News Round-Up

• “Andy Burnham rules out snap election” – Prime Minister Andy Burnham has killed off speculation about an early trip to the polls, insisting he can “knock dead” talk of a snap election, reports the Telegraph.
• “Burnham bottles it: PM rules out snap election” – Andy Burnham has decided against calling a snap election after seeing a new YouGov poll that showed Labour losing its majority, says the Mail.
• “Wars. Masked mobs. AI. What does Burnham offer? Fluff, hype and beers!” – As world leaders convened to confront a bleaker global horizon than any seen in nearly a century, Andy Burnham’s response amounted to little more than empty platitudes, writes Michael Gove in the Mail.
• “Andy Burnham is the emptiest PM of our lifetimes” – The longer you examine Andy Burnham, the more apparent his stunning lack of substance becomes, says Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.
• “Migrants die in scramble to board overcrowded UK-bound mega-dinghies” – Two migrants lost their lives as desperate crowds scrambled for places on dangerously overcrowded mega-dinghies heading for the British coast, according to the Mail.
• “Just stop asylum” – In the Spectator, Lionel Shriver argues that the mass breach of Spain’s Ceuta enclave – in which roughly 72,000 migrants stormed the territory – exposes the urgent case for ending asylum claims altogether.
• “Revealed: £30 billion of British defence investment is spent abroad” – More than £30 billion in UK defence contracts awarded over the past five years has gone to foreign suppliers while being counted as domestic investment, reveals the Telegraph.
• “The handshake that exposes Miliband’s catastrophically bad judgment” – In the Telegraph, Jake Wallis Simons argues that Miliband’s decision to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi – while simultaneously warning Tehran against “intimidation, threats, or hostile activity” on British soil – lays bare a catastrophic failure of judgment.
• “Reform criticises ‘two-tier’ jailing of anti-migrant protester” – Reform UK has condemned the two-year prison sentence handed to an anti-migrant protester who threw a plastic bottle at a police line and swore at officers, noting the stark contrast with treatment of Muslim protestors, reports the Telegraph.
• “Jail for Asian grooming gang who preyed on girls in seaside town” – Three men – one of them a refugee – plied young teenagers with drugs in the Welsh resort of Rhyl before sexually abusing them, with one victim put in handcuffs, reports the Mail.
• “Fury as hook-handed terrorist Abu Hamza’s £1.7 million home gets £70k facelift paid for by taxpayers” – Hate cleric Abu Hamza’s £1.7 million family home is receiving a £70,000 taxpayer-funded makeover – including new windows and doors – in what critics are calling a “disgusting waste of money”, reveals the Sun.
• “Liberal institutions show a blindness to Islamist extremism” – In the Times, Fiyaz Mughal argues that a laudable desire for diversity and inclusion has opened the door to people whose true values and beliefs should make us shudder.
• “Cleric honoured by Archbishop ‘linked to extortion gang’ in Pakistan” – A Telegraph investigation exposes how Tahir Ashrafi, honoured by the Archbishop of Canterbury, has a brother who is the alleged leader of a gang that has abducted and tortured dozens of people in Pakistan, says the Telegraph.
• “The Archbishop is complicit in Britain’s civilisational capitulation” – Ayaan Hirsi Ali argues that Western elites, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, are enabling Britain’s civilisational surrender by refusing to confront the realities of Islamist extremism, writes the Telegraph.
• “Latin American gang recruiting is blamed for three London killings” – Los Trinitarios, founded in 1993 by two Dominicans held at Rikers Island jail in New York, has been linked to three knife killings in London as it expands its UK recruitment of children, says the Mail.
• “Jewish group barred from anti-fascist event for ‘platforming Reform’” – Stop The Hate Leeds, a pro-Israel campaign group, was told its presence at a 90th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Holbeck Moor would be “divisive” due to its members’ political views, according to the Mail.
• “Labour women’s conference hit by outcry over ban on trans delegates” – Politicians, unionists and activists from across Britain are planning to boycott Labour’s women’s conference in Liverpool over a decision to bar transgender delegates, says the Mail.
• “NI Assembly urged to clarify rules after MLAs blocked from probing ‘gender identity’” – Organisations are calling on the Northern Ireland Assembly to clarify its scrutiny rules after MLAs were prevented from examining the term ‘gender identity’ in relation to a bill banning ‘conversion therapy’, according to the Christian institute.
• “Capital gains tax rise will wreck investor confidence, John Healey told” – Economists are urging the Chancellor to target duties on alcohol, tobacco and flights rather than raise capital gains tax in the Budget, warning that such a move would devastate investor confidence, writes the Times.
• “Universities advise graduates to apply for benefits” – British universities are directing students to claim benefits from the day after their course ends, in a practice the Telegraph reveals is now widespread across higher education institutions.
• “Lord Khan accused of ‘mad vanity project’ with London bus power grab” – Lord Khan’s plans for a publicly-owned bus company in London have drawn furious criticism from opponents who have branded the scheme a reckless vanity project, reports the Telegraph.
• “Ofcom’s war on GB News” – On his Substack, David Keighley reveals that Ofcom’s own survey rated GB News above the BBC on trust – yet those figures were quietly suppressed.
• “Saudi Grand Mufti tells troops to be ready to sacrifice lives fighting Houthis” – Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Saleh bin Fawzan Al-Fawzan has issued a rare and strongly worded address urging soldiers on the kingdom’s borders to be prepared to lay down their lives against the Houthis, notes the Mail.
• “France’s youth are fuelling a Catholic revival” – A record 21,386 adults and teenagers were set to be baptised at Easter, with adult baptisms up 28% on the previous year, reports the Telegraph.
• “Overcrowded A&Es cause up to 1,000 deaths a week” – A new study finds that patients face a significantly increased risk of death when emergency departments exceed capacity, with the toll estimated to be 1,000 lives lost every week, reveals the Telegraph.
• “UK university makes oil billionaire’s son sustainability professor” – Newcastle University has appointed an Indian oil heir – who once attempted to rescue Pablo Escobar’s hippos – to a professorship in sustainability, notes the Telegraph.
• “‘Maverick’ tycoon Dale Vince bamboozles his climate comrades” – Self-professed green energy champion Dale Vince has quietly relaxed his militant Net Zero stance, leaving his climate allies baffled, reports the Telegraph.
• “Electric car owners face ‘rip-off’ council fees for home charging” – Councils are being accused of ripping off electric vehicle drivers by charging up to £185 a year to maintain EV charging gullies cut across pavements, says the Times.
• “Climate doomsayers ignore thousands of years of historical climate trends” – In Climate Change Dispatch, Thomas Richard argues that historical records reveal dramatic swings in temperature and ice cover stretching back millennia, long before modern industry began altering the atmosphere.
• “AI-written speeches are taking over politics” – British MPs are among the most avid users of AI-generated speeches, though they are outdone by their counterparts in Australia and Canada, says the Economist.
• “BBC boss would hire AI presenters” – Matt Brittin, the BBC’s top executive, says the corporation wants to “experiment with this technology and understand what it can and can’t do” as it opens the door to AI presenters, according to the Telegraph.
• “Spare us Macklemore’s smug braying about ‘Free Palestine’” – In the Spectator, Brendan O’Neill says that Macklemore fancies himself the moral lovechild of Sid Vicious and Yasser Arafat, yet his “Free Palestine” posturing is nothing more than self-congratulatory rebel cosplay.
• “Lesbian bar owners branded ‘eugenicists’ after dropping mask mandate” – The owners of the Last Ditch Bar in Greenfield, Massachusetts, have been denounced as “eugenicists” by furious patrons after lifting their Covid mask mandate, reveals the Mail.
• “Andrew Neil’s Brexit reality check on Question Time” – Watch Andrew Neil school his fellow panelists on Question Time, pointing out that the UK would not be better off if it hadn’t left the European Union.

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