News Round-Up

• “Burnham vows new Left-wing ‘path for Britain’ after by-election win” – Andy Burnham secured a majority of 9,000 votes over Reform in a result that sparked tears of joy from Left-wingers now hoping to force far more extreme tax and spend policies on the British people, writes James Tapsfield in the Mail.
• “Labour civil war ‘about to break out whether Starmer likes it or not’” – Labour is braced for civil war to erupt in the aftermath of what insiders are calling the most important by-election in decades, says Martin Beckford in the Mail.
• “Keir Starmer ‘weighs future’ as cabinet calls for him to quit for Andy Burnham” – The Prime Minister is said to be considering his position after senior frontbenchers urged him to set a timetable for an orderly departure, reports the Times.
• “Andy Burnham plans to keep Shabana Mahmood as Home Secretary” – The new MP for Makerfield has backed down from previous criticism of immigration reforms as he prepares to run for the Labour leadership, notes the Times.
• “Why Makerfield backed Burnham” – In winning Makerfield so decisively, Burnham broke many of the rules of modern politics – and the reasons why voters backed him so emphatically reveal much about Labour’s fractured coalition, writes Luke Tryl in the Spectator.
• “Burnham’s victory has pulled Labour back from the brink” – Burnham’s triumph offers the party a lifeline it did not deserve, says Tom Harris in the Telegraph.
• “Andy Burnham tells voters what they want to hear. Delivering is another matter” – No other Labour candidate could have achieved such a triumph in Makerfield, yet Burnham did so without confronting the big issues he will now have to face, says Danny Finkelstein in the Times.
• “The fight for the Right has just begun, and Farage may not win it” – Three parties are now jostling to become the true opposition to a Labour party revived by its victory in Makerfield, according to Stephen Daisley in the Telegraph.
• “Where does Reform go from here?” – After six by-election defeats in a row, Nigel Farage must now choose whether to ignore Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain or match its combative approach, says the Telegraph.
• “Why Restore were humiliated in Makerfield” – Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain won just 6.8% of the vote in Makerfield – a lower share than the BNP achieved at the 2010 general election – in a crushing verdict on its brand of politics, writes Brendan O’Neill in the Spectator.
• “One person has died after a train crashed into another” – A driver is feared dead and passengers have been left with life-threatening injuries after a train smashed into a stationary service between Luton and Bedford following a safety fault, reports Jada Bas in the Mail.
• “Israel and Hezbollah agree to ceasefire” – Israel and Hezbollah have agreed a ceasefire after trading deadly strikes, says the Telegraph.
• “JD Vance tells Israel: we’re the only friends you’ve got” – US Vice-President JD Vance has warned Israel that America is its only remaining friend and that it cannot “kill” its way out of its problems, notes the Telegraph.
• “Was Moscow oil depot explosion caused by Russian missile strike?” – Independent Russian media and Ukrainian Telegram channels claim a Chinese tourist captured footage of a missile intercept attempt against a Ukrainian drone that may have instead struck the Moscow oil depot, reports the Mail.
• “Trans women cannot be held in female prisons, court rules” – For Women Scotland says SNP arguments were “comprehensively rejected” by Scotland’s highest civil court in a landmark ruling that bars trans women from female prisons, reports the Telegraph.
• “Father of trans teenager accuses GP practice of ‘child abuse’” – The WellBN clinic in Brighton, alleged to have prescribed cross-sex hormones to under-16s, is the subject of a year-long investigation following accusations of ‘child abuse’ from a parent, says the Times.
• “Artist banned from own exhibition over trans views settles with council” – Victoria Culf, who was reported to the police after telling a council worker that children could be harmed by transitioning, has reached a settlement with the council that barred her from her own exhibition, reveals the Times.
• “Baby Preston adoption agency pushed staff to meet strict targets” – Social workers at the Baby Preston adoption agency were pressured to approve 100 matches a year despite dwindling numbers of adopters coming forward, claims the Telegraph.
• “ICO chief resigns from job over ‘inappropriate and offensive humour’” – John Edwards has announced he is standing down as CEO of the Information Commissioner’s Office after admitting he had “exercised poor judgement” and that his position had become “untenable”, according to the Mail.
• “Royal Mail has 6,500 postal workers off sick every day, CEO warns” – Around 6,500 postal workers are off sick every day at a cost of £200 million a year, according to the Mail.
• “Exclusive: new Starmer social media crackdown imminent as Labour targets content creators” – The Government intends to publish a green paper on the future of broadcasting in the UK imminently, with Labour understood to be targeting independent content creators in what could amount to a sweeping new crackdown, says Adam Cherry in Guido Fawkes.
• “Culture Secretary won’t rule out licence fee for Netflix users” – Lisa Nandy hasn’t ruled out extending the licence fee to cover streaming services, rejecting direct taxation or a levy on streamers as alternatives, reports the Mail.
• “How online porn has broken sex for young people” – The Government’s social media ban on under-16s may restrict access to porn, but experts warn it cannot reverse the damage already done to a generation, says the Telegraph.
• “Teenager arrested over mother’s suicide attempt wins race bias case” – Daryl McLune, who was detained for 23 hours at the age of 16 on suspicion of trying to kill his mother after she jumped from a five-storey building, has won a race discrimination case, according to the Telegraph.
• “Working from home ‘makes you depressed’” – New research finds that remote work “substantially increases isolation and worsens mental health, particularly for those living alone”, notes the Telegraph.
• “Why is it so hot in the UK? Scientists blame plume of warm air from Europe” – With parts of the UK expected to hit 34°C this weekend, the Met Office says the country is caught between two air masses driving yet another heatwave, according to the Mail.
• “The Aberdeen Tory triumph is a nightmare for the SNP and Ed Miliband” – The Conservative victory in Aberdeen South, where ‘who drills wins’ proved an accurate gauge of voter sentiment, spells serious trouble for both the SNP and Net Zero-obsessed ministers in Westminster, writes Alan Cochrane in the Telegraph.
• “Why the Tories really beat the SNP in Aberdeen South” – New MP Douglas Lumsden’s pledge to fight for an oil and gas industry abandoned by the SNP proved decisive in a result whose real surprises go beyond the headline result, says Euan McColm in the Spectator.
• “Ed Miliband’s Net Zero rules ‘holding back AI’” – An industry expert warns that Ed Miliband’s Net Zero regulations risk scuppering Britain’s ambition to become a global leader in artificial intelligence, according to the Telegraph.
• “Heat pumps will push up energy bills, Labour report finds” – A Labour report directly contradicts the Energy Secretary’s previous claims that Net Zero technology would save households money, revealing that heat pumps will in fact push up energy bills, notes the Telegraph.
• “Britain will need up to £240 billion of Net Zero upgrades” – The Department for Energy Security has acknowledged that Britain’s electricity network will require up to £240 billion of upgrades to support the Government’s clean power targets, writes Jonathan Leake in the Telegraph.
• “Manufactured consensus” – On his Substack, Dr Robert W. Malone presents new evidence purporting to show that Anthony Fauci manipulated intelligence and lied to Congress in Part II of his ongoing analysis.
• “America’s Suez moment” – On his Substack, Andrew Sullivan argues that the failure of American aggression in the Middle East marks a historic turning point comparable to Britain’s Suez crisis.
• “Oxford Union debate – full speech” – On his Substack, Hen Mazzig publishes the full text of his Oxford Union address, in which he declares: “You are in this room to debate whether my family gets to live or die – and quite frankly, I do not require your permission.”
• “Support debate on folic acid in flour” – On its Substack, HART calls on readers to help force a parliamentary debate on the mandatory addition of folic acid to flour.
• “Britain’s Chernobyl: how the rape gang scandal exposes the moral rot at the heart of Britain” – On his Substack, C.J. Strachan argues that the rape gang scandal represents the total moral collapse of the neoliberal consensus that has governed Britain for over 50 years.
• “Whoops, I’ve given my children a gambling problem” – In the Spectator, I worry that I have passed on a gambling habit to my sons.
• “Norway’s Viking cheering trend that’s taking over the World Cup” – Norway is leaning into its centuries-old Viking heritage to rally support at its first World Cup in 28 years, with fans, players and politicians all on board, reports Oliver Todd in the Mail.
• “Meloni slaps down Trump after he claimed she ‘begged’ for a photo” – Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has publicly rebuked Donald Trump’s claim that she begged for a photograph with him, calling his comments “completely made up”, writes Sabrina Penty in the Mail.
• “I believe aliens exist… and this is how we might find them” – Extra-terrestrial life may have had a billion-year head-start on humanity and could exist in electronic rather than organic form, writes Martin Rees in the Telegraph.
• “Today, on my final day as Director of National Intelligence, I’m releasing never-before-seen communications and documents exposing how Dr. Fauci provided millions in US taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab” – Tulsi Gabbard drops some truth bombs about Anthony Fauci on her last day in office.

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