News Round-Up

• “Telegraph sold to Axel Springer for £575 million” – The Telegraph has been acquired by the German publishing giant Axel Springer for £575 million in a surprise deal that brings a powerful new transatlantic force to Fleet Street, says the Telegraph.
• “The week that ruined Britain’s reputation on the world stage” – Britain has suffered a catastrophic collapse in its international standing as a result of Sir Keir Starmer’s dithering response to the war in Iran, says the Telegraph.
• “Four arrested on suspicion of assisting Iran’s intelligence service” – Four men have been arrested on suspicion of working for a foreign intelligence service in a counter-espionage operation that underlines the domestic security threat from Tehran, reports the BBC.
• “Were Tehran’s ‘ties’ to charities ignored for fear of racism rows?” – A report by Lord Walney has identified a network of more than 30 organisations allegedly serving as soft-power hubs for Iran, revealing that officials may have turned a blind eye for fear of being accused of racism, says the Times.
• “Police search home of former Labour aide in China spy inquiry” – Officers have searched the home of a former Labour communications director in connection with a China espionage inquiry, reports the Times.
• “What the Iran war is really about – it’s not Israel” – The conflict has exposed a deep fracture within the conservative movement, dividing those who see US strikes as a betrayal of isolationist promises from those who regard confronting Iran as a strategic necessity, writes Haviv Rettig Gur in the Mail.
• “Trump’s real Iran strategy is hiding in plain sight. It’s a disaster for Xi Jinping” – America’s military campaign in the Middle East is a carefully calculated blow aimed as much at Beijing as at Tehran, writes Bob Seely in the Telegraph.
• “Iranian migrants fleeing regime arrive at Calais Jungle in bid to cross Channel into Britain – and warn ‘there are many more on their way’ amid US strikes” – Asylum seekers from Iran have gathered at French border camps as US and Israeli air strikes hit their homeland, with hundreds more reported to be on their way to attempt the Channel crossing, says the Mail.
• “Iran war unjust and illegal, says bishop whose brother was killed by the regime” – A female Church of England bishop whose brother was assassinated in Iran has condemned the US-led military campaign as both unjust and illegal, reports the Telegraph.
• “Israeli tanks gather at Lebanese border, ready for mass invasion” – Israel has moved artillery, ammunition and bulldozers into position along the Lebanese border as commanders await the order to launch what could become a major ground offensive, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Labour has just revealed what it thinks about women, and it’s not pretty” – The Government has revealed its condescending attitude towards women through a series of policy decisions in what critics are calling the soft bigotry of low expectations, says the Telegraph.
• “Labour throws hereditary peers lifeline” – The Government has quietly abandoned its election pledge to expel the remaining 88 hereditary peers from the House of Lords, offering some of them a route to stay that will infuriate Labour’s reform wing, notes the Telegraph.
• “Stewart Jackson: Falconer’s quest to move the Assisted Dying Bill through the Lords begs questions of his wider judgement” – Lord Falconer’s handling of the Assisted Dying Bill has raised serious doubts about his judgement, writes Stewart Jackson in ConservativeHome.
• “The good and bad news about Labour’s leaked social cohesion strategy” – A leaked Government document on social cohesion has revealed proposals that will prove deeply controversial, mixing welcome commitments with measures that will alarm both civil libertarians and conservatives, according to Andrew Gilligan in the Spectator.
• “Jewish doctor suspended for ‘Islamophobic’ messages after Oct 7th” – A Jewish GP has been suspended after a tribunal found her guilty of sending “racially hostile” messages in a work WhatsApp group sent in response to a colleague inviting staff to a pro-Palestine rally in the immediate aftermath of the October 7th massacre, reports the Telegraph.
• “Jewish youths told to ‘go back to the gas chambers’ at football match” – Jewish schoolchildren were subjected to vile antisemitic abuse by spectators at a youth football tournament in Norwich, reveals the Mail.
• “People smuggler ran small-boat crossings from French prison” – A people smuggler organised Channel crossings for migrants while serving a prison sentence in France, according to the Telegraph.
• “BBC boss Tim Davie says N-word was not muted at Baftas because no one in broadcast truck heard it on the live feed – as he ‘profoundly regrets’ the error” – The BBC Director-General says he “profoundly regrets” broadcasting the N-word during the Baftas, blaming a failure by production staff to catch the moment on the live feed, says the Mail.
• “BBC altered Hegseth speech on Iran war” – The BBC has been caught altering the words of US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in a translation of his remarks about the Iran war, placing the corporation on yet another collision course with the Trump administration, notes the Telegraph.
• “London council is accused of using six ‘illegally’ created LTNs as a ‘fat cash cow’ to make millions from motorists” – Croydon Council, which has declared bankruptcy three times since 2020, exploited illegally created low-traffic neighbourhoods to extract millions of pounds from local motorists, reports the Mail.
• “Labour condemned for splurging £4.5 million on Net Zero advertising blitz” – Ministers have spent £4.5 million of taxpayers’ money on a Net Zero advertising campaign promoting electric vehicles, says the Mail.
• “France cashes in on Britain’s Net Zero blitz through £10 billion deal” – France has tightened its grip on England’s electricity infrastructure via a £10 billion deal to acquire UK Power Networks, raising urgent questions about energy sovereignty and the true cost of Britain’s Net Zero agenda, according to the Telegraph.
• “Qatar warns that oil could double to $150 a barrel and ‘bring down the economies of the world’” – Qatar’s energy minister has warned that the oil price could surge above $150 a barrel, threatening to drag down global economies at a moment of acute geopolitical instability, reports This Is Money.
• “Chevron fled. Valero’s leaving. Newsom’s war on affordable energy is working perfectly” – California’s cap-and-trade programme has driven out its remaining major refineries and pushed petrol prices to historic highs, achieving nothing for the environment while punishing ordinary drivers, says Climate Change Dispatch.
• “The real reason Greens are gaining ground” – The Green Party has capitalised on a generation of young voters who believe passionately in their own moral righteousness, writes Patrick West in the Spectator.
• “Polanski’s Ayatollah stunt shows how extreme the Greens really are” – Zack Polanski has performed a sinister U-turn, says Tom Harris in the Telegraph. Why is no one challenging him on it?
• “Zack Polanski votes against motion welcoming removal of ayatollah” – The Green Party leader voted against a London Assembly motion welcoming the removal of Ayatollah Khamenei, insisting the US-Israeli operation was illegal and unprovoked, reports the Times.
• “Zack Polanski refuses to condemn Churchill statue vandalism” – The Green Party leader refused to back a motion condemning graffiti on Churchill’s statue, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Greens condemned us to live in eco-slum filled with overflowing bins” – Residents of a Green-run area of Bristol have to live on streets clogged with festering rubbish heaps that have attracted colonies of rats and foxes, according to the Mail.
• “German police conduct 13th Day of Action against online ‘hate’” – German law enforcement has carried out a nationwide sweep involving raids and interrogations in 140 cases of alleged online ‘hate speech’, intensifying a pattern of political policing that threatens free expression, says John Rosenthal in Brussels Signal.
• “The feminisation of autism – overdiagnosis hurts teenage girls” – A surge in autism diagnoses among teenage girls has been driven by social contagion and a diagnostic culture that mistakes distress for neurodevelopmental disorder, writes Kathleen Stock in UnHerd.
• “Lewis Hamilton is a magnificent racing driver, but when he’s not putting his foot down he’s putting his foot in it” – The seven-time world champion has once again shown that his talents are strictly confined to the cockpit, making remarks about Africa that have sparked a furious backlash he seems ill-equipped to handle, according to me on the LBC blog.
• “Meghan ditches Netflix to spend more time with her jam” – The Duchess of Sussex has severed ties with Netflix and taken “complete control” of her domestic lifestyle brand, says the Telegraph.
• “Peter Thiel: The Antichrist lectures” – The Silicon Valley billionaire delivered a series of provocative lectures drawing on René Girard’s philosophy to argue that nihilism is the defining spiritual crisis of the modern West, reports the Pimlico Journal.
• “USSR in the Brezhnev era prosecuted its domestic enemies under Article 70 (Agitation) & Article 190-1 (Disinformation). 3,234 people were arrested under those articles from 1962-1985. The UK prosecuted 2,341 cases of internet speech in 2022 alone, with 1,816 convictions” – On X, Peter Nimitz contrasts the number of people arrested for writing offences in the USSR with the number prosecuted for speech offences in the present-day UK.