News Round-Up

• “Great crested newts could thwart Piddington migrant camp” – The residents of Piddington may have found an unlikely ally in the great crested newt as they fight to block a migrant camp on their doorstep, reports the Telegraph.
• “The ‘Principality of Piddington’ is far more than a PR stunt” – Middle England is on the march, and the residents of Piddington are its bannermen – a symbolic village revolt that signals something far deeper than local discontent, writes Fred Kelly in the Mail.
• “This ‘Lib Dem’ village just spoke for the nation – it won’t be the last” – Piddington’s symbolic vote to leave the UK has made it a lightning rod for a broader national mood that no party can afford to dismiss, says Tom Harris in the Telegraph.
• “Labour finds £500 million to fund teachers’ 3.5% pay rise to avert walk-outs” – The Education Secretary Lucy Powell has caved in to union threats of strikes with a last-minute U-turn to provide an extra £500 million for a teacher pay rise, reports the Mail.
• “The bill always lands somewhere else” – Jaguar stopped selling cars, alienated its customers and now blames everyone else for the fallout – much like Britain’s industrial policies, which leave workers to pick up the bill, argues Lee Taylor in Uncommon Sense.
• “Banker suspected of being the Putney Pusher is found dead” – Nicholas Brandram, who had been detained in June for attempted grievous bodily harm in connection with the Putney Pusher investigation, has been found dead, reports the Mail.
• “Green party activists turn on ‘genocide denier’ Zack Polanski” – Senior Green members have accused their party leader of being a “genocide denier” and of “struggling to overcome Zionist indoctrination” in WhatsApp groups, according to Noa Hoffman in the Spectator.
• “Meet the Zianists: groupies of Reform’s unlikely cult hero” – Zia Yusuf has inspired a devoted band of followers who see him as a bulwark against the Toryification of the party, notes Simone Hanna in the Telegraph.
• “German chancellor cancels New York trip amid political pressure” – Friedrich Merz has cancelled a trip to New York to attend the UN General Assembly amid political pressure at home, reports Politico.
• “Sweden’s Centre-Left wins election” – Magdalena Andersson’s Centre-Left opposition bloc has defeated the ruling Right-wing coalition, according to Reuters.
• “The lie about Islam, Europe and the dangers we face” – In the Free Press, Ayaan Hirsi Ali says the Economist is badly wrong to treat Islamism and the European far Right as equal threats, arguing that this misses where the real danger to Europe lies.
• “Greta Thunberg leads pro-Palestinian backlash against Ed Sheeran” – Greta Thunberg and Lewis Hamilton have thrown their weight behind the pro-Palestinian support acts that have withdrawn from Ed Sheeran’s tour, reports the Telegraph.
• “Brussels hit with backlash over Canada ‘associate member’ plan” – Brussels is facing a furious backlash after announcing unprecedented plans for Canada to become an ‘associate member’ of the bloc – without asking EU capitals to sign off on the proposal, says the Mail.
• “Parents beg for custody of teen who was ‘secretly transitioned’” – Devout Catholic parents in Massachusetts are begging for custody of their teenage daughter after they claim her school allegedly convinced her to secretly transition, according to the Mail.
• “Xi suffered stroke and fainted at Brics summit, claims China Democracy Party chief; post gets community note” – Wanjun Xie, Chairman of the China Democratic Party, has claimed on X that Chinese President Xi Jinping fainted at the New Delhi Brics summit and was flown back to China on a special flight for medical treatment, reports the Times of India.
• “It’s ludicrous to have had this two-year, £18 million inquiry into Lucy Letby” – In the Mail, Peter Hitchens writes that it’s ridiculous to have had this expensive, drawn-out inquiry into Lucy Letby when it looks increasingly likely there weren’t any murders at all.
• “Welsh road deaths rise despite Labour’s 20mph speed limits” – Ninety-one people were killed on Wales’s roads last year, up 9% on 2024 despite Labour’s 20mph speed limit policy, reports the Tenby Observer.
• “Charge families £600 more to put them off flying, says climate quango” – A climate quango has called on the Government to price families out of flying by raising airfares by £600, writes Paul Homewood in Not a Lot of People Know That.
• “Global warming will result in 2.5 million fewer elderly deaths over the next 50 years” – In Just the News, Kevin Killough notes that a new report finds global warming could actually spare 2.5 million elderly lives over the next 50 years.
• “Global coal demand defies doomers as consumption hits record high, IEA says” – Global coal demand is forecast to hit a record 8.94 billion tons in 2026 as higher gas prices boost coal use worldwide, reveals Simon Kent at Climate Change Dispatch.
• “Institute training US judges on climate may be CCP-linked, group tells Congress” – A watchdog group is urging Congress to investigate a nonprofit that trains American judges on climate science over alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party, reports the Daily Caller.
• “African rain summoning sorcerers are being murdered because of climate change” – In Africa, if someone claims to have magical abilities and takes your money, then the magic doesn’t work, things can get serious, writes Eric Worrall in Watts Up With That?
• “University asks freshers to take white privilege course” – Northampton University is asking incoming students to complete a white privilege course and submit ideas for improving anti-racist practice on campus, according to GB News.
• “Free speech in the UK is under threat – and nobody is safe” – On this week’s FSU Podcast, David Rose talks to Big Brother Watch’s Jake Hurfurt about 62,199 speech-related arrests in five years and the extraordinary case of West Midlands Police raiding a teenage girl’s home and taking her phone over a TikTok video.

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