News Round-Up

• “How Labour killed off Britain’s rural pubs” – Locals have been calling last orders as soaring business rates have pushed many rural pubs to the brink, says Tom Haynes in Telegraph.
• “Britain can still escape Starmer’s dreadful Chagos deal” – The Government has stumbled again in the Lords over plans to hand over the Chagos Islands, observes Stephen Daisley in the Spectator.
• “President Trump should sink Keir Starmer’s Chagos surrender deal” – The Chagos surrender bill is one of the most dangerous acts of self-harm by the United Kingdom in its post-war history, writes Nile Gardiner and Kevin Roberts in the Telegraph.
• “Sir Keir Starmer’s Brexit reset will require the UK to cough up to Brussels” – Starmer’s new Brexit plan has sparked talk that the UK will have to open its wallet for Brussels again, reports the Mail.
• “Pubs under threat from Labour’s drink-driving plans” – Pubs face a new assault under Labour’s plans to cut the drink-driving limit, says the Telegraph.
• “How Labour killed off Britain’s rural pubs” – Locals around the country are calling last orders in the face of Labour’s soaring business rates, reports the Telegraph.
• “Everyone’s saying Miliband will be the next Chancellor. And by gosh, he’s looking pleased with himself…” – Ed Miliband has been strutting his stuff in the Commons as everyone reckons he’s the next Chancellor, writes Quentin Letts in the Mail.
• “Badenoch calls for police chief to go over Israeli football fan ban” – Kemi Badenoch has joined those calling for the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police to resign over the force’s decision to ban Israeli football fans from attending a match in Birmingham, reports Sky News.
• “Female prison officer ‘had intimate relationship with inmates’” – A prison officer has been accused of having inappropriate relationships with inmates and smuggling contraband into jail, says the Sun.
• “Kemi Badenoch says US was ‘morally right’ to snatch ‘brutal’ Venezuelan dictator Maduro from his lair in daring raid” – Kemi Badenoch says Trump was “morally right” to send US forces into Venezuela to snatch its dictator Nicolas Maduro, according to the Mail.
• “Trump threatens to use US military to seize Greenland as White House issues extraordinary statement revealing plans to take Danish territory” – The White House has revealed that Trump and his team have discussed using America’s military might to annex Greenland, reports the Mail.
• “Albanese backs top censor, vows stronger ‘hate’ laws” – Australia’s Prime Minister has doubled down on digital regulation by defending the country’s chief online censor, says Cindy Harper in Reclaim The Net.
• “£10.7 million on children: the NHS trial ignoring Cass, contagion and clinician warnings” – On Substack, the Rational Forum examines the imminent launch of the PATHWAYS trial, a £10.7 million NHS study set to administer puberty blockers to up to 226 gender-distressed children amid significant controversy.
• “Why respiratory virus hospital-acquired infections matter” – Hospital-acquired respiratory viruses are not background noise, say Prof Carl Heneghan and Dr Tom Jefferson on the TTE Substack. They are a core driver of harm and system strain that policy must address.
• “Science without scepticism is just politics in a lab coat” – The merging of scientific authority with political power has eroded public trust and open debate, warns Charles Rotter in Watts Up With That?
• “Sterile polygamy” – Modern mating norms have evolved into an unstable system with unintended consequences, says Josh Konstantinos in Aporia Magazine.
• “Britain could be locked into EU’s Net Zero rules without a vote” – Critics warn that Starmer’s Brexit reset could tie the UK to EU climate rules without any public say, according to the Telegraph.
• “Berlin’s terror-blackout enters 4th day as tens of thousands suffer in cold without heat!” – A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Berlin after Left-wing fanatics sabotaged the power grid, reports P. Gosselin on NoTricksZone.
• “For 14 years, a crazy eco-terrorist group has attacked Berlin’s energy infrastructure with impunity. Authorities have done nothing despite enormous damages and wide-scale disruption. What is going on?” – On Substack, Eugyppius delves into the shadowy group whose repeated sabotage of Berlin’s power infrastructure has culminated in one of the largest blackouts in modern German history.
• “Europe’s no snow global warming winter just got buried under white climate change” – Heavy snowfall and transport chaos have rubbished claims of a snowless European winter, writes Eric Worrall in Watts Up With That?
• “Venezuelan oil could make America ‘master of the hemisphere’ if Trump’s domination continues” – Control of Venezuelan oil has reshaped Washington’s strategic leverage in the Americas, says Audrey Streb in the Daily Caller.
• “Offshore wind turbines steal each other’s wind: yields greatly overestimated” – New analysis suggests official projections have vastly overstated offshore wind output, writes Bert Weteringe in Clintel.
• “Why don’t global lower tropospheric temperatures more closely track atmospheric CO₂ levels?” – Long-term satellite data is challenging assumptions about CO₂ and temperature trends, says Francis Menton on the Manhattan Contrarian.
• “UK taxpayers were charged £87,000 for a study on disability stigma in Kenya” – On Substack, Charlotte Gill exposes yet another case of British taxpayers funding overseas research with little relevance at home.
• “Woke isn’t dead – and here’s the proof” – Identity politics has continued to shape public life in Britain in ways its critics were told had ended, writes Patrick West in the Spectator.
• “Labour wants to rewrite laws to change ‘offensive’ term for mobility scooters” – The Government wants to rewrite laws over mobility scooters to update “offensive” language, reports the Telegraph.
• “A taste for great enterprises” – The professional managerial class has retreated from ambition in favour of caution and conformity, says Dr David McGrogan on Substack.
• “What was left of the credibility of West Midlands Police has been destroyed today” – Following new reports presented to the Home Affairs Committee revealing that West Midlands Police banned Maccabi fans from Villa Park due to the threat posed by armed locals to away supporters, the Chief Constable ludicrously claims the reason had not been disclosed earlier because no one had asked him about it.

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