News Round-Up

• “Burnham U-turns on early release of PC Harper’s killers” – The Prime Minister says he is “increasingly confident” that further changes can be made to Labour’s early release scheme to keep Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers in prison, reports the Mail.
• “PC Harper’s killers’ early release can be blocked, says prisons boss” – Mark Fairhurst, chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, says he is “positive we could free up additional space” by bailing or tagging thousands of people arrested and awaiting trial, writes David Churchill in the Mail.
• “Labour overtakes Reform in poll as wavering voters return” – A YouGov survey finds that Labour is backed by 24% of voters, two points ahead of Nigel Farage’s party on 22%, according to the Times.
• “Record breaking mega dinghy was carrying 260 migrants” – A dinghy designed for a maximum of 40 people carried 260 migrants across the Channel – with at least 30 flung into the water as the overcrowded vessel was battered by choppy seas, reports the Mail.
• “PM’s ‘dishing out a vindictive punishment beating to the middle class’” – Andy Burnham says middle-class areas will have to take in more migrants, insisting arrivals will not only be placed in the “poorest communities”, notes the Mail.
• “Burnham plan to ‘save high streets’ a ‘lot of b******s about nothing’” – Lord Stuart Rose, former chairman of both Marks & Spencer and Asda, brands the Prime Minister’s high street proposals “a lot of hot air”, says the Mail.
• “Andy Burnham’s comical start as PM is scarily revealing” – In the Telegraph, David Frost writes that Burnham’s opening proposals as Prime Minister are just trivial gimmicks when what’s really needed are bold new policies to save the country.
• “There’s one rip-off Andy Burnham will never crack down on” – The one rip-off Burnham will never touch is the tax burden that silently grows while public services quietly shrink, says Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Nick Clegg’s ex-adviser denies sexual assault at party conference” – Neil Sherlock, 62, formerly a special adviser to Sir Nick Clegg, has denied sexually assaulting a woman at a party conference in 2007, reports the Times.
• “Cambridge University tried to shut down whistleblower, tribunal finds” – The Employment Tribunal has found that Cambridge University moved to silence a whistleblower who raised concerns about bullying and misogyny in order to protect its reputation, says the Times.
• “Meet Farah Ahmed, Jason Arday’s colleague” – In the Spectator, Andrew Gilligan reveals that a former supporter of Hizb ut-Tahrir – now banned as a terror group – has been appointed assistant research professor of education at Cambridge, in the same faculty as the disgraced plagiarist Jason Arday.
• “Former student claims Jason Arday said she had ‘white privilege’” – A woman who says she was taught by Jason Arday at Roehampton University in 2018 has come forward to describe his classes as “terrible” and alleges that he accused her of having ‘white privilege’ when she complained about his hopeless teaching, reports the Mail.
• “Jason Arday’s book released in US with no mention of scandal” – Arday’s memoir about his rise to become Cambridge’s youngest ever black professor has gone on sale in the United States with no reference to his plagiarism scandal or resignation, according to the Mail.
• “Jason Arday and the terrible truth about students” – In the Spectator, Julie Burchill argues that the Arday scandal – in which a professor reportedly based lectures on Australian soap operas and Beyoncé lyrics – exposes a far deeper rot in universities.
• “There’s nothing good about Jolyon Maugham’s Good Law Project” – The exploitation of Jason Arday to harvest email addresses and raise money by the Good Law Project reveals an organisation whose cynicism and self-interest far outweigh any principled legal mission, says Matthew Scott in the Telegraph.
• “Britain’s largest teaching union distances from ‘plagiarism prof’” – The National Education Union has withdrawn its General Secretary Daniel Kebede’s signature from Jolyon Maugham’s letter of support for Jason Arday, saying it was signed on the basis of information that has since proved inaccurate, reports the Mail.
• “Jewish schools forced to prioritise security over education” – Jewish teachers in Britain are spending more time dealing with security arrangements than planning lessons, according to a new review into antisemitism, says the Telegraph.
• “Jess Phillips: I called in sick to dodge MPs’ questions on Mandelson” – Labour MP Jess Phillips has disclosed that when she was a minister she pretended to be ill to avoid defending Lord Mandelson in the House of Commons, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Workers end up on benefits after seeing government job coaches” – Workers suffering from anxiety or depression are more likely to claim benefits after receiving advice from government job coaches, official data shows, writes the Telegraph.
• “Reform councillor sues NHS for discrimination” – A mental health nurse and Reform councillor claims he was put through a lengthy investigation by his employer after appearing in a campaign video in uniform, and is now suing the NHS for discrimination, reports the Telegraph.
• “Brexit has been far better for Britain than you might think” – In the Telegraph, Robert Tombs argues that rejoiners are wrong to claim the economic figures all indicate Brexit was a mistake, arguing that Britain is already reaping a host of benefits.
• “The picture that spells trouble for Trump” – A photograph of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson, and Brian Glenn signals deepening fractures within Trump’s political coalition, according to the Telegraph.
• “Former EU human rights judge appointed president of Hungary” – András Baka, who served as president of the Hungarian supreme court, takes over as head of state from Tamás Sulyok in what is a largely ceremonial role, says the Telegraph.
• “The party state, German ‘democracy’ and whether voting can fix anything” – On his Substack, Eugyppius questions whether electoral politics can meaningfully challenge Germany’s entrenched party-state structures, drawing on recent anecdotes from German political life.
• “Trump limits child vaccines he claims are ‘quite lethal’” – Donald Trump has signed an Executive Order restricting the childhood immunisation schedule to 11 vaccines and mandating the MMR jabs are given separately, claiming the change will give American children “gold-standard” protection, reports the Telegraph.
• “Medicaid will no longer fund gender transition surgeries for kids” – Trump has directed Dr Mehmet Oz, administrator of the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to end public funding for gender transition surgeries for children, according to the Mail.
• “Women who miscarried in pandemic hit out at Fauci” – Women who suffered miscarriages during the pandemic are speaking out after newly released texts show Anthony Fauci privately acknowledging the second Covid shot posed a risk for pregnant women, says the Mail.
• “AI cheating to be exposed by watermarks” – Anthropic is going to embed hidden patterns detectable only by computers into AI-generated text, in a move designed to expose cheating, reports the Telegraph.
• “Super El Niño could wreak havoc on your health, report reveals” – A new report warns that the ongoing Super El Niño event poses significant risks to human health, notes the Mail.
• “Britain faces ‘worst food security crisis in decades’” – With three-quarters of England in drought and farmers’ harvests under severe threat, Britain is confronting a food security emergency not seen in a generation, reports the Telegraph.
• “Drought forces Britain to pay more for power” – Drought and heatwaves have driven Britain to spend £439 million importing power from Europe, revealing the staggering hidden cost of an increasingly parched grid, says the Telegraph.
• “No, the drought cannot be taken as a foretaste of summers to come” – On his Substack, Ross Clark pushes back against the claim that the current drought is a reliable harbinger of future British summers.
• “Greece orders nationwide investigation of wind farms after devastating wildfire” – A major wildfire has prompted Greece to launch a nationwide investigation into wind farm safety, raising urgent questions about green energy infrastructure, according to Greek Reporter.
• “Labour allows Left-wing councils to defy trans guidance” – A coalition of Left-wing London councils is being permitted by Labour to defy the EHRC’s guidance on single-sex spaces, with the Prime Minister accused of complicity, says the Telegraph.
• “WFH still rules for civil servants despite Whitehall claims” – Despite official assurances, Whitehall departments are recording monthly staff occupancy rates as low as 44%, revealing that working from home remains firmly entrenched across the civil service, reports the Times.
• “Sick of yobs blasting out music on the bus? Here’s my simple solution” – In the Telegraph, Michael Deacon takes aim at an academic’s claim that young people blasting music on public transport are being social rather than antisocial.
• “GB News investigated after guest links Pride to paedophilia” – A Catholic commentator’s remarks on GB News that LGBTQ parades celebrate “bizarre and unhealthy kinks” have triggered thousand of complaints to Ofcom, thanks to a campaign by the Good Law Project, reports the Telegraph.
• “Greta and Kneecap are a match made in heaven” – In the Spectator, Brendan O’Neill skewers Kneecap and Greta Thunberg as a perfectly matched pair of bourgeois radicals larping as dangerous rebels while achieving absolutely nothing.
• “Boy George is discovering what it’s like to be cancelled” – After years of loudly criticising others’ beliefs, Boy George’s support for Israel has seen his self-righteous comrades turn against him, writes Suzanne Moore in the Telegraph.
• “Absolutely spot on as usual from Luke Johnson” – On X, Anglo Futurism Capital LP praises Luke Johnson’s appearance on Newsnight in which he lambasted the Government for doing nothing to boost employment or save Britain’s high streets.

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