News Round-Up

• “Send small boat migrants back to France” – In the Spectator, Steerpike reacts to Rory Stewart calling for legal migration to be capped at 100,000 and small-boat migrants sent straight back to France.
• “These OAPs want to save their town from a flood of migrants” – In the Telegraph, Allison Pearson reveals how ordinary residents are joining council security patrols to push back against Labour’s asylum plans.
• “The horror of Britain’s broken borders” – In the Spectator, Brendan O’Neill argues that the British state is facilitating the rape of British women. 
• “Palestine Action activist on the run after release for brother’s wedding” – A Palestine Action supporter who was convicted for planning a violent attack is on the run after he was given leave to attend his brother’s wedding, reports the Telegraph.
• “Hooded youths launch fireworks at London synagogue” – A group of hooded youths have fired rocket fireworks at a London synagogue in the latest antisemitic attack against Britain’s Jewish community, says the Telegraph.
• “Labour launched tourist tax without assessing impact on jobs” – Ministers have admitted that Labour pressed ahead with plans for a tourist tax across England without conducting any assessment of the impact on jobs, reports the Telegraph.
• “Europe’s tourist tax addiction is a warning for Britain” – In the Telegraph, Hans van Leeuwen looks at the continent’s growing addiction to tourist taxes and finds a stark warning for Britain.
• “Reform’s leader in Wales resigns after arrest for assault” – Former London council leader Dan Thomas has quit as leader of Reform UK in Wales after he was arrested on suspicion of assault and controlling or coercive behaviour, reports the Standard.
• “Be proud and state the case for the Union to these shabby nationalists” – More British politicians must say bluntly what would be lost by breaking up the United Kingdom, writes Robert Tombs in the Telegraph.
• “The futility of banning deep-fried school lunches” – In the Spectator, Annabel Denham argues that new Department for Education rules reveal a government so addicted to banning things that it has resorted to policing what children eat for lunch.
• “Civil servant sacked over Telegraph appeal to find son missing in Ukraine” – A Home Office employee has been sacked for asking the Telegraph to help find her missing son in Ukraine.
• “Chin up, Kemi, Sweden proves that Reform’s balloon could still burst” – Sweden’s experience shows how a populist party can force the establishment to adopt its immigration policies – only to see its own support collapse once those policies become mainstream, says Jake Wallis Simons in the Telegraph.
• “Did demographics decide the Swedish election?” – In the Spectator, Fredrik Karrholm examines the reasons why Sweden’s Right-wing Government appears to have lost its parliamentary majority.
• “Two experts quit Letby’s defence team over ‘inconsistent arguments’” – Two expert witnesses have walked away from Lucy Letby’s defence team, citing concerns over inconsistent arguments advanced by her legal team, reports the Telegraph.
• “Three babies murdered by Letby could have been saved, inquiry finds” – Lady Justice Thirlwall’s inquiry has concluded there was a “complete failure” to protect babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital, finding that three infants could have survived had NHS managers acted sooner, says the Mail.
• “Thirlwall cost millions but ignored the biggest Letby question of all” – The Thirlwall Inquiry has spent millions probing failures at the Countess of Chester while sidestepping the biggest question: what if Letby is innocent? writes Sarah Knapton in the Telegraph.
• “Over £200 million to learn the lessons of Covid. But who makes the government act on them?” – On the TTE Substack, Prof Carl Heneghan and Dr Tom Jefferson ask whether the £200 million spent learning lessons from Covid will ever translate into meaningful government action.
• “UK reprimanded over social media laws by US diplomats at confidential embassy summit” – British officials have been hauled into a private meeting at the US embassy and dressed down over the Online Safety Act in an extraordinary diplomatic rebuke, according to Politics Home.
• “UN tries to insert itself into calls for AI regulation” – The UN is pushing to make voluntary self-regulation of frontier artificial intelligence legally binding, claiming current industry efforts are “nowhere near sufficient”, reports Eric Worrall in Watts Up With That?
• “Mayors to control water companies” – Andy Burnham’s plan to hand powers over water companies to regional mayors raises the prospect of a new layer of red tape across the sector, warns Tony Diver in the Telegraph.
• “Energy reality forces tech to ditch climate virtue signalling” – Amazon is building a massive gas-fired power plant in Texas capable of generating more electricity than the Grand Coulee Dam, as Big Tech abandons its green commitments in the face of soaring energy demand, according to Vijay Jayaraj at CO2 Coalition.
• “The National Academies’ climate review must be truly independent” – In RealClearEnergy, Tom Harris says the US taxpayer-funded National Academies needs to take a genuinely independent look at climate science, rather than using claims of consensus to shut down debate.
• “Trump Energy Dept. backs nuclear power plant restart with $1.9 billion loan” – The Trump administration is throwing its financial weight behind nuclear energy, committing $1.9 billion to restart an Iowa reactor as part of a broader push to revive mothballed power plants, writes Kevin Killough at Just the News.
• “Ranked: who uses the world’s coal?” – China alone accounts for 51.7% of global coal consumption – more than every other country combined – while the top six nations make up 87% of total demand, according to EnergyNow.
• “Soho LGBT ‘safe space’ case: will any CofE bishop stand up for Christian free speech in the Lords?” – Unless there is a profound change of heart in Britain’s political establishment, including among the Bishops in the House of Lords, the anti-Christian free-speech doom loop looks set to continue, warns Julian Mann in Anglican Mainstream.
• “Civil servants revolt over trans lavatory ban” – Staff in Angela Rayner’s department are protesting against new rules banning trans employees from using women’s lavatories, reports the Telegraph.
• “Sydney Sweeney’s nude advert exposes the hypocrisy of the woke Left” – The backlash against Sydney Sweeney’s naked appearance in a sports betting campaign lays bare the Left’s selective outrage over female sexuality, argues Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
• “The term ‘misinformation’ has been weaponised by the Labour Government” – The Free Speech Union’s David Rose slams the Labour Government’s “misinformation” crackdown as unprecedented online censorship.

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