News Round-Up

• “NHS boss fears supplies could run out in days” – The NHS Chief Executive has warned that the health service could be days away from running out of some supplies as a result of the Iran war, says the Telegraph.
• “UK to send more troops to the Gulf to help shoot down Iranian drones” – Defence Secretary John Healey has confirmed that British soldiers will deploy to Saudi Arabia this week alongside the Army’s multi-million-pound air defence system, reports the Telegraph.
• “British drones ‘that never miss’ could clear Strait of Hormuz” – Uncrewed surface robots tested at 99% accuracy have been revealed as a potential tool for reopening the world’s most critical energy chokepoint, according to the Telegraph.
• “In widening NATO spat, Rubio calls for the alliance to be “reexamined” while Trump tells U.K. and other allies that “the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore”” – European allies have found themselves caught between American accusations of disloyalty and the looming energy crisis as Spain closes its airspace to U.S. war planes and Italy denies base access, writes eugyppius on his Substack.
• “Now brace for an even bigger oil shock” – Red Sea supplies have been put at fresh risk as the Houthis join the Gulf war, threatening a second wave of energy price rises on top of those already battering consumers, warns Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Telegraph.
• “The three strategically priceless islands that must be taken” – Abu Musa and the Tunbs, seized by Persian forces in 1971, have been identified as the key to controlling access to the world’s most critical energy chokepoint, says Isabel Oakeshott in the Telegraph.
• “Female US journalist is kidnapped ‘by Iran-backed Hezbollah group’ in Baghdad while covering war on Iran” – American freelance reporter Shelly Kittleson has been abducted by armed men near her hotel in the Iraqi capital in a development that raises fresh fears over press freedom in the conflict zone, reports the Mail.
• “Grooming gangs inquiry to expose police who failed to investigate” – The Chairman of the grooming gang inquiry has confirmed that officers suspected of covering up the sexual exploitation of children will face investigation by the National Crime Agency, reports the Telegraph.
• “Mahmood: I’ll stop police investigating online rows” – Shabana Mahmood has announced the abolition of non-crime hate incidents, declaring that police will no longer investigate social media disputes in a significant policy reversal, according to the Telegraph.
• “Labour hands France another £2 million a week to police the Channel – despite Paris refusing to accept targets to stop the boats” – The Home Secretary has signed off a £16 million two-month extension to a deal subsidising French beach patrols, even as Paris declines to commit to measurable reductions in small boat crossings, reports the Mail.
• “MP wife of alleged spy reported for ‘drunken incident’ at nuclear base” – Joani Reid, the Labour MP whose husband was arrested on suspicion of spying for China, behaved inappropriately with a senior official at a nuclear facility last year, reveals the Times.
• “Reeves in line for £8 billion tax windfall from soaring energy prices – but she still won’t cut fuel duty for desperate drivers as Starmer holds another Cobra meeting” – Rachel Reeves has refused to follow Australia, Spain and Poland in cutting fuel duty despite a mounting tax windfall from the Middle East crisis, reports the Mail.
• “How Ed Miliband could actually profit from the energy crisis” – The Treasury is drawing in an extra £20 million a day from VAT on fuel and oil company taxes, prompting demands that Ed Miliband lift his North Sea drilling ban, writes Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “The voters in Ed Miliband’s own constituency enraged by his Net Zero crusade” – Residents of Doncaster North have turned on their MP as soaring fuel prices lay bare the cost of his Net Zero fanaticism, notes the Telegraph.
• “Majority of Labour voters back drilling in the North Sea” – A new survey has found that a majority of Labour voters support domestic energy production by two to one, says the Telegraph.
• “North Sea gasfield ‘could supply UK by winter if drilling block lifted’” – An energy boss has urged the Government to unlock the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields to reduce the UK’s reliance on costly imports following Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, reports the Times.
• “Italy prepares to keep coal power stations open for another decade” – Italy has delayed its plan to phase out coal-fired power stations by more than 10 years as the Iran war drives up oil and gas prices across Europe, says the Telegraph.
• “Zion Lights: Green movement is ‘anti-human at its roots and goes back to Malthusian thinking’” – Zion Lights, author of Energy Is Life, tells Michael Shellenberger on his Public Substack that chronic underinvestment in oil and gas – driven by ideology rather than evidence – has left hundreds of millions without affordable energy.
• “Reform UK set to become Scotland’s second-largest party ahead of Tories and Labour at Holyrood elections in May, poll shows – while SNP will fall short of a majority” – A Survation survey has forecast that Reform UK will win 19 seats in the Scottish Parliament, overtaking both Labour and the Conservatives, reports the Mail.
• “Emily Thornberry said the quiet part out loud on immigration” – The case for mass migration has collapsed as even Labour figures now admit that the “Boriswave” imported millions of low earners who will always be a net cost to the state rather than a fiscal benefit, writes David Shipley in the Spectator.
• “The absurdity at the heart of the junior doctors’ strikes” – The BMA’s refusal to put the Government’s above-inflation pay offer – including funding for postgraduate exams – to its members has exposed the union’s hard-Left leadership as more interested in conflict than in doctors’ welfare, notes the Spectator.
• “Largest teaching union votes to oppose ‘fascist’ Reform in classrooms and campaign to overturn Palestine Action ban” – The National Education Union has passed a motion labelling Nigel Farage’s party “racist, fascist and Far Right” and voted to campaign against it in schools, reports the Mail.
• “Families ‘barricaded inside stores’ as mobs of youths storm Clapham” – Crowds of teenagers have torn through Clapham for a second day running, terrorising locals and forcing shops to close, according to the Mail.
• “AI didn’t write my book” – In the Spectator, Matthew Goodwin categorically denies that an AI chatbot authored his controversial bestseller Suicide of a Nation, accusing critics of seizing on minor errors to silence him.
• “Grandmother mistakenly jailed for 5 months after AI linked her to crime” – A grandmother has been wrongly imprisoned for five months after police used artificial intelligence to place her at the scene of a bank fraud in a U.S. state she had never visited, reports the Telegraph.
• “Do Not Go Gentle by Kathleen Stock: 4-star review” – Gender-critical philosopher Kathleen Stock has written a new book, arguing against Britain’s proposed law on assisted dying, says Jane O’Grady in the Telegraph.
• “BBC bombards households with 46 million licence fee warning letters” – The corporation sent TV set owners 46 million warning letters in 2024–25, the same year it lost more than £1 billion to licence fee evasion, raising fresh questions about the viability of its funding model, notes the Telegraph.
• “Non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) have had a chilling effect on free speech since their introduction in 2014” – Watch me on GB News talking about the Home Secretary’s decision to scrap NCHIs. Welcome news, except she hasn’t gone far enough.

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