK is drilling its first CO₂ well as part of Ed Miliband’s £22 billion carbon-capture plan – a vision that could cost households £800 each and far more to run, warns Jonathan Leake in the Telegraph.
• “Miliband casts a spell” – Ed Miliband’s maths gets a roasting from Jit in Climate Scepticism, who points out that his ‘£300 off bills’ plan would actually add about £1,000 per household.
• “Miliband ridiculed over plans to rebrand plumbers as ‘clean energy’ workers” – Ed Miliband has been mocked over plans to rename plumbers, electricians and welders as “clean energy” workers, reports the Telegraph.
• “Ed Miliband is making our energy crisis worse” – Britain has become a byword for the failure of Net Zero policies, writes John Penrose in CapX.
• “The headlong rush to Net Zero must stop before we are all ruined” – The myths of green jobs and cheaper bills are looking more threadbare day by day, says the Telegraph in a leading article.
• “Dale’s empire strikes back” – On Substack, David Turver exposes intimidating letters from Dale Vince’s lawyers, which demonstrate that his commitment to free speech is only skin deep.
• “We need to talk about ‘minors’ seeking asylum” – Ireland’s asylum system is being exploited by adults pretending to be minors, putting real children at risk, warns Niamh Uí Bhriain in Gript.
• “Spoil The Vote campaign launched in Dublin” – A new Dublin campaign is urging voters to “Spoil the Vote” in next week’s Presidential Election, as a protest against the lack of a centre-Right candidate, according to Gript.
• “Thieves drop priceless Eugénie crown outside Louvre during heist” – A gang of brazen thieves dropped the priceless Eugénie Crown outside the Louvre in Paris during a jaw-dropping daylight heist of the world’s most visited museum, reports the Mail.
• “Politics as usual” – In TakiMag, Theodore Dalrymple comments on the febrile political climate in France.
• “The firewall is making AfD the strongest party in Germany, artificially empowering the Left and destroying the centre-Right, who alone can lift it” – On Substack, Eugyppius delves into the unprecedented political dumbassery afoot in the Federal Republic.
• “Pope’s visit is an insult, say residents on Italian island overrun with migrants” – Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Lampedusa is seen as for refugees, not locals, who feel ignored as migrants keep arriving and public services are falling apart, reports Nick Squires in the Telegraph.
• “Israel claims Hamas has violated Trump-brokered ceasefire agreement” – Israel momentarily ramped up air strikes in Gaza on “terror targets” after accusing Hamas of carrying out attacks in a “bold violation” of the Trump-brokered peace deal, says the Mail.
• “Why ‘the key to a two-state solution’ is languishing in an Israeli prison” – Marwan Barghouti, jailed for decades and hailed by some as a Palestinian Mandela, could be the key to peace, writes Adrian Blomfield in the Telegraph.
• “My hell at the hands of Hamas: stripped, hung upside down and whipped” – Horrific Hamas torture hasn’t broken Gazan activist Moumen al-Natour, who keeps fighting for his people despite beatings, starvation and threats to his family, says Imogen Garfinkel in the Mail.
• “Trump deploys secretive ‘Night Stalkers’ regiment to Venezuela” – Donald Trump has deployed one of the Army’s most secretive regiments in the Caribbean after threatening military strikes on targets inside Venezuela, reports the Mail.
• “Fauci’s lies are catching up with him” – FOIA emails show Fauci met with scientists tied to Wuhan’s lab just before gain-of-function research resumed – and then lied about it, says Dr Robert W. Malone on his Substack.
• “The scientific discoveries that prove God does exist” – In a new book, mathematicians have distilled insights from 62 Nobel Prize winners and more than 100 leading scientists to identify the scientific discoveries that could prove God is real, according to the Mail.
• “God doesn’t exist” – Charles Murray’s new book making the case for God’s existence is an enjoyable read, but many of its arguments are unpersuasive, says Bo Winegard in Aporia.
• “NHS wanted Darlington nurses schooled by trans female colleague” – NHS bosses wanted nurses to be schooled about trans issues by the same biological male colleague they had complained about after he insisted on using the female changing room, reveals the Mail on Sunday.
• “BBC’s message to working-class white men: Keep your mouths shut” – The BBC’s latest “female-led” push isn’t about balance but about silencing working-class white boys, writes John Smith in TCW.
• “Black Lives Matter campaigning not welcome in BBC newsroom, says Tim Davie” – Tim Davie says that personal politics have no place in the corporation’s news department amid repeated controversy over the BBC’s impartiality, according to the Telegraph.
• “Prince Andrew facing police investigation over Giuffre smear claims” – The Met Police is looking into reports that Prince Andrew asked an officer to help with an attempted smear campaign against the woman who accused him of sexual assault, reports Sky News.
• “William to ban disgraced Prince Andrew from all future royal events” – Prince William is set to take a tougher approach with Prince Andrew by banning his disgraced uncle from all future royal events – including his Coronation when he ascends to the throne, according to the Mail.
• “Kaye Adams taken off £155,000-a-year BBC radio show over bullying claims” – Loose Women presenter Kaye Adams has been taken off her BBC Radio Scotland show following allegations she “shouted and screamed” at colleagues, reports the Mail.
• “Why communism never works and what communists did to my family” – On YouTube, Konstantin Kisin talks to James Bartholomew about what it was like growing up in the USSR, what the communists did to his family and why communism always fails.
• “Countries with the most arrests for online comments…” – Wondering which country had the most arrests for online comments in 2023? It’s not even close.

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