News Round-Up

• “Green Hackney mayor gave Israeli city October 7th deadline to respond to twinning move” – Hackney Council mayor Zoe Garbett told her counterpart in Haifa that the town hall was seeking to end the twinning relationship, with a deadline set for October 7th, reports Rachael Burford in the Standard.
• “Hackney’s Green mayor is not even trying to hide her disdain for Jews” – Zoë Garbett’s decision to set an October 7th deadline to discuss ending Hackney’s twinning with an Israeli city is a detail that reveals the depth of her contempt, writes Stephen Pollard in the Telegraph.
• “Scores arrested at London Palestine Action demo as founder told she can challenge ban” – Dozens of demonstrators were arrested outside Westminster Magistrates Court before it emerged that Palestine Action’s co-founder has been given permission by the Supreme Court to challenge the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold the Home Office’s proscription of the group, report Matt Watts and Rachael Burford in the Standard.
• “Labour plots £18 billion council tax raid” – Labour is planning an £18bn tax raid on millions of families across England, according to the Telegraph.
• “Diane Abbott readmitted to Labour” – The Hackney MP, who was suspended under Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership in 2025 following an antisemitism row, has been welcomed back into the party, says the Telegraph.
• “US launches ‘powerful’ retaliatory strikes against Iran” – The United States has launched fresh strikes on Iran lasting around two hours after President Trump vowed to give Tehran a “beating”, reports the Times.
• “Record reoffending after 70,000 prisoners released early” – Almost a third of those freed under Labour’s early-release scheme have gone on to reoffend, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Migrants storm EU border: moment hundreds charge up beaches” – Thousands of migrants have entered the Spanish north African enclave of Ceuta by sea in recent days as officials declare a total emergency, writes Imogen Garfinkel in the Mail.
• “Reform reports lawyer to police over ‘terrorist’ protest comment” – Glasgow MSP Thomas Kerr has reported Left-wing lawyer Aamer Anwar to the police, claiming his remarks about anti-immigration protesters, branding them ‘fascists’, went “beyond robust political debate”, says the Times.
• “Reform’s rocket fuel has been exhausted – it now needs to chart the right course” – In the Telegraph, David Frost argues the party must now move beyond insurgent energy and set a credible governing course.
• “Cambridge is coming out very badly from the Jason Arday affair” – In the Spectator, Andrew Tettenborn argues that Cambridge’s handling of the controversy over Professor Jason Arday – whose doctoral thesis contains remarkable similarities to other works – raises serious questions about the university’s integrity.
• “University lecturer sacked and branded ‘misogynistic’ after calling women ‘females’” – An employment tribunal has ruled that Derby University did not breach its free speech obligations by dismissing lecturer Russell Cherrington for describing women as “females”, reports Peter Stevens in GB News.
• “If Labour chooses ‘skills’ over knowledge, children will suffer” – Cognitive science has demonstrated that critical thinking depends on extensive memorised information rather than internet searches, which means Labour’s plans to downgrade knowledge in favour of skills could have catastrophic consequences, writes Nick Gibb in the Telegraph.
• “Biohacker Bryan Johnson confesses he may have ‘taken things too far’” – Having built a global reputation trying to cheat death through science, only to then get an incurable disease, Bryan Johnson has now admitted he may have “taken this whole longevity thing too far”, reports Xantha Leatham in the Mail.
• “‘Out of control’ Suffolk wildfire grows as ‘no risk’ to power plant” – A blaze on Dunwich Heath is spreading towards Sizewell B nuclear power station, roughly 2.5 miles away, as holidaymakers are evacuated, says Olivia Christie in the Mail.
• “Andy Burnham says Britain ‘can’t ignore’ the North Sea” – Andy Burnham has signalled he is ready to ditch Ed Miliband’s Net Zero stance, revealing he told Donald Trump he would take a “pragmatic approach” to fossil fuels, writes Greg Heffer in the Mail.
• “Net Zero scepticism is not climate-change denial” – In the Telegraph, Kemi Badenoch argues that conflating scepticism about Net Zero policy with climate change denial is a fundamental error that stifles legitimate debate.
• “Swap books for Kindles to hit Net Zero, government advisers say” – Government advisers have recommended that readers ditch printed books in favour of e-readers as part of Britain’s push to reach Net Zero, reports the Telegraph.
• “BBC new drama The Rapture used climate change storytelling consultants” – In her Substack, Charlotte Gill reveals that the BBC’s new drama The Rapture was shaped behind the scenes by Climate Spring, a well-funded organisation dedicated to embedding climate change narratives in popular culture.
• “US extreme weather and climate change dashboard” – On his Substack, Roger Pielke Jr. unveils a new dashboard tracking the relationship between US extreme weather and climate change.
• “The great church sell-off: how Britons are turning them into homes” – Dwindling congregations and soaring repair bills are driving more former places of worship onto the property market, though conversion comes with its own challenges, notes the Times.
• “Santander faces legal action over three-day office mandate” – Staff at Santander are pursuing legal action after the bank attempted to require its new TSB workforce to attend the office three days a week, reports the Times.
• “Inquiry after BA jet stalls over London on approach to Heathrow” – Air accident investigators are examining a serious incident in which a British Airways passenger jet stalled over London while approaching Heathrow, says the Times.
• “The guga hunt ban is a brutal act of colonialism” – The campaign to ban the traditional Hebridean guga hunt amounts to mainland cultural colonialism against a tight-knit island community that has practised it for centuries, writes John MacLeod in the Telegraph.
• “Sophie Cunningham’s common sense” – Basketball player Sophie Cunningham’s straightforward declaration that “young girls in sport shouldn’t have to go against biological men” was met with a media shrug – a sign of how rapidly the debate has shifted, writes Kat Rosenfield in the Free Press.
• “Well done FA and Uefa for standing up against shameless Infantino” – Threatening a World Cup boycott was the only fitting response to Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s brazenness over his sell-off plans, and he should now resign, says Jim White in the Telegraph.
• “Fauci twisted arms and misrepresented data in single-minded drive to mandate Covid vaccines, his diary shows” – On the Public Substack, Alex Gutentag reveals that Anthony Fauci’s private diaries show he knew natural immunity worked and that vaccines did not prevent infection or transmission, even as he pushed mandates.
• “RFK Jr. reveals the single most disturbing thing he discovered in Anthony Fauci’s diaries” – RFK Jr. drops a bombshell: Fauci suffered from myocardial infarction, a potentially deadly side effect, after he took the Covid vaccine.

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