News Round-Up

• “Unions plotting ‘winter of discontent’ – but hope Burnham will help” – Union sources say barons are gearing up for national action which could shut down hospitals, schools and the railways after Labour made it easier to call strikes, reports David Churchill in the Mail.
• “If Burnham wins, prepare for an early general election” – There is a strong case for the would-be PM making a grab for five years of an unfettered mandate the moment he takes the keys to Number 10, writes James Kirkup in the Telegraph.
• “Is Nigel Farage losing the authenticity battle with Rupert Lowe?” – Reform’s failure to nail down the populist vote in Makerfield indicates serious trouble ahead for Nigel Farage as Rupert Lowe positions himself as the more authentic standard-bearer of the populist Right, reports Tim Stanley in the Telegraph.
• “A mean mood in Makerfield” – The first person I spoke to in Ashton-in-Makerfield told me they were voting for Restore Britain, writes Mario Laghos in the Critic.
• “Labour ‘could pay parents on benefits to encourage apprenticeships’” – Labour is considering paying families on benefits hundreds of pounds per month to encourage their children to take up apprenticeships, according to the Telegraph.
• “Labour’s fantasy of reversing Brexit exposes the irrationality of the Left” – In the Telegraph, Robert Tombs says there has never, since Britain became a democracy, been such blatant contempt for a democratic vote as Labour’s manoeuvring to reverse Brexit.
• “UK weather: bank holiday Monday hottest May day on record” – Highs of 35C are expected for bank holiday Monday, making it the hottest May day on record across the UK, says the Times.
• “Hundreds of migrants arrive in Britain amid warm weather over weekend” – More than 900 migrants cross the Channel in 13 boats between Friday and Sunday, with 394 arriving on Friday, 287 on Saturday and a further 231 yesterday, reports the Mail.
• “I locked eyes with the monster who stabbed my daughter 23 times” – Siobhan Whyte tells the Mail’s Arthur Parashar about the moment she came face to face with the Sadanese national who killed her 27 year-old daughter.
• “Afghan migrant ‘sexually abuses girl at special needs school’” – An Afghan migrant has been arrested for allegedly sexually abusing an 11 year-old girl at knifepoint in a bathroom at a German special needs school, reports the Mail.
• “Baroness Casey: I’ve failed grooming gang victims” – Baroness Casey of Blackstock says she feels personally responsible for failing grooming-gang victims, having first investigated the scandal more than a decade ago, according to the Telegraph.
• “BBC drafts in debt collectors to enforce licence fee” – One in eight households now claim they do not need a TV licence and refuse to pay, leading to losses estimated at up to £550 million a year, according to the Mail.
• “Police chief is suspended after AI finds ‘sexual content’ on his phone” – Special Chief Officer James Deller is among more than 100 officers flagged after controversial monitoring software developed by a US tech giant has been rolled out, reveals the Mail.
• “Controversial start-up using disembodied human brains for drug testing” – Inside a real-life Frankenstein’s lab, experiments are being conducted by a controversial start-up that blur the boundaries between life and death, claims the Mail.
• “Bank holidays trigger mini baby booms” – Opportunities for couples to relax are linked to a surge in births nine months later, notes the Telegraph.
• “Teaching union threatens ‘safe space for Jews’ with Israeli boycott” – The NASUWT – the UK’s second largest teaching union – has resolved to boycott goods and services from companies involved in Israeli institutions and settlements, reports the Mail.
• “Four in five universities looking to shed jobs amid finance crisis” – Polling by Universities UK has found 79% of British unis have been pursuing voluntary redundancies over the last three years, reveals the Mail.
• “Now union says nurses could strike over wages” – The Royal College of Nursing says it has entered into a landmark pay review with “good grace” but its members are “not afraid to strike” if managers fail to act fairly, notes the Mail.
• “Driverless taxis are ‘serious collision risk’, transport boss warned” – Driverless taxis from US company Waymo could cause “serious collisions” on the streets of London, a council was warned earlier this year, says the Telegraph.
• “Dominant transgender athlete shares podium with female rivals again” – AB Hernandez, who was born male, has won the girl’s high jump, long jump and triple jump events at Saturday’s meet at Moorpark High School in Ventura County, reports the Mail.
• “Alex Scott in tears on final episode of ‘woke’ Football Focus” – It was reported last month that the show would be scrapped by the BBC at the end of this season amid a decline in viewing figures over recent years, notes the Mail.
• “Palantir should take Sadiq Khan to court, says ex-attorney general” – Sir Michael Ellis, the Government’s top law officer under Liz Truss, describes the London Mayor’s blocking of a £50 million police deal as “extraordinary” and says the tech firm should mount a legal challenge, reveals the Times.
• “The only way is down for Labour’s TikTok teasers” – Keir Starmer’s team is on the hunt to go viral, enrolling “content creators” and Gemma Collins to connect with the kids, reports the Times.
• “Long-term unemployment hits decade high” – A surge in the number of people out of work for longer than 12 months risks weakening growth, with long-term unemployment now at its highest level in a decade, says the Telegraph.
• “Quarter of adults do not have GCSE maths and English” – More than a quarter of adults in England do not have GCSE qualifications in English and maths, a new study reveals, according to the Telegraph.
• “The farmers battling for survival by building padel courts and aqua parks” – As profits fall, farming families are transforming barns and fields into money-making schemes including padel courts and aqua parks just to stay afloat, claims the Telegraph.
• “Pope Leo: disarm AI to prevent it from dominating humanity” – In his first major document, the American pontiff warns that artificial intelligence risks becoming a “new Tower of Babel” if left in the hands of big tech, reports the Times.
• “The terrifying rise of schoolboys making AI girlfriends” – Boys as young as 12 are now in romantic “relationships” with chatbots, and it’s affecting how they treat girls in the real world, claims the Telegraph.
• “Jews are under threat because Britain is becoming a safe house for antisemitism” – The hostility of other immigrant groups is driving out some of our most educated and enterprising citizens, writes Charles Moore in the Telegraph.
• “British citizenship applications hit record high ahead of reforms” – More than 312,000 refugees, foreign workers and family dependants have applied to become British citizens in the year to March, reveals the Mail.
• “The foreign exploitation of Miliband’s Net Zero drive” – Overseas investors are taking advantage of UK state subsidies of renewable energy under Ed Miliband’s Net Zero push, writes Jonathan Leake in the Telegraph.
• “How climate catastrophism – not climate change – is harming our mental health” – On her Substack, Laura Dodsworth argues that relentless doom-mongering by activists and the media is fuelling an epidemic of eco-anxiety far more damaging than climate change itself.
• “Germany’s AfD calls debunked climate scenarios ‘greatest fraud in human history’” – AfD politicians are denouncing failed climate predictions and the Net Zero agenda as the largest scientific deception ever perpetrated, notes P Gosselin on NoTricksZone.
• “Energy apartheid denying Africa tech future” – Africa’s push to host world-class data centres – AI’s digital engines – is running up against a political embargo on the fuels that reliably power them, and ordinary Africans are paying the price, writes Vijay Jayaraj for the CO2 Coalition.
• “Data vs drama – the 20-year legacy of Al Gore’s climate warnings” – “Richer, smarter societies made us dramatically safer, proving adaptation and resilience work far better than alarmism suggests,” argues Bjorn Lomborg in Newsweek.
• “Ferrari Luce: everything we know about Ferrari’s first electric car” – Rumours suggest an on-the-road price of about €500,000, equating to £432,000, for the four-seat Luce, reports Paul Hudson in the Telegraph.
• “Did the CIA poison England legend Gordon Banks at the 1970 World Cup?” – In a crunch World Cup quarter-final 56 years ago, the Three Lions fell to a 3-2 defeat against West Germany – ending any hope of retaining football’s top title, and fresh claims suggest the CIA may have nobbled the keeper, writes Andy Dolan in the Mail.
• “Star Wars spinoff Mandalorian and Grogu hits new low amid bad reviews” – With the Pedro Pascal-led feature earning $82 million in its opening weekend, it’s the worst Star Wars opening since Disney acquired the franchise in 2012, claims the Mail.
• “Long-term unemployment hits decade high” – A surge in the number of people out of work for longer than 12 months risks weakening growth, reports the Telegraph.
• “Kemi Badenoch slams Keir Starmer’s dither and delay over latest U-turn” – Darren Jones appears to confirm that the Government is now set to introduce a ban on social media for under-16s, months after rejecting the Tories’ demand for one, writes Christian Calgie in the Mail.
• “Give social media film-style age limits, charities urge Starmer” – Film-style age ratings should be introduced on social media to protect children from harmful content, some of Britain’s biggest children’s charities have argued, writes Charles Hymas in the Telegraph.
• “Rayner tells Starmer: ban social media for under-16s” – Angela Rayner has urged Sir Keir Starmer to ban social media for children aged under-16, reveals Ben Riley-Smith in the Telegraph.
• “Meta urges Labour to burden Apple with age checks” – The US tech giant is meeting with the Government and Ofcom as the UK could ban under-16s from social media, says the Telegraph.
• “Social media is the new smoking, medical leaders say” – Social media is the new smoking, medical leaders have declared, putting the Prime Minister under increasing pressure to commit himself to action, reports the Times.
• “Incredible shopping list of Sturgeon’s embezzler husband revealed” – The 61-year-old, who was SNP chief executive for 22 years, is behind bars after admitting his guilt at the High Court in Edinburgh this morning, according to the Mail.
• “This kind of leniency is baked into our sentencing guidelines” – David Shipley talks to Alex Armstrong on GB News about the three teenage boys convicted of the rape of teenage girls who avoided prison time.

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