News Round-Up

• “Pakistan declares ‘open war’ with Afghanistan” – Pakistan has declared open war with the Taliban after carrying out air strikes on several Afghan provinces overnight, raising fears of a wider regional conflict, reports the Telegraph.
• “US urges embassy staff to evacuate Israel ‘due to safety risks’ as Trump prepares for possible attack on Iran” – The US has urged embassy personnel to leave Israel amid safety fears as Donald Trump conducts the biggest American military build-up in the Middle East in decades, says the Mail.
• “Britain evacuates staff from Iran amid growing fears Trump will launch an attack” – Britain has withdrawn diplomatic staff from Iran as fears mount that President Trump is preparing to strike, with his State of the Union address making his intentions chillingly plain, according to the Mail.
• “MoD needs extra £2.5 billion to cover Afghan asylum costs” – The Ministry of Defence has asked Parliament for an extra £2.5 billion to cover the costs of its Afghan asylum schemes, revealing the staggering financial burden placed on the defence budget, reports the Telegraph.
• “‘High levels’ of illegal family voting in Gorton and Denton by-election” – Nigel Farage has said that claims by independent observers raise serious questions about the democratic process in predominantly Muslim areas, says the Telegraph.
• “The Greens’ extremist victory pushes Britain one step closer to the abyss” – Zack Polanski’s party has embraced sectarianism with open arms, writes Jake Wallis Simpson in the Telegraph.
• “This Green win should strike fear into the heart of the Right” – YouGov polling has found that 57% of Liberal Democrat voters and 46% of Green voters would back Labour tactically, exposing the fragility of the Right’s electoral coalition, reveals the Telegraph.
• “The rise of the Greens will force Labour into a hard-Left turn” – New polling shows that Starmer’s supporters are switching to Polanski’s party for economic rather than environmental reasons, putting Labour under intense pressure to lurch Left, according to the Telegraph.
• “Starmer’s electoral ‘Valley of Death’: Farage and Greens eye up hundreds of seats at May’s local elections” – Labour’s defeat at Gorton and Denton means the party has entered an electoral Valley of Death, with Reform and the Greens poised to inflict further punishment at May’s local elections, reports the Mail.
• “Keir Starmer on the ropes after by-election humiliation” – The prime minister has been urged to lurch to the Left, as ministers privately say a change in leadership is now inevitable, notes the Times.
• “Gorton & Denton shows there’s no safe seats left for Keir Starmer” – The Greens’ by-election victory has changed the whole psychological climate of progressive politics at the worst possible time for a Labour Party already haemorrhaging support, says the Times.
• “Starmer will lose seat if Greens repeat success at General Election” – Analysis shows that if the Gorton and Denton swing is replicated nationally, the Prime Minister would lose his seat at the next General Election, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Mahmood: Crackdown on migration must go ahead” – Shabana Mahmood has said that Labour must push ahead with its crackdown on migration despite the Green Party’s by-election victory, reports the Telegraph.
• “Here comes more trouble for Starmer: Corbyn to work with Greens on ‘coordinated left flank offensive’ against Reform and Labour” – Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to join forces with Zack Polanski’s insurgent Green Party on a coordinated offensive against both Reform and Labour after being elected as Your Party’s new leader, says the Mail.
• “Labour can’t complain about sectarianism in Gorton” – A Green victory built on an ethnic sectarian campaign targeting the Pakistani-heritage vote has left Labour’s leadership in turmoil, writes Stephen Daisley in the Spectator.
• “Calls for police to probe allegations of ‘cheating’ in by-election” – Reform has warned of “dangerous Muslim sectarianism” in the wake of Democracy Volunteers voicing fears about serious breaches of electoral law in Gorton and Denton, reveals the Mail.
• “Meet newest Green MP who blasted rich – but co-owns homes worth £1 million” – By-election winner Hannah Spencer co-owns homes worth over £1 million while enjoying luxurious foreign holidays, exposing the jaw-dropping hypocrisy at the heart of the Green insurgency, says the Mail.
• “The strange death of Labour Britain and why the Right must unite” – The Green Party’s victory has left many decent people anxious and bewildered as the old two-party system collapses and darker forces move in to fill the vacuum, says the Mail in a leading article. Time for the Right to unite.
• “We have just seen what happens when the old parties fail” – The Greens and Reform have positioned themselves to smash the complacent duopoly at the heart of British politics, with the old parties having no one to blame but themselves, writes Charles Moore in the Telegraph.
• “Assisted dying bill on verge of collapse” – The Lords have been accused of sabotaging the assisted suicide bill, but it’s arrogant supporters are to blame, says the Telegraph.
• “The battle for Christian freedom of expression on the streets of London is far from over” – Pro-free speech campaigners would be naïve to think that the culture of the Metropolitan Police will change overnight following recent court victories, writes Julian Mann in Christian Today.
• “Co-authors of censorship: leaked documents prove CCDH ran the government’s speech-regulation agenda from the inside” – New whistleblower documents show that Imran Ahmed, the head of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, was not merely lobbying the British Government but was embedded in the development of its online speech policy, co-chairing roundtables and shaping ministerial participation, reveals Sayer Ji on his Substack.
• “How my reporting made me a target of the British Labour Party” – In the Disinformation Chronicle, Paul Thacker says his investigation into Labour’s online speech agenda made him the subject of a concerted political campaign to discredit his work and silence his reporting.
• “BBC newsroom is anti-Reform, ex news chief admits as she reveals she overruled editorial policy to give Nigel Farage more primetime airtime” – Former BBC News CEO Deborah Turness has opened up about anti-Reform attitudes at the corporation, revealing she had to overrule her own colleagues to get Nigel Farage on air, notes the Mail.
• “Gibraltar military base subject to EU weapons checks” – Spanish forces have been granted the right to board Royal Navy warships stationed at the Rock under a Brexit border treaty in a humiliating surrender of British sovereignty, reports the Telegraph.
• “Britain voted to take back control. It’s ceded power where it matters most” – The UK–EU treaty for Gibraltar has emerged as the starkest example of the sovereignty that Brexit promised to restore but has instead surrendered, writes James Crisp in the Telegraph.
• “Hillary Clinton asked about Bill’s massages in forced Epstein deposition” – Hillary Clinton has spoken behind closed doors to the House Oversight Committee, calling for the full release of the Epstein files after being questioned about her husband’s massages, reveals the Times.
• “Ex-B.C. school trustee to fight $750,000 penalty issued by human rights tribunal for hate speech, discrimination” – Barry Neufeld has announced he will seek a judicial review in the B.C. Supreme Court after a Human Rights Tribunal ordered him to pay $750,000 to teachers who identify as 2SLGBTQ+, reports CBC News.
• “After by-election, Labour could lose donor Dale Vince to Greens too” – Dale Vince has signalled he may switch his allegiance to the Greens, reveals the Times.
• “Electric car drivers ‘spied on by government’ through phones” – A two-year mass surveillance project commissioned by the Department for Transport has been tracking electric car drivers through their phones without their knowledge, according to the Telegraph.
• “Labour is gaslighting Britain with its claims on energy bills” – Sir Keir Starmer has appeared in a  video making misleading claims about household energy bills, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Why banning cars from Oxford St undermines Khan’s Ulez crusade” – Plans to pedestrianise Europe’s busiest shopping street will just divert a stream of polluting vehicles into neighbouring areas, fatally undermining Sadiq Khan’s Ulez rationale, reports the Telegraph.
• “Half of RHS cafe food quietly made vegan … but visitors aren’t biting” – The Royal Horticultural Society has quietly made half the dishes on its café menus vegan – including celeriac and apple soup and vegan farmer’s pie – only to find that visitors are stubbornly refusing to take the bait, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Tyrrells scraps vegetable crisps” – Tyrrells has proposed closing a factory following a slump in demand for its parsnip, beetroot and carrot crisp range, signalling that the great vegetable crisp experiment has run its course, reports the Telegraph.
• “How HR’s expansion strangled British businesses” – Policy Exchange has calculated that cutting bloated, busybody HR departments would boost the UK economy by £10 billion, says the Times.
• “Innocent will pay the price if jury trials are cut” – The Government’s plan to speed up justice by restricting jury trials is reckless and will cause far more harm than good, writes Sonia Sodha in the Times.
• “The mountain of evidence over weight-loss drug damage” – A growing body of evidence says weight-loss drugs have serious side effects, raising urgent questions about whether their risks are being properly communicated to patients, reveals the Conservative Woman.
• “The Gail’s attacks are brainless – and terrifying” – Vandals have targeted the bakery chain Gail’s in the name of Gaza in a deliberate effort to intimidate that must be treated as a serious criminal matter, writes Jonathan Sacerdoti in the Spectator.
• “Vogue editor flees first class over ‘cabin full of white men’” – Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson  downgraded herself on a Milan flight to protect her “emotional and mental well-being” after finding the first-class cabin full of white men, says the Telegraph.
• “Jacinda Ardern snubs New Zealand with move to Australia” – Jacinda Ardern has relocated to Australia in a move that has surprised many of her admirers, notes the Telegraph.
• “The insect is dead, but a different organism has taken control of its nerves and is now in total control of its direction” – On X, Zac Goldsmith comes up with the perfect visual metaphor for the Green Party.