News Round-Up

“Brace yourselves for more Quran-burning trials in Britain” – In the Spectator, Andrew Tettenborn warns that the conviction of Hamit Coşkun for Koran-burning signals the quiet resurgence of blasphemy laws in Britain.
“It should be legal to make people angry, even by burning the Koran” – Whether desecrating a holy book is unlawful should not depend on whether a mob will riot, says Philip Johnston in the Telegraph.
“Hamit Coskun’s life will only get harder now” – In the Spectator, Kunwar Khuldune Shahid argues that the conviction of Hamit Coskun for burning a Koran marks Britain’s first formal surrender to Islamic blasphemy laws.
“Protect freedom to criticise Islam in law, MPs demand” – Nick Timothy has tabled a 10-minute rule bill to stop the Public Order Act being used to prosecute protestors after the trial of Hamit Coskun for burning a Koran, reports the Telegraph.
“The British mother serving time for a tweet” – In Britain, a “threatening, abusive or insulting” social media post can lead to a longer prison sentence than peadophilia convictions, writes Dominic Green in the Free Press.
“Fact check: top policewoman’s grooming gangs claim” – The Spectator’s Steerpike challenges top cop Becky Riggs’s Newsnight claim that grooming gangs aren’t predominantly made up of British Pakistani men – despite data showing they are massively overrepresented.
“It will take more than 3% to make Britain ‘battle ready’” – No UK government has had to run a wartime economy in the era of high social security spending, remarks Ross Clark in the Spectator.
“White British people will be a minority in 40 years, report claims” – An analysis of migration, birth and death rates up to the end of the 21st century predicts that white British people will fall from 73% of the population to 57% by 2050, before slipping into a minority by 2063, according to the Telegraph. You can read the research paper by Matt Goodwin here.
“Don’t believe Starmer when he says he’s angry about the small boats” – We can’t possibly expect the PM to defend us from Putin when small boats are so easily entering our country, says Allison Pearson in the Telegraph.
“Yvette Cooper reveals plans for ‘Orwellian’ ID scheme in desperate bid to curb surging illegal migration” – The Home Secretary has called for the creation of a digital service for e-visas and border control which would allow the Government to figure out who is in Britain legally, reports GB News.
“France’s border patrol is playing a losing game” – The pro-immigration politicians, journalists and NGOs in France are far more powerful than any police force or border agency, says Gavin Mortimer in the Spectator.
“Reform’s risky economic experiment” – Nigel Farage’s partiality for nationalisation puts in doubt whether he really understands why capitalism works and socialism doesn’t, writes James Bartholomew in the Spectator.
“Reform’s attack on public sector pensions doesn’t go far enough” – In the Telegraph, John Ralfe slams Reform UK’s pension cuts as hollow hypocrisy unless Farage and his MPs ditch their own gold-plated perks.
“Net Zero is a gift to Nigel Farage in Scotland” – If Reform UK triumphs in Hamilton on Thursday, it will be obvious that the political establishment has made a very, very big miscalculation on public support for Net Zero, says Ross Clark in the Spectator.
“‘We can grow our economy without killing Net Zero’” – Sir James Cleverly has broken ranks with Kemi Badenoch, arguing that the Conservatives can – and must – champion green energy without sacrificing economic growth, according to the Telegraph. (Trouble is, that’s not possible.)
“Miliband poised to scrap 600,000-a-year heat pump target” – Ed Miliband is poised to ditch targets for heat pumps amid budget cuts that threaten his Net Zero ambitions, reports the Express.
“Michael Gove, his ambitious ex-wife and how the wealthy Camerons treated them like ‘staff’” – A new memoir by Sarah Vine reveals how she and her husband, Michael Gove, failed to fit in with Lord Cameron and his moneyed circle, writes Judith Woods in the Telegraph.
“Why won’t TfL staff stop fare dodgers?” – In the Spectator, Andrew Gilligan slams Sadiq Khan’s TfL for letting fare-dodging spiral out of control.
“Apple tells Met to embrace ‘traditional policing’ in clash over phone thefts” – Senior figures at Apple and Google have clashed with the police over its recommendations for how best to deal with phone theft in the UK, reports the BBC.
“BBC boss pushes for higher licence fee after ‘grinding cuts’” – BBC Director General Tim Davie has called for a hike in the licence fee after complaining of a decade of “grinding” cuts, reports GB News.
“Is the FDA a mutinous ship?” – The ‘reformed’ FDA is still playing the same old vaccine games, says HART on its Substack.
“An evidence-based approach to COVID-19 vaccination?” – On the HART Substack, Dr Ros Jones argues that recent shifts in US Covid vaccine policy are more political theatre than true evidence-based reform.
“The Australian Government analysed Covid vaccines – discard the results” – On the Medium Substack, Prof Eyal Shahar eviscerates the Australian Government’s Covid vaccine analysis, arguing its incoherent and contradictory data is so flawed it should be binned outright.
“Ash Regan makes ‘underground’ prostitution blunder” – Scottish MSP Ash Regan has been ridiculed after dismissing concerns about prostitution going underground, asking: “How would punters reach women in locked cellars?”, according to the Telegraph.
“Dutch cabinet collapses as Geert Wilders pulls PVV out of government over asylum dispute” – The Dutch Government has collapsed, likely triggering a snap election, after Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders quit the Right-wing coalition, accusing other parties of failing to support tougher immigration rules, reports EU Today.
“Wilders’ exit is a severe warning to a discredited European elite” – In the Telegraph, Mark Almond argues that Geert Wilders’ dramatic exit from the Dutch Government is a stark warning to Europe’s flailing elites: fix the border crisis or watch populism explode.
“Trump attacks BBC over Gaza misreporting” – The White House has attacked the BBC’s coverage of the Gaza conflict, accusing the broadcaster of taking Hamas’s word as “total truth”, reports the Express.
“Hamas fighters smash kneecaps of Gazan ‘food thief’, then post video” – Hamas has been accused of torturing a man alleged to have stolen food in Gaza, according to the Telegraph.
“Jews in America are under attack” – Even as Jews in America are being attacked with increasing regularity, we have not seen the birth of a ‘Jewish Lives Matter’ campaign, notes Jonathan Sacerdoti in the Spectator.
“Trump admin opens investigation into Biden’s final days in office” – Donald Trump has opened an investigation into whether Joe Biden “was competent” when he used an autopen to issue lame-duck pardons to family members and death row inmates, reports the Mail.
“Trump official who shut down Russia propaganda unit has links to Kremlin” – Darren Beattie, who alarmed the State Department with his pro-Moscow views, is married to a woman whose uncle has ties to Putin, says the Telegraph.
“Elon Musk goes nuclear on Trump and his ‘big, beautiful Bill’” – Elon Musk has blasted President Trump’s “big, beautiful” federal spending Bill, calling it “a disgusting abomination” and condemning lawmakers who voted for it, reports the Mail.
“Imane Khelif scandal brings everlasting shame on the IOC” – In the Telegraph, Oliver Brown exposes how sport’s top brass were so bewitched by gender ideology they were ready to risk the lives of female boxers.
“Jacinda Ardern’s virtue-signalling memoir: ‘It’s like one long therapy session’” – In A Different Kind of Power, the former New Zealand leader advocates empathy in politics, writes Tim Stanley in the Telegraph. Shame she shows so little for her critics.
“Puerto Rico Supreme Court allows ‘X’ as a third gender choice on birth certificates” – Activists are celebrating a decision by Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court to allow nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people to update their birth certificates, reports Le Monde.
“On drugs, Glenn Greenwald and serious jobs” – Glenn Greenwald’s sexual fetishes are his business; but his apparent use of dangerous drugs puts his journalism in question, says Alex Berenson on his Substack.
“‘Maybe Ed Miliband isn’t right in the head’” – On X, comedian Dominic Frisby unveils a new song questioning the sanity of the UK’s energy policy – and the eco-loon-in-chief behind it.

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