News Round-Up

• “Abortion reforms remove protection for mothers, insists peer” – Baroness Monckton has warned that the Government’s abortion reforms strip away key protections for mothers by ending criminal probes into late-term or unapproved terminations, reports the Times.
• “Britain is about to make a sickening change to the abortion law” – Britain is edging closer to a shocking abortion law shift that would stop prosecutions for self-induced terminations even up to birth, warns Allison Pearson in the Telegraph.
• “Amendment to drop abortion law change makes sense” – Rarely has a piece of legislation so freighted with ethical dangers and so heavy with unintended consequences passed so lightly, argues the Times in a leading article.
• “Labour’s attack on jury trials will change our constitution” – Labour has launched an ideological assault on jury trials that could fundamentally shift Britain from a political to a legal constitution, giving more power to officials, warns Nick Timothy in Conservative Home.
• “Tractors descend on High Court for family farms tax battle” – Tractors have rolled up to the High Court as campaigners seek a judicial review over the scrapping of inheritance tax relief for family farms, according to Farmers Guardian. 
• “Romanians claim record student loans in ‘widespread fraud’” – Romanians have racked up a record number of student loans – nearly four times as many as any other nationality – in what looks like widespread fraud, says GB News.
• “Asylum seekers picked ‘gang-rape’ victim because she was drunk, court hears” – A court has heard how three asylum seekers cynically targeted a lone drunk woman and gang-raped her on Brighton beach, reports the Telegraph.
• “If in doubt… blame Brexit!” – Rachel Reeves has pointed the finger at Brexit for leaving Britain “stranded” while calling for closer ties with the EU, according to the Mail.
• “Yet again, Starmer has put the wrong person in charge” – What appears to be missing from the biography of Labour’s new employment tsar – reportedly on a six-figure salary – is any real experience of working in the private sector, reveals Dia Chakravarty in the Telegraph.
• “Starmer faces pornography revolt from female MPs” – Keir Starmer has run into a revolt from female MPs over its position to oppose outlawing step-incest pornography, reports the Telegraph.
• “Labour is ‘running out of time’ under Starmer” – In a bold challenge to his leadership, Angela Rayner has warned Labour is “running out of time” under Keir Starmer unless he changes direction, says ITV News.
• “Tories to force vote on scrapping student loan interest” – The Tories have set up a vote to scrap interest on Plan 2 student loans, reports the Times.
• “British October 7th survivor claims antisemitism has been ‘normalised’” – A British October 7th survivor, whose elderly father was brutally murdered by Hamas, has condemned the UK Government for ”abandoning” her while allowing antisemitism to “run riot”, says the Mail.
• “How Gail’s became a lightning rod for antisemitism and far-Left conspiracy theories” – Gail’s bakery has turned into a magnet for antisemitism claims and far-Left conspiracy theories, writes Lauren Shirreff in the Telegraph.
• “British Muslims are five times more likely to have a positive view of the Iranian regime” – British Muslims are five times more likely than the average person to view Iran’s regime positively – and far more hostile to the US and Israel, according to the Mail.
• “Mark Rowley’s excuses on two-tier policing ring hollow” – Sir Mark Rowley’s defence of two-tier policing sounds like an excuse for weak policing, says Chris Philp in the Telegraph.
• “Greens will pay a high price for attacking Christianity” – Given the core values of Polanski’s party, it seems perverse that our national religion is under threat, writes Bijan Omrani in the Telegraph.
• “London joint worst for shoplifting despite Khan’s safe city claim” – London has tied worst in the UK for shoplifting rates, with the highest witnessed violence against shop workers too, reports the Telegraph.
• “Khan’s new speed cameras won’t flash but you’ll still get the fine” – Sadiq Khan’s latest speed cameras have ditched flashes and road markings but will still nab you with fines, says GB News.
• “Trust in BBC plummets over decade, with half of public trusting less” – Trust in the BBC has crashed over the last decade, with half the public trusting it less and a net score of -40, reveals the Mail.
• “Trump attacks BBC’s ‘corrupt and fraudulent’ Iran coverage” – Donald Trump has blasted the BBC’s Iran reporting as corrupt, fraudulent and worse than fake news, says the Sun.
• “Trump’s attacks on Starmer are childish” – Kemi Badenoch has branded Donald Trump’s attacks on Keir Starmer over the Iran war as “childish”, reports the Mail.
• “Keir Starmer weighing up legality of risking UK lives in Middle East” – Keir Starmer is assessing the legality of putting UK lives at risk in the Middle East under self-defence rules, says the Times.
• “Larijani’s death is more significant than that of Supreme Leader” – Israel’s killing of Iran’s national security chief is its most disruptive assassination yet, argues Akhtar Makoii in the Telegraph.
• “Scotland rejects assisted dying” – Scotland has thrown out plans to legalise assisted dying in a tight Holyrood vote, according to the BBC.
• “Official Ireland is embarrassed by St Patrick’s day” – With grim inevitably, this year’s St Patrick’s festivals around the country are no longer a celebration of Saint Patrick and Irish traditions, laments Ian O’Doherty in the Spectator.
• “Angela Merkel sparks fury in Germany by telling migrants to vote against AfD” – Angela Merkel has triggered fury by urging the migrants she helped let into the country to vote against the Right-wing AfD, reports the Mail.
• “Combating misinformation and hate speech targeting female politicians” – The EU has rolled out plans to tackle misinformation and hate speech against female politicians by closely examining sites aimed at men and boys, flags Epp Tull on the Freedom Research Substack.
• “People with learning disabilities like ‘dumb’ Gavin Newsom shouldn’t be president” – Donald Trump has hit out at Gavin Newsom’s dyslexia, claiming that people with learning disabilities like the “dumb” California governor should not be president, says USA Today.
• “Peter Thiel infuriates Vatican by claiming Antichrist is coming” – Peter Thiel has riled the Vatican by running lectures in Rome warning the Antichrist is on the way, reports the Mail.
• “Meningitis case in London as outbreak treated as ‘national incident’” – An outbreak of meningitis is being treated as a national incident after the deaths of a sixth-form pupil and a university student, says Sky News.
• “The meningitis outbreak is exposing the new world of post-Covid anxiety” – Meningitis is an infection that should be taken seriously, writes Prof Robert Dingwall in the Telegraph. But we must be careful not to fan the flames of anxiety that linger from the disproportionate responses to COVID-19.
• “Britain facing years-long energy shock even if war ends soon” – Consultants at LCP Delta predict that electricity prices will rise both this year and next because of a global squeeze on supplies of gas, reports the Telegraph.
• “Why Britain pays more for power than almost any other developed nation” – Britain has ended up paying way more for electricity and gas than most developed countries, with wholesale costs making up only a small part of bills, reveals Oliver Wright in the Times.
• “Motorists face speed limits under emergency plans to cope with fuel crisis” – Motorists could soon be rationed on petrol and capped at 50mph on every UK road as part of the Government’s emergency response to the fuel crisis, reports the Express.
• “Bentley to cut hundreds of jobs as it battles EV slowdown” – Bentley has confirmed hundreds of job losses as it grapples with slowing electric vehicle sales, says GB News.
• “E-bike caused fire that killed mother and two children” – A modified e-bike sparked a fire that tragically killed a mother and her two children in Cambridge, reports the BBC.
• “Rising global temperatures ‘eroding’ the world’s ability to exercise” – Researchers claim that rising global temperatures have begun eroding people’s ability to exercise, potentially causing over half a million extra deaths annually by 2050, according to the Telegraph.
• “The father of Leftist doom is dead. Now a new panic is just around the corner” – Paul Ehrlich, long seen as the godfather of Left-wing overpopulation doom-mongering, has died – but the panic hasn’t; now it’s nuclear Armageddon and total societal collapse, writes Philip Johnston in theTelegraph.
• “Pro-trans mob made me the most hated student at my university” – In the Telegraph, UCL student Samiksha Bhattacharjee recounts becoming the campus’s most hated figure after reviving a libertarian society and facing intense pro-trans protests over women’s rights events.
• “Ulrika Jonsson hits out at ‘entitled’ Nadiya Hussain” – Ulrika Jonsson has spoken of her “disappointing” encounter with Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain following her blistering attacks on the BBC, according to the Mail.
• “This is not sabotage, this is scrutiny” – On Newsnight, Telegraph columnist Tim Stanley responds to Esther Rantzen’s criticism that the House of Lords is blocking the assisted dying Bill.

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