News Round-Up

• “Labour Together’s bid to smear journalists must be properly investigated” – In a leading article, the Times says Josh Simons, the Cabinet Office minister who once led Labour Together, should step aside while inquiries are made into his role in smearing two Sunday Times journalists.
• “David Lammy to face down rebels and force through judge-only trials” – David Lammy is preparing to stare down Labour rebels and push ahead with controversial plans to curb jury trials, reports the Telegraph.
• “‘Bullying’ report destroyed after ethics team broke into safe” – The Cabinet Office’s Propriety and Ethics Team broke into a safe and destroyed the department’s copy of a historic bullying investigation into the new Cabinet Secretary, reports the Times.
• “Four pubs a day closing under high-tax Labour” – An average of four pubs a day have shuttered since the start of the year in the wake of Labour’s tax policies, says the Telegraph.
• “NHS spent £600,000 in taxpayer cash fighting Darlington nurses in trans row” – County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust spent more than £600,000 battling nurses who objected to sharing changing rooms with a biological male, according to the Telegraph.
• “Councils cut back on pothole repairs to pay special needs bill” – Councils have been scaling back pothole repairs as spiralling special needs and care costs eat into budgets, reports the Telegraph.
• “Tories pledge to cut ‘unfair’ interest on student loans” – The Conservatives have pledged to abolish the “unfair” additional interest on student loans, says the Telegraph.
• “Young people have been stitched up by Blair’s university con” – In the Telegraph, Kemi Badenoch slams Blair’s university targets for leaving young people saddled with debts.
• “Detective at London Bridge attack is sacked over traveller jokes” – A police officer praised for tackling terrorists at London Bridge has lost his job over allegedly offensive messages in a private WhatsApp group, reports the Mail.
• “Police ‘turn blind eye’ to sharia courts in Britain” – Shocking data shows how rare prosecutions are for “honour-related offences” seen most often in Muslim communities, reveals the Express.
• “Greens target Muslim vote in by-election” – Green Party activists are telling Muslim voters to “punish Labour for Gaza” ahead of next week’s Gorton and Denton by-election, reports the Telegraph.
• “Palestine activists ‘intimidate Jews’ with Israel boycott campaign” – Across Britain, Jewish communities are raising the alarm over pro-Palestinian activists going door-to-door to identify residents who refuse to boycott Israeli goods, according to the Algemeiner.
• “England is losing its soul” – In the Telegraph, Howard Jacobson argues that modern Britain is abandoning the tradition of religious tolerance that once defined it.
• “The Establishment has been rocked before. Epstein is an existential threat” – The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is likely to ignite a constitutional debate that embroils the King, other senior royals and Britain’s ruling class, warns Robert Verkaik in the Times.
• “Andrew scandal must not overshadow the brilliant work of the monarchy” – The benefits of the Royal family far outweigh any trouble caused by its bad apples, writes Daniel Johnson in the Telegraph.
• “It’s time for another U-turn, Sir Keir: your abject Chagos surrender” – When we bundle Starmer out of the door, we must throw his supranationalist obsessions out with him, says Daniel Hannan in the Telegraph.
• “My Chagos aid mission has been blocked” – Nigel Farage has accused the Government of trying to block his attempt to deliver aid to Chagos Islanders, reports GB News.
• “How will Trump’s new global tariffs work and what’s next?” – A court ruling on Trump’s tariff regime has thrown UK-US trade into chaos. The BBC outlines what comes next.
• “Trump hits Britain with higher tariffs” – The President has announced that tariffs will rise to 15% from 10%, meaning British exports will now cost significantly more for US consumers, reports the Telegraph.
• “Cambridge loves kings – if they are Nigerian” – Cambridge University is sending back 116 Benin bronzes to the descendant of a slave-trading monarch, writes Robert Tombs in the Telegraph.
• “The far-Left lynch mobs bringing ‘civil war’ to French streets” – France is bracing for more unrest as clashes involving far-Left activists escalate on the streets of Lyon, reports Henry Samuel in the Telegraph.
• “Sam Altman says the quiet part out loud, confirming some companies are ‘AI washing’” – OpenAI’s boss admits some companies are blaming layoffs on AI even when the tech is not the cause, according to Fortune.
• “Miliband’s Net Zero obsession ‘puts Britain at risk of Russia attack’” – Gen Sir Richard Shirreff has warned that speeding up the UK’s fossil fuel phase-out could hit its energy resilience, leaving it open to cyber attacks from Moscow, reports the Telegraph.
• “America’s liberal stronghold wastes $8 million on buses that stop in the cold” – Vermont’s push to make its cities eco-friendly has gone sideways after officials found out their new fleet of electric buses can’t run in cold weather, according to the Mail.
• “Aussie senator: US social media reluctance to censor climate sceptics – ‘this is the problem’” – Apparently, free speech is OK as long as the Australian Government thinks what you are saying is true, says Eric Worrall in Watts Up With That?
• “Climate change is not going to cost Colorado billions, Colorado Sun” – In Climate Realism, Linnea Lueken challenges the Colorado Sun’s scary climate projections with some hard data.
• “Germany: electric car catches fire at charging station, sets off local ‘inferno’, widespread damage” – On No Tricks Zone, P. Gosselin reports on a dramatic electric car charging-station fire in Germany.
• “On the ‘collapse’ of the Boreal forest” – In Cliscep, Jit pokes fun at doomsayers warning of Boreal forest collapse.
• “Bishop of Lincoln arrested on suspicion of sexual assault” – Police have arrested the Rt Revd Stephen Conway on suspicion of sexual assault, reports ITV News.
• “Royal Wootton Bassett war memorial could be ‘overshadowed’ by Pride flag” – Royal Wootton Bassett council’s plans to fly the Progress Pride flag near its cenotaph have sparked claims of “virtue signalling” and disrespect, says the Telegraph.
• “Thames Water throws £3 million down the toilet in ‘puerile’ public art project” – Thames Water has spent millions on a baffling toilet-themed art installation outside its offices, according to the Telegraph.
• “I want to first of all say something about Western civilization” – Bill Maher explains to younger viewers why they should value Western civilisation.

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