News Round-Up

• “Afghan migrant admits stabbing 14 year-old boy” – Safi Dawood, an Afghan who arrived in Britain in the back of a lorry in 2020 and was granted asylum two years later, has pleaded guilty to stabbing a 14 year-old boy and causing GBH to a second victim in West London, says GB News.
• “The case of a 14 year-old migrant rapist exposes a wider rot in British justice” – A teenage migrant who sexually abused a peer highlights a youth justice system that prioritises gentle re-education over any meaningful punishment, writes Ian Acheson in the Telegraph.
• “Keir Starmer plots escape from sleaze inquiry” – Labour backbenchers have threatened to side with the Tories to haul the Prime Minister before the Privileges Committee over the Mandelson appointment scandal, reports GB News. The vote is later today.
• “Andy Burnham ‘wants Angela Rayner to be his Gordon Brown’” – The Greater Manchester Mayor has reportedly offered Rayner any Cabinet role she likes in exchange for backing a Blair-Brown style pact to replace Starmer as Labour leader, says GB News.
• “McSweeney did not get Labour into this mess – it’s Starmer’s doing” – Labour MPs rushing to blame advisers for the party’s woes are doing the Prime Minister’s dirty work for him, writes James Kirkup in the Telegraph.
• “Veterans call for Hermer’s resignation over troops witch hunt” – Lord Hermer has been reported to the barristers’ watchdog for misconduct over his role in claims against British soldiers, with former SAS commanders demanding he quit, reports GB News.
• “Soldier B: No more troops should face the abuse I have suffered” – In the Telegraph, a former SAS member speaks out against years of persecution as MPs prepare to debate the Government’s Troubles bill in the Commons.
• “Starmer taking UK ‘down a dark path’” – Kemi Badenoch tells the Mail that veterans who fought for their country should not then be hounded for putting their lives on the line.
• “Is it a crime to make fun of a keffiyeh?” – In Spiked, the Free Speech Union‘s Campaigns Officer Max Thompson reacts to a student being placed under police investigation for comparing a Palestine activist’s headgear to a tea towel.
• “Why the ban on Palestine Action should be upheld” – The courts may have overturned Palestine Action’s proscription, but the Home Secretary has political and practical responsibilities around public safety that judges simply do not, says Alexander Horne in the Spectator.
• “The middle classes are paying for everyone else to have fun” – Life on benefits is getting cheaper, while hard-working families feel an ever tighter squeeze, notes Sam Brodbeck in the Telegraph.
• “Learning to drive is Britain’s biggest rip-off” – From instructors who refuse to teach for less than two hours to insurers charging new drivers through the nose, learners have been fleeced at every turn, says Matthew Bell in the Telegraph.
• “Birmingham bin strikes to end after year-long dispute” – An end to the long-running Birmingham bin strike is “within sight” after a breakthrough in the bitter dispute over jobs and pay, reports GB News.
• “Argentina tells Falklanders to go back to England” – Argentine Vice-President Victoria Villarruel has told Falkland Islanders to go ‘home’ to England, escalating tensions following the leaked Pentagon memo suggesting Washington may revisit its position on sovereignty, says GB News.
• “Political violence in an infantilised age” – The latest attempt on Trump’s life is no aberration, argues Andrew Doyle on his Substack. It’s the predictable result of a culture that has confused outrage with moral authority.
• “The targeting of Trump tells its own tale” – No American leader in modern history has been as polarising – hated and adored in equal measure – as this one, says Jawad Iqbal in the Spectator.
• “We are allowing political violence to erode democracy” – Terrorism has changed our way of life, laments Tim Stanley in the Telegraph.
• “Politically hysterical Bluesky dork fails to shoot his way through security in latest disturbing Trump assassination attempt” – On Substack, Eugyppius places Cole Allen, the California man charged with trying to kill the President at the Correspondents’ Dinner, in a long, depressing pattern of politically deranged online Leftism.
• “Melania breaks silence on ‘coward’ Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘hateful’ skit” – The First Lady has demanded ABC act against Jimmy Kimmel after he joked she had the glow of an expectant widow – days before a gunman opened fire at the dinner the Trumps were attending, says the Mail.
• “Tehran’s Embassy in London urges Iranians to join ‘martyrdom’ program” – Iran’s London embassy has called on UK-based Iranians willing to die for the regime to register for an official martyrdom programme, according to the Mail.
• “Starmer would be foolish to pick a fight with the Lords on assisted suicide” – Invoking the Parliament Act to push through the assisted dying bill would tear open deep Labour divisions at the worst possible time, warns Charles Moore in the Telegraph.
• “High Court overturns conviction of Christian man who emailed abortion images to police” – A High Court judge has quashed the conviction of a pro-life campaigner who sent graphic images of abortion to police and local officials, reports Christian Today.
• “UK drops to bottom of life expectancy league table, analysis shows” – People in the UK are now spending more years in poor health than a decade ago, according to the Mail.
• “How much longer must we hear about Long Covid?” – In TCW, Dr Roger Watson questions whether Long Covid has been given prominence wildly out of proportion to its scale.
• “Why Substack hates Malone News” – On Substack, Robert Malone has set out what he sees as the platform’s reasons for treating his publication with hostility.
• “A social media ban for kids puts all our privacy at risk” – Age-verification technology needed to enforce any social media age ban poses a serious threat to everyone’s privacy, warns Maya Thomas in the Spectator.
• “NatWest’s Rick Haythornthwaite faces climate row investor revolt” – A shareholder rebellion has been brewing against NatWest chairman Rick Haythornthwaite following disclosures over the bank’s climate commitments, says the Times.
• “Miliband is branded a hypocrite for having no solar panels on his home” – The Energy Secretary’s £1.6 million North London home has a bare tiled roof, with even a neighbour having beaten him to installing the green technology he demands the rest of the country adopts, reports the Mail.
• “The true cost of Chernobyl isn’t what you think” – In the Spectator, Tim Gregory calls Europe’s post-Chernobyl flight from nuclear into coal as one of the great energy policy disasters of the modern era.
• “Net Zero and the myth of German efficiency” – Germany generated 57% of its power from renewables last year – but the economic cost has been severe, writes Leon Mangasarian in the Spectator.
• “Top lobbying firm does bidding of entity linked to Uyghur repression” – Lobbying firm Akin Gump has been found advocating on behalf of a solar polysilicon firm linked to the repression of the Uyghur people, casting a shadow over Western clean energy supply chains, according to the Washington Examiner.
• “Physics versus ideology – 10 years of energy policy confusion” – The Watt-Logic blog celebrates turning 10, marking a decade of explaining how electricity grids actually work regardless of how politicians wish they did.
• “Welcome to Oomeen’s website” – Oomeen Basing runs a website for non-scientists that explains the greenhouse effect while challenging the claim that human emissions are driving dangerous global warming. Well worth checking out.
• “Why do people still drink skimmed milk? It’s packed with more sugar than full-fat and I’d never touch the stuff” – Peter Hitchens denies he’s ever drunk skimmed milk, a calumny put about by Popbitch, a muckraking website.

If you have any tips for inclusion in the round-up, email us here.