News Round-Up

• “‘As soon as Andy wins, the world changes’: Burnham’s plans for power” – In the Spectator, Tim Shipman reports from the garden in Golborne that has become ground zero for Andy Burnham’s bid to reshape British politics from the outside.
• “Trump slams ‘fools who think I wasn’t tough on Iran’” – Donald Trump has hit back at critics who accused him of going soft on Iran after signing a peace deal aimed at ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, reports the Mail.
• “Trump hits out at ‘bad people’ criticising $300 billion Iran deal” – The President’s agreement in Versailles paves the way for a reconstruction fund, the lifting of oil sanctions and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, says the Times.
• “J.D. Vance: Israel is panicking over Iran deal misinformation” – In UnHerd, James Billot says US Vice President J.D. Vance has defended the emerging US – Iran agreement and blamed Israeli opposition on “misinformation” about its terms.
• “Pete Hegseth: Britain put American lives at risk” – Pete Hegseth has accused Britain of restricting access to UK military bases during the Iran war in a move that put the lives of US troops at risk, notes the Telegraph.
• “Mike Pence turns on Trump over Iran ‘appeasement’” – Former Vice President Mike Pence has criticised the Iran deal for failing to require the country to dismantle its nuclear infrastructure, reports the Telegraph.
• “For decades, Trump was the voice of sanity on Iran. No longer” – The man who spent his entire adult life arguing for American strength has now signed a deal that, according to Jake Wallis Simons in the Telegraph, represents a fundamental betrayal of that legacy.
• “Russia vows ‘massive’ retaliation for largest drone attack on Moscow” – Projectiles struck Moscow’s largest oil refinery and blew the lid off a storage tank in Ukraine’s most devastating drone assault in two years, as Moscow vows revenge, reports the Telegraph.
• “Ukraine’s largest drone attack engulfs Moscow in smoke” – In the Spectator, Svitlana Morenets reveals how Ukraine’s record-breaking drone assault on Moscow underscores its growing ability to inflict pain on Russia with homemade weapons.
• “Maggie vs Maga: the battle for the soul of Reform” – As Farage’s party fights to capture Makerfield, deep policy divisions between Thatcherite and Trump-aligned wings threaten to tear Reform apart, according to the Telegraph.
• “Teacher who murdered and sexually abused Preston Davey is jailed” – Jamie Varley, 37, has been sentenced to life in prison for the killing of 13 month-old Preston Davey in July 2023, notes the Mail.
• “Raped to death, the 13-month-old baby placed with gay foster parents” – In the Conservative Woman, Laura Perrins says the case of 13 month-old Preston Davey, who was raped and murdered by one of his gay foster parents, demands urgent scrutiny of the care system.
• “A terrible fate awaits Preston Davey’s killer in prison” – Many people will hope that evil men like Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley suffer some kind of prison justice for the murder of 13-month-old Preston Davey, writes David Shipley in the Spectator.
• “Tommy Robinson’s nightmare in the city of dreaming spires” – Left-wing campaigners vastly outnumbered supporters of the far-Right activist during his controversial appearance at the Oxford Union, reports the Telegraph.
• “Tommy Robinson speaks to sparse Oxford Union” – Members who wanted to hear the debate on whether the West is right to be suspicious of Islam were blocked by some 500 protesters who surrounded the venue, says the Times.
• “Fury as Zack Polanski is cleared by sleaze probe over council tax row” – The London Assembly investigation concluded that Polanski’s tax affairs did not fall within an official capacity and were conveniently therefore not subject to the code of conduct, notes the Mail.
• “Zack Polanski says ‘financial hardship’ behind failure to pay council tax” – Green Party leader Zack Polanski has claimed that his living arrangements on a narrowboat and resultant financial hardship explain why he failed to pay council tax, reports the Telegraph.
• “Revealed: the Green plot against Zack Polanski” – In the Spectator, Noa Hoffman reveals that a faction within the Green Party’s official Special Interest Groups is waging a behind-the-scenes campaign against leader Zack Polanski over Palestine and racial politics.
• “Palantir accuses Sadiq Khan of stifling free speech” – Data analytics firm Palantir has launched a legal challenge against Sir Sadiq Khan, accusing the Mayor of London of breaching its right to freedom of expression, reports the Telegraph.
• “French hard-Right activist ‘assaulted by Tunisian’ is facing jail” – Anne-Thaïs du Tertre d’Escoeuffant, who uses the pseudonym Thaïs d’Escufon, faces prosecution after a French anti-racism organisation sued her over remarks she made on television about migrants, reports the Mail.
• “Ten-year-old gamers flagged to anti-terror police” – A senior police officer has revealed that 20% of terror suspects arrested in the UK are now children, notes the Telegraph.
• “Yes, Brexit did deliver an extra £350 million a week for the NHS” – Dia Chakravarty makes the case in the Telegraph that the Brexit campaign’s famous pledge of £350 million a week for the NHS was not Nigel Farage’s promise – and that it was, in fact, delivered.
• “Civil service grifting hits new heights” – Policy Lab, a cross-government unit based at the Department for Education, has been encouraging civil servants to engage with “lived experience” activities involving violence, shooting and fast cars, notes Steerpike in the Spectator.
• “Do politicians really care about the evidence?” – Even public health policy – which one might expect to be among the most rigorously evidence-based – frequently falls short of that standard, claims Christopher Snowdon in the Spectator.
• “Labour to pay Ed Miliband’s energy quango boss ‘obscene’ £458,000 while working just two days a week” – The chairman of Great British Energy is set to receive a salary described as “obscene” despite working only two days a week, reveals Keith Bays in GB News.
• “The Net Zero fantasy will cripple the economy” – Britain’s pursuit of Net Zero is an economically ruinous fantasy that will cause severe damage to the economy, argues Ivor Williams in the Conservative Woman.
• “A new real-time tracker showing the cost of renewables subsidies – now at £108 billion and rising – and grid integration has been launched” – Richard Lyon has launched a neat new tracker on X.
• “Can you see the climate scare slowly fading away?” – The forced energy transition was always destined to collapse because its proposals could never work, and the signs of that slow unravelling are now becoming visible, argues Francis Menton in the Manhattan Contrarian.
• “Four million sinking homes” – The alarming figure of four million sinking homes cited in press coverage is drawn from a worst-case scenario, while the underlying rainfall and geological data show no evidence of a drying trend, says Charles Rotter in WUWT.
• “Why Dartmoor’s ponies forced Keir Starmer to turn on Natural England” – The Prime Minister has been dragged into an emotive row over Dartmoor’s wild ponies at one of the worst possible moments, with no one appearing willing to take responsibility, reports the Telegraph.
• “The number of patients who have suffered Covid jab complications” – Analysis of official figures reveals that nearly half a million Britons claim to have suffered side effects from the Covid jab, reports the Mail.
• “Surgisphere 2.0 – the new JAMA study that says the Covid shots are cardioprotective” – On her Substack, Jessica Rose scrutinises a new JAMA study claiming Covid shots are cardioprotective, drawing comparisons with the discredited Surgisphere affair.
• “What you need to know about folic acid part one: the deficiency that wasn’t” – On the HART Substack, Dr Clare Craig challenges the case for mandatory folic acid fortification, arguing the deficiency driving the policy may never have existed in the first place.
• “ITV in World Cup sexism storm as Emma Hayes does analysis in kitchen” – Viewers have questioned why Emma Hayes – the USA women’s coach who won a record 15 trophies with Chelsea – was given a small kitchen chalkboard rather than a digital touchscreen for her tactical analysis, reports the Mail.
• “Footballers don’t need ‘hydration breaks’. It’s a game of two halves, not four quarters” – Three-minute hydration pauses at the World Cup are turning football into a four-quarter game and the case for them is far weaker than officials let on, contends Toby in the Telegraph.
• “Council busybodies are going after the England flag” – Bristol and Oxfordshire councils are clamping down on displays of patriotism during the World Cup, writes Hugo Timms in Spiked.
• “England flags fly across Plymouth Hoe” – Plymouth City Council has raised England flags across Plymouth Hoe in a show of civic patriotism during the World Cup, according to the council’s website.
• “The establishment is terrified of Englishness. But it’s only going to get stronger” – Englishness is cast as a bogeyman by those hostile to it, but the establishment’s attempts to suppress it are only deepening its hold on the national identity, argues David Frost in the Telegraph.
• “EU citizens given benefits and homes after claiming asylum” – Most applicants from safe EU countries are being rejected but housed at taxpayers’ expense while they wait to be processed by the Home Office, notes the Telegraph.
• “EU votes to pass strictest mass deportation legislation in history” – The European Parliament has voted 418 to 218 in favour of legislation that will place return hubs outside the EU and permit home searches by deportation teams, according to Basil the Great on X.
• “Swinney apologises over wrongful arrest of girl harassed by sex pest” – First Minister John Swinney has issued an apology after ‘Sophie of Dundee’, who was targeted by a Bulgarian sex pest, was wrongly charged by police, reports the Telegraph.
• “EastEnders ran pro-migrant stories after hiring ‘racial justice’ influencer” – The BBC soap developed a series of pro-migrant storylines after taking on a self-described ‘racial justice’ campaigner as a storyliner in 2022, reports the Telegraph.
• “Judge granted foreign paedophile right to enter UK over ‘human rights’” – A Jamaican paedophile jailed in the United States was handed the right to enter Britain after a judge ruled that barring him would breach his human rights, says the Mail.
• “On travellers and trail hunting” – Drawing on Thomas Sowell’s critique of multiculturalism, in the Critic Claire Coutinho examines the double standards applied to traveller communities and trail hunting in modern Britain.
• “The radical Left will regret embracing political violence” – In the Spectator, Douglas Murray argues that the Left’s growing comfort with smashing buildings and destroying artwork is a dangerous moral threshold it will come to regret crossing.
• “Meghan’s Father’s Day ideas are so bad that I actually feel sorry for her” – The Duchess of Sussex’s Father’s Day tips – including offering “a warm smile” and “a loving hug” – have been met with incredulity, reports the Telegraph.
• “Are we past peak woke?” – The Free Speech Union’s podcast features novelist Lionel Shriver, who argues that progressives remain deeply unwilling to hear any discouraging word about immigration.

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